Lainey Wilson stopped by The Bobby Bones Show to celebrate the release of her new album, details of the full circle moment she had with Miley Cyrus and more.
On August 11, the 2024 Disney Legends Ceremony took place, and they welcomed their newest member, Miley Cyrus. Lainey Wilson, got to sing a cover of “The Best of Both Worlds” and introduce her at the ceremony. It was a full circle moment for Wilson whose first job was being a Hannah Montana impersonator at children's birthday parties for five years. It was surreal and nerve-wracking moment for Wilson who shared that Cyrus inspired her so much as an artist. While at the event, Wilson was able to take a moment and look around and take in what a full circle moment it was in her life. She shared it was one of her biggest highlights so far and she does not think she’ll ever get used to moments like that happening.
Whirlwind, Wilson’s highly anticipated third studio album, is out now, and the title could not be more fitting for what her life has been like these past few years. Normally she writes 200 songs for a record, but while making this one, she had to focus on quality over quantity and sit down and figure out what she hasn’t shared yet. A lot of the songs were written at her house in Nashville on a writer's retreat. Making the music for this album was the only thing that kept her feeling sane now that her life is so busy. It brought her a lot of peace and comfort and it was like she had one foot on the ground.
The opening track on the album is called “Keep Up With Jones.” She chose to open the album with that song because her band was in the studio and played on the album live for the first time. They’ve played thousands of shows together, so they knew what was missing from her setlist and she wanted the album to feel like you’re listening to a live show of hers. The last song on the album is called “Whiskey Colored Crayon,” which is a different sounding vibe for Wilson. She chose to end the record with that song because when she thinks about why she fell in love with country music, it’s the story telling. She’s so proud of that song and how it came together from a writing exercise where her and the co-writer mixed and matched words and they came up with whiskey colored crayon and developed a story around it. Wilson comes from a family of teachers. Her mother, father, aunts and grandmother were all teachers and felt like it was a good teacher appreciation song to tag on the end and summarize why she loves country music. “Good Horses” her song with Miranda Lambert, they wrote together after Lambert called her and invited her to her farm. She told her she was going to take care of her, let her rest, feed her and if they got around to it, they would write a song together because their friend, songwriter Luke Dick, was also out there. Wilson took a 13-hour nap while she was there, but when she woke up, they had so much fun living that western way of life that they both love and connect on. While they were writing the song, they were sitting on her balcony when three blue birds flew up and landed on the railing. Lambert and Dick looked at each other crazy because when they wrote her song “Bluebird,” the same thing happened, so they took it as a sign that “Good Horses” was going to be a hit song.
Whirlwind has 14 songs on it, and she focused on creating songs for it that will make her live show better. She’s going to be singing these songs for a long time, so she wants her live shows to be “badass,” she said. Right now, “Watermelon Moonshine,” is the song the crowd sings back to her the most. She takes her ears out at every show because she wants to really hear the crowd, even if her teams get upset when she takes them out because she might hurt her hearing. Wilson has dreamed of those moments for so long, so now that they are happening, she really wants to take them in.