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Lainey Wilson has been on the rise for years, and now that she’s hosting the 2025 CMA Awards, country music fans can’t wait to see her career continue to blossom! Not only is she hosting, but she’s also up for six awards in total, including Female Vocalist of the Year.
Since releasing her 2014 self-titled debut, Lainey has risen as one of the more dynamic stars in country music. By incorporating elements of southern rock, classic country, pop, and modern country into her sound, Lainey has become a success story. She topped the country airplay charts with “Things A Man Oughta Know” in 2020. Her 2022 album, Bell Bottom Countrywas her first to chart on the Billboard 200, reaching No. 51.
Lainey has also dipped her toes into the acting world by appearing in Yellowstone.
Below, Hollywood Life has gathered five facts about the country music singer-songwriter and actress.
Laney Wilson Is a Country Music Star
Hailing from Baskin, Louisiana, Lainey Wilson is a rising country music star. She released her self-titled debut album in 2014 and followed it with Tougher in 2016. In 2021, after signing with BBR Music Group, she put out Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’. Lainey’s major-label debut contained the track “Things a Man Oughta Know.”
The song reached No. 1 on Billboard’s US Country Airplay chart and No. 3 on the US Country Songs chart (it peaked at 32 on the Billboard Hot 100.) Since its release, the song has gone gold and has introduced the world to this dynamic new talent.
Lainey Wilson’s Dad Is Brian Wilson
Before fans start slinging the “nepo baby” at Lainey, her father is named Brian Wilsonbut he’s not the Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys fame. Lainey’s father is a fifth-generation farmer, according to Southern Living. Lainey brought her father to the 56th Country Music Awards in 2022. “Daddy is the hardest-working person I know. He taught me my entire life how to pull up my bootstraps and tell it like it is with grace,” she said.
She paid tribute to her father when she won the Female Vocalist of the Year award. “I want to say, a few months ago, my daddy got really sick, and we thought we were going to lose him,” she said, per The Boot. “He spent two months in ICU — he’s walking the carpet with me tonight, and he’s here. The one right here is for my daddy Brian Wilson — I’m not talking about the Beach Boy, I’m talking about the cowboy.”
While talking with Taste of Country Nightsshe explained that her father had a health scare. “He spent two months in a hospital from a fungal infection that completely took out the left side of his face,” They had to remove his eye, and they had to remove some bones in his face. He had a stroke on top of all of that. He had nine surgeries in a month and a half. He’s not supposed to be here.”
What Awards Has Lainey Wilson Won?
In 2021, Lainey Wilson won the Academy Country Music Awards’ New Female Artist of the Year. She also won the Song of the Year award for “Things A Man Oughta Know.” She was nominated for the 2021 Breakthrough Video of the Year for “Things A Man Oughta Know” but lost to Dylan Scott’s “Nobody.”
In 2022, she was nominated for the CMT Award’s Video of the Year (“Never Say Never”) and CMT Digital Performance for “Things A Man Oughta Know.” She lost to On Jason’s side and Carrie Underwood (“If I Didn’t Love You”) and Cody Johnson (“Dear Rodeo”), respectively. At the 2022 Country Music Association Awards, she took home Female Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year. She was also nominated for Album of the Year (Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’), Song of the Year (“Things A Man Oughta Know”), Musical Event of the Year, and Video of the Year (“Never Say Never”).
“I want listeners to know how empowering self-discovery can be,” Lainey told Fault magazine about her major-label debut. “I want this project to let them know who I am, what I believe, and lay a good firm foundation for all the things I have to say. I hope people can listen to my stories and lyrics and feel connected, understood, and encouraged to be unapologetically themselves. I want this album to take listeners on a journey and feel like they are not on the journey alone.”
Since then, Lainey has been nominated for several accolades and is the recipient of quite a few, including winning a Grammy for Best Country Album.
Who Is Laney Wilson’s Boyfriend?
At the 2023 ACM Awards, Lainey confirmed her relationship with former NFL player Devlin Hodges. Devlin played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2019 and 2020. Fans began speculating that he and Lainey were an item in the spring of 2023. Lainey hinted at the relationship when she performed in Pittsburgh on April 30, 2023 and wore a Devlin Hodges jersey onstage. She then walked the red carpet with him at the ACM Awards on May 11, 2023, making it clear that the romance was the real deal.
Before that, Lainey was in a longtime relationship with an unidentified man. In 2021, she told PEOPLE that she had a seven-year relationship with her childhood crush-turned-best friend-turned-high school sweetheart. When the time came to follow her music destiny or stick with her heart, she made the heart decision. “He was the only thing I had ever known,” Wilson said. “We grew up together. He was my best friend. We saw each other through a lot of different phases in our life. But I knew I would have to leave something behind, so I could try to do the damn thing in Nashville.”
Lainey Wilson Also Acted in Yellowstone
Miley Cyrus inadvertently had a hand in Lainey’s path to country music success. “In high school, I actually impersonated Hannah Montana…that was my high school occupation,” Laney told Songwriter Universe. “I started doing that in eighth grade, and I traveled all over Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Tennessee. Every now and then, they would let me open up the show for Hannah…and that even made it more evident to me that performing was what I’m supposed to be doing, along with songwriting. Then I started playing with a band for a few years, and I finally decided…if I’m going to take this thing to the next level, that I need to be in Nashville.”
Lainey had a moment of deja vu when she performed her song, “Watermelon Moonshine,” in a scene for Paramount/CMT’s Yellowstone. “I’m on this flatbed stage singing once again, but not in my Hannah Montana wig. And I thought, dang, this is a full-circle moment for me,” she told USA Today. “And I’m singing ‘Watermelon Moonshine,’ a song about young, wild, and crazy love.”
Lainey plays Abby, a free-spirited musician who joined the cast of Yellowstone for season 5. “I didn’t really know what I was doing, but you go in there head-first. I was going to give people their money’s worth,” she said. “I told my mommy and daddy, ‘You might not want to watch this show.’ I don’t want to be on their prayer list.”
“The crazy part is, we’re just getting started. We’re working hard just to work harder. Now it’s time to roll up our sleeves,” Lainey added. “I’m trying all these new things, even ‘Yellowstone,’ my first acting gig. I’m excited to see what the next step is.”
