December 8, 2025 • 10 mins
This week, we sit down with CMA Entertainer of the Year, Lainey Wilson, for an honest and inspiring conversation. Lainey opens up about the importance of mental health, the practices that keep her grounded in the whirlwind of fame, and what it was really like to step into the spotlight as host of this year’s CMA Awards. From personal reflections to behind-the-scenes stories, this episode is packed with heart, grit, and a whole lot of Lainey’s signature authenticity. 👉 Don’t miss it—stream now wherever you get your podcasts!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Landy Wilson, congratulations once again. It's to the point now
where it's not a surprise to people that know you
and people that have seen you since day one.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
It was a shock to me, I'll tell you that
again though, Yes, because I was so focused on hosting
these awards that, like, normally I kind of psyched myself
out about like, well, are we going to take home
any hardware? But I didn't even think about it because
I'm like, I'm hosting. That's probably not happening this year.
I was not prepared.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
The hosting thing is so wild too, because when we
when we introduce, when we interact rather with country fans
and people that listen to the radio, they're always like,
who's your favorite or what's this person? Like? What's this
person like? And obviously I'm like, Laney is a pain
in the ass, but.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
She's annoying her accident.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
When you like the first time I met her, she
was like, Hey, what's going down, guys?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
What's going down? Guys?
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I was a hit him with a New York accent.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Hey, but it's you have worked so hard in such
a short amount of time. Yeah, probably harder than you
needed to. In certain moments, where you over sacrifice, but
like this is what happens.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah right, yeah, if the reward has been nice, it's
it's and it's crazy because literally, just a handful of
years ago, you were doing the radio tour thing, carrying
your own guitar.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Now your guitar doesn't even travel with you.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Now my guitar got legs.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I got guitar people in my team.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
It feels good.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
It was Entertainer of the Year ever a goal though,
of course.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, of course I didn't know it would happen this soon.
You know, like growing up watching the cmas and stuff,
it seemed very far fetch. It seemed like I had
lots of miles to cover before I ever even got there.
The truth is like looking up though, now it's like
you work hard, you know, I've been here fourteen years,
(01:53):
and you look up and you're like, well, maybe I
have traveled the same amount of miles or a similar
amount of miles. You know, I've been around the block
a couple of times, a couple of times, and back
and then home again.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Uh does it all matter more because of the Entertainer
of the Year or would it have been just as
just as sweet without it?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
It was a sweet night.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
But of course, I like, I'd be lying to you
if I told you it wasn't the cherry on top.
You know, that's a good failing. That's a good failing
when your when your community like really thinks that you've
represented country music in a lot of different aspects that year.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
You know, it's Entertainer of the Year, and then like
artists of the Year for like male and female feel different,
right because it's here's a male and female and they
were dominant and you know they did this and they
sold records and whatever else. But entertainer to me isn't
just had a big tour and sold out. Yeah, I
feel like that's truly like entertainer entertaining, right. Yeah, So
(02:54):
when you hear when you hear it's like, oh, here's
your nominees, and then whoever wins, it's like, what, well
this person did this. Yeah, well this person did this.
And it always, to me, I think comes down to
it's not just doing the shows, it's what are you
doing between the shows that keeps you not only entertainer
of the Year and like massive superstar on the stage,
(03:15):
but real life human that you pass that Kroger, Yeah,
do you feel the same from where you sit.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I think so, I think so.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Like thinking about who got nominated alongside I'm like, man,
these folks have done some stuff talking about breaking records,
you know, and they continue to and they continue to
be like the pioneers of our genre.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
It feels cool to think that, Like.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Little Laney, you know, they let the girl in the group.
I'm kind of alongside them, you know. Like we had
a huge arena tour this year and.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
It was so good.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
By the way, I had a little father daughter date night.
It ended up on Good Morning America. So I'm just
she's she's like someone is key because because they ran
Good Morning American, our picture with you ended up on there,
and so Haley's not like good Morning America.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
I'm like, for two seconds, Yeah, serial killers were on
TV longer than you, Okay, So like I got to
figure better, you better, Koli.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
You gotta keep her humble.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
That's what I'm saying, because now she she's like, she
tells everybody that you're best friends, So well we are.
You gave basket a shout out yep uh as you're
on stage. Is it weird that you went from you know,
one of the people in the community to like you
could go to town and buy out the community at
this point.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, it's it's wild.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
But the cool thing about my is when I go back,
it's not Laney Wilson is home. It's like Laney hitd
Knuckleheads home. You know what I'm saying, Like, that's who's home. Yeah.
