Lainey Wilson chats with Kelleigh Bannen about creating her third album ‘Whirlwind,’ and staying grounded at a time when her career is at an all time high. Lainey describes the album’s title track as the first true love song she’s ever written now that she’s in a healthy and committed relationship. She also talks about the importance of her friendship with Miranda Lambert and details how the veteran superstar helped her recover from the road before writing their collab ‘Good Horses.
Tune in and listen to the full interview live for free this Friday, August 30 at 7am PT / 9am CT / 10am ET, or anytime on-demand with an Apple Music subscription at apple.co/_TodaysCountry
Lainey Wilson Tells Apple Music Her Mom Used to Pray Over Her That She’d Be a Singer
When my mama was pregnant with me, she told me that she would pray over her belly, that I would have a voice to sing. It's really hard to explain because people think you crazy when you're like, “I knew at nine years old that I was going to be doing this,” but it is the truth… I knew I wanted to do it and I was like, “Dang it. I got to figure out how to.”
Lainey Wilson Tells Apple Music She Had Less Time Than Ever to Write the Songs on ‘Whirlwind’
I feel like for the first couple records, I feel like I could write, I had the time to write 300 plus songs to get those 12, but for this record, it was kind of like as my job continues to grow and change, there's more to do and there is less time to do the things that I moved here to do… I think I wrote… Half of the record, I think was written at a retreat out at my house, but then the other half of the record was when I would bring my co-writers out on the road.
Lainey Wilson Tells Apple Music She Wrote Music on This Record That Made Her Feel at Home
[Being home is] like vacation because I'm rarely there. I'm like, “Oh my gosh, there ain't nothing like sleeping in your own bed.” Traveling can be hard… It can be really, really hard… but it makes those moments that you have at your house so much sweeter. I just try to soak in those moments because that's where I get grounded. That's where I get recentered and focused. And when it was writing this record, I felt like I got to write the music that even though I'm not at home, it makes me feel like I am.
Lainey Wilson Tells Apple Music Her Life Has Changed but She Hasn’t
My life has completely changed. I feel like I haven't changed, but my life has. And two, I am in a healthy relationship and never really had one of those. And I'm finally starting to write some love songs.
Lainey Wilson Tells Apple Music That ‘Whirlwind' is Her First True Love Song and Talks About Her Relationship with Boyfriend, Duck
I didn't really even know if [writing love songs for me] existed there for a while, but I found somebody who pulls that side out of me and he's truly a big cheerleader of mine and he knows that I've dedicated my life to country music and he don't get in the way of it. He just kind of stands in the background and claps and cheers me on. And I knew it was going to take a person like that to complete that puzzle, I guess you could say. Because you know how I am, I'm not the kind of girl that can be told what to do or slowed down.
Lainey Wilson Tells Apple Music that Miranda Lambert Told Her to Come to Her Farm and Nap
She called me one day and she's like, she said, “You need a nap.” She said, “You're going to come out to my farm and you're going to take a nap, and then we're going to feed you, and then you take another nap. And then if you want to write a song, we can write a song. If not, blah, blah, blah.” And she genuinely cares about me.
Lainey Wilson Tells Apple Music About Writing ‘Good Horses' with Miranda Lambert and Luke Dick
She invited Luke Dick out there, and we've written quite a few songs together and we were kind of up on the balcony of one of her little cabins, and we were sitting there just kind of picking around on guitar and we started writing the song, and three bluebirds flew up and they both kind of looked at each other and I'm like, “What?” And they said, “This is exactly where we were when we were writing “Bluebird” and three bluebirds had flown up on that same porch.” And I mean… I'm superstitious like that.
Lainey Wilson Tells Apple Music Miranda Lambert “Passed the Torch” to Her
She's told me many times, she's like, “I'm passing you the torch.” And I'm like, “That's a big old torch to pass.” But she has paved the way for people like me, and it just has to continue to happen. The truth is, we're not where we need to be when it comes to the females in country. We still got way more female voices that have not been heard that are going to get heard. But it's because of people like Dolly who paved it for people like Reba who paved it for people like Wynonna. It just continues, continues, continues. And then Miranda's paving it for people like me.
Lainey Wilson Tells Apple Music Females in Country Music Have to Outwork the Men to Get the Same Opportunities
The truth is, and a lot of my dude friends in the industry, they know it too. They know that we have to outwork them to get the same opportunity and we have open conversations about it, but it ain't going to slow me down. At the end of day, things like that kind of put a fire under my ass.
Lainey Wilson Tells Apple Music What Inspired Her to Write Whiskey Colored Crayon‘
I know that a lot of, my mama and a lot of my aunts and stuff, the things that they hear on a daily basis from some of their students, they take it home with them because they truly, they care about their kids. And it's really kind of just like a hats off, tip of the hat, teacher appreciation moment for me because I think people forget how hard it is for teachers and for how little they get paid to do their jobs. These teachers are pouring into your children and your kids are probably spending more time with these teachers than they're getting to spend with their parents at home. And so they're really leaving a mark on these kids. And I think they need to be treated that way.