They have treated me this no matter what they do,
not think that. I think it's kind of hard for
them to wrap their head around, which I like, I
(05:06):
don't really want them to. Yeah, I don't want to,
you know, I'm scared to. I'm like, if I really
knew what was happening, if I really understood, I don't
think it would be healthy for anybody.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Valid you start, once you start buying your own T shirts,
that's the problem. Once you've liked your own Facebook fan pigs,
that's the problem.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Right, that's right. Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Last time we talked, we got a little in the
weeds on like mental health stuff and how you learned
the hard way, like.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
The I got it. So knowing that and you still.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Have the result of Entertainer of the Year and had
a massive tour, are you able to soak this in
more now?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
And maybe before I feel more present right now than
like I feel like this year in general, I've just
been more present, but I've had to fight for that.
It might seem like I don't say no to a
lot of things, but I really do, Like, well I
say no to far outweighs what I actually say yes to.
(06:03):
And I mean we played sixty six shows this year,
I mean compared to two hundred what we were doing.
Like that's given me more time to really focus on
my health and it is so important, like it is
just and I don't want to forget these days. I
want to like, these are the days that I want
to look back on and be like, man, remember when
(06:25):
I got to host the CMA's and we took home
three awards at night, And these are precious times I
want to remember.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And award show is damned successful when you can turn
to somebody at the end of the night and say, hey,
can you hold this because it means.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
You got job?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
And then Keith Urban's like, bro, you got to close
out the show, And I was.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Like, isn't that funny Keith Irban has to remind you?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, He's like, and I was like, oh, okay, but
what a gentleman.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
He could have been like, get here time.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I know he could have. It's Keith. Iurban he can
do whatever he wants.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I asked him one time.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
He always gets complimented on how he smells. I asked
him one time, like what it is, and he goes
I'm like, hey, asshole, No, I really want to know
how what it is? Somebody said it actually let me
look that up. Okay, but somebody said he had people
like make a mixture that's like only his. I'd believe that.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I believe it too, because he does smell good.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Actually, when I hugged his neck when we were doing
rehearsal for the opening monologue, I was like, dang, you
smell good.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
You get how you smell better?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
That's every single time. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Is it shower more, shower less? I've been working on
the equation.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
He's doing it right.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
You got the opportunity hosting the show to show personality,
which I mean you do in your show right, But
it's tough to do that in music video.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
It's tough to do that if you're doing a TV appearance.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So really that's this is the first time that people
got to see more of Laney as a human than anything.
Was it scary to be that vulnerable because you're vulnerable
in your music, right, but like.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
This is like yet more.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
The truth is like I did not think about how
much weight hosting carried until like a week before, and
then I said, oh my gosh, I said, I do
this thing by myself. Here, I am like this could
go two ways, you know, and I just felt like, Okay,
it's my job as the host to like I'm creating
the vibe for the night. You know, whatever we come
(08:22):
out of the gate swinging with like that is the
vibe for the night. I'm supposed to be like the
cheerleader of country music.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
And yet no pomp poms.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
We're seeing no pomp, Thank the Lord. See oh you man, No.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
I keep going.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I want to make sure you can smell it all
or wow. Last thing I wanted, by the way, that
just became a song idea by the way for you,
so you can run with it. We'll clip this out.
I know you're ton on time. The last thing I
want to ask you is when you got into this,
things things that would fulfill you in your career. You
(08:59):
chase things like I mean, I know I did on
my side of radio and all that, Like I chase things.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
I'm like, this is going to fulfill me.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And then I held it in my hand, still feeling
like empties dramatic, but like feeling like, well, this didn't
do anything, So Laney chase those things, caught those things.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So what for twenty twenty six to be fulfilling for
you as a human?
Speaker 4 (09:24):
And I'm not like marriage.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Is great all that, but like real life, like what
does Lane need to feel fulfilled and successful in twenty
twenty six?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Like no one who my real identity is, not the singer,
not the artist, like all of those things. Like really
it's like no one who the Lord called me to be,
and like no man can tell you that.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
And that's really important because the truth is, you know, we're.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Winning, we're we're getting number ones, we're like doing the
dang thing. But at any point in time that could
not exist, you know, And I know like I'm trying
to ride that wave right now. I want to like
soak it for everything that it is, you know, like
hold it for everything that it is.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
But like.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I can see how people get like addicted to to
like the wind and then all of a sudden. You
don't have it one day and then what does that
look like? I don't want to do that. They don't
tell you about to come down. We ain't coming down
anytime soon, but I'm not willing to like.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Take it hard.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yep, don't because the comedown is a Bengal hall in Columbia,
Tennessee well Bango, Leanie Wilson Birthday Parties dot Com book
for US now
Landy Wilson, congratulations once again. It's to the point now
where it's not a surprise to people that know you
and people that have seen you since day one.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
It was a shock to me, I'll tell you that
again though, Yes, because I was so focused on hosting
these awards that, like, normally I kind of psyched myself
out about like, well, are we going to take home
any hardware? But I didn't even think about it because
I'm like, I'm hosting. That's probably not happening this year.
I was not prepared.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
The hosting thing is so wild too, because when we
when we introduce, when we interact rather with country fans
and people that listen to the radio, they're always like,
who's your favorite or what's this person? Like? What's this
person like? And obviously I'm like, Laney is a pain
in the ass, but.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
She's annoying her accident.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
When you like the first time I met her, she
was like, Hey, what's going down, guys?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
What's going down? Guys?
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I was a hit him with a New York accent.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Hey, but it's you have worked so hard in such
a short amount of time. Yeah, probably harder than you
needed to. In certain moments, where you over sacrifice, but
like this is what happens.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah right, yeah, if the reward has been nice, it's
it's and it's crazy because literally, just a handful of
years ago, you were doing the radio tour thing, carrying
your own guitar.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Now your guitar doesn't even travel with you.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Now my guitar got legs.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I got guitar people in my team.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
It feels good.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
It was Entertainer of the Year ever a goal though,
of course.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, of course I didn't know it would happen this soon.
You know, like growing up watching the cmas and stuff,
it seemed very far fetch. It seemed like I had
lots of miles to cover before I ever even got there.
The truth is like looking up though, now it's like
you work hard, you know, I've been here fourteen years,
(01:53):
and you look up and you're like, well, maybe I
have traveled the same amount of miles or a similar
amount of miles. You know, I've been around the block
a couple of times, a couple of times, and back
and then home again.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Uh does it all matter more because of the Entertainer
of the Year or would it have been just as
just as sweet without it?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
It was a sweet night.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
But of course, I like, I'd be lying to you
if I told you it wasn't the cherry on top.
You know, that's a good failing. That's a good failing
when your when your community like really thinks that you've
represented country music in a lot of different aspects that year.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
You know, it's Entertainer of the Year, and then like
artists of the Year for like male and female feel different,
right because it's here's a male and female and they
were dominant and you know they did this and they
sold records and whatever else. But entertainer to me isn't
just had a big tour and sold out. Yeah, I
feel like that's truly like entertainer entertaining, right. Yeah, So
(02:54):
when you hear when you hear it's like, oh, here's
your nominees, and then whoever wins, it's like, what, well
this person did this. Yeah, well this person did this.
And it always, to me, I think comes down to
it's not just doing the shows, it's what are you
doing between the shows that keeps you not only entertainer
of the Year and like massive superstar on the stage,
(03:15):
but real life human that you pass that Kroger, Yeah,
do you feel the same from where you sit.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I think so, I think so.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Like thinking about who got nominated alongside I'm like, man,
these folks have done some stuff talking about breaking records,
you know, and they continue to and they continue to
be like the pioneers of our genre.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
It feels cool to think that, Like.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Little Laney, you know, they let the girl in the group.
I'm kind of alongside them, you know. Like we had
a huge arena tour this year and.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
It was so good.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
By the way, I had a little father daughter date night.
It ended up on Good Morning America. So I'm just
she's she's like someone is key because because they ran
Good Morning American, our picture with you ended up on there,
and so Haley's not like good Morning America.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
I'm like, for two seconds, Yeah, serial killers were on
TV longer than you, Okay, So like I got to
figure better, you better, Koli.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
You gotta keep her humble.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
That's what I'm saying, because now she she's like, she
tells everybody that you're best friends, So well we are.
You gave basket a shout out yep uh as you're
on stage. Is it weird that you went from you know,
one of the people in the community to like you
could go to town and buy out the community at
this point.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, it's it's wild.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
But the cool thing about my is when I go back,
it's not Laney Wilson is home. It's like Laney hitd
Knuckleheads home. You know what I'm saying, Like, that's who's home. Yeah.
They have treated me this no matter what they do,
not think that. I think it's kind of hard for
them to wrap their head around, which I like, I
(05:06):
don't really want them to. Yeah, I don't want to,
you know, I'm scared to. I'm like, if I really
knew what was happening, if I really understood, I don't
think it would be healthy for anybody.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Valid you start, once you start buying your own T shirts,
that's the problem. Once you've liked your own Facebook fan pigs,
that's the problem.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Right, that's right. Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Last time we talked, we got a little in the
weeds on like mental health stuff and how you learned
the hard way, like.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
The I got it. So knowing that and you still.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Have the result of Entertainer of the Year and had
a massive tour, are you able to soak this in
more now?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
And maybe before I feel more present right now than
like I feel like this year in general, I've just
been more present, but I've had to fight for that.
It might seem like I don't say no to a
lot of things, but I really do, Like, well I
say no to far outweighs what I actually say yes to.
(06:03):
And I mean we played sixty six shows this year,
I mean compared to two hundred what we were doing.
Like that's given me more time to really focus on
my health and it is so important, like it is
just and I don't want to forget these days. I
want to like, these are the days that I want
to look back on and be like, man, remember when
(06:25):
I got to host the CMA's and we took home
three awards at night, And these are precious times I
want to remember.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And award show is damned successful when you can turn
to somebody at the end of the night and say, hey,
can you hold this because it means.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
You got job?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
And then Keith Urban's like, bro, you got to close
out the show, And I was.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Like, isn't that funny Keith Irban has to remind you?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, He's like, and I was like, oh, okay, but
what a gentleman.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
He could have been like, get here time.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I know he could have. It's Keith. Iurban he can
do whatever he wants.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I asked him one time.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
He always gets complimented on how he smells. I asked
him one time, like what it is, and he goes
I'm like, hey, asshole, No, I really want to know
how what it is? Somebody said it actually let me
look that up. Okay, but somebody said he had people
like make a mixture that's like only his. I'd believe that.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I believe it too, because he does smell good.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Actually, when I hugged his neck when we were doing
rehearsal for the opening monologue, I was like, dang, you
smell good.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
You get how you smell better?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
That's every single time. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Is it shower more, shower less? I've been working on
the equation.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
He's doing it right.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
You got the opportunity hosting the show to show personality,
which I mean you do in your show right, But
it's tough to do that in music video.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
It's tough to do that if you're doing a TV appearance.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So really that's this is the first time that people
got to see more of Laney as a human than anything.
Was it scary to be that vulnerable because you're vulnerable
in your music, right, but like.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
This is like yet more.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
The truth is like I did not think about how
much weight hosting carried until like a week before, and
then I said, oh my gosh, I said, I do
this thing by myself. Here, I am like this could
go two ways, you know, and I just felt like, Okay,
it's my job as the host to like I'm creating
the vibe for the night. You know, whatever we come
(08:22):
out of the gate swinging with like that is the
vibe for the night. I'm supposed to be like the
cheerleader of country music.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
And yet no pomp poms.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
We're seeing no pomp, Thank the Lord. See oh you man, No.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
I keep going.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I want to make sure you can smell it all
or wow. Last thing I wanted, by the way, that
just became a song idea by the way for you,
so you can run with it. We'll clip this out.
I know you're ton on time. The last thing I
want to ask you is when you got into this,
things things that would fulfill you in your career. You
(08:59):
chase things like I mean, I know I did on
my side of radio and all that, Like I chase things.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
I'm like, this is going to fulfill me.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And then I held it in my hand, still feeling
like empties dramatic, but like feeling like, well, this didn't
do anything, So Laney chase those things, caught those things.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So what for twenty twenty six to be fulfilling for
you as a human?
Speaker 4 (09:24):
And I'm not like marriage.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Is great all that, but like real life, like what
does Lane need to feel fulfilled and successful in twenty
twenty six?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Like no one who my real identity is, not the singer,
not the artist, like all of those things. Like really
it's like no one who the Lord called me to be,
and like no man can tell you that.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
And that's really important because the truth is, you know, we're.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Winning, we're we're getting number ones, we're like doing the
dang thing. But at any point in time that could
not exist, you know, And I know like I'm trying
to ride that wave right now. I want to like
soak it for everything that it is, you know, like
hold it for everything that it is.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
But like.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I can see how people get like addicted to to
like the wind and then all of a sudden. You
don't have it one day and then what does that
look like? I don't want to do that. They don't
tell you about to come down. We ain't coming down
anytime soon, but I'm not willing to like.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Take it hard.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yep, don't because the comedown is a Bengal hall in Columbia,
Tennessee well Bango, Leanie Wilson Birthday Parties dot Com book
for US now
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