It’s been just under three years since Lainey Wilson scored her first number one song at Country radio with, “Things A Man Oughta Know,” in September 2021 and her momentum has only multiplied.

Fast forward to August 2024, the Louisiana-native currently reigns as CMA and ACM Entertainer of the Year, scored seven #1 hits, won a GRAMMY for Best Country Album (Bell Bottom Country), made her acting debut in Paramount’s hit series, Yellowstone, become a member of Nashville’s famed Grand Ole Opry and that’s just scratching the surface.

What Wilson has accomplished in just three years has taken some of Country’s most iconic stars years to fulfill, but you won’t find that fun fact getting to the 32-year-old’s head. With great success comes great humility for Wilson, who has kept her boots firmly on the ground while her world lights up with opportunity, success, and fame.

“I’ve been in this town for 13 years and the last three definitely made the first ten worth it,” she told Audacy’s Coop during a recent interview surrounding her new album, Whirlwind. While enjoying what she’s worked hard for, Wilson refuses to lose sight of where she comes from.

“The one word that I keep using to describe what the last two years has been like since we put out Bell Bottom Country is ‘whirlwind,’” she shared. “Even random people will come up to me in my meet and greet line and be like, ‘Man, things are a whirlwind for you!’ I’ll open a book and I’ll see the word, ‘whirlwind,’ and I’m like, ‘What does this mean?!’ Turns out, that’s what the name of the record needed to be.”

While the project showcases the beautiful chaos that is Lainey’s life these days, the foundation of the music stands firm in her authentic, vulnerable and humble foundation as a person. Wilson sits as lead songwriter on all 14 of the album’s tracks, showing her commitment to keeping her music personal, however she’s not afraid to pull in help from other songwriters she admires to make sure her music is reaching a level she feels proud to present.

“It’s truly a team effort,” she said of the writing process. “When you sit down, we all agree that the best line wins. Thankfully, I have found that songwriters, they know what the best line is and we fight for the best line.”

While Wilson believes ego has no place in the writing rooms, she says she’s not afraid to speak up to make sure the songs she sings are as authentic to her as possible. “The people who I wrote this record with have become such dear friends of mine — we’ve wrote tons of songs together — so sometimes they know me better than I know me,” she said of how much she trusts their input. “I’m very vocal though in the writing room… I’m honest with them, you have to be honest… If I know that the song is something that I’m gonna plan on cuttin’ or that I plan on singing at some point in time, I try to make sure that I’d be OK with singin’ that line 30 years from now.”

Lainey keeps it real all the way from the writing room to the recording studio as she later shared she had her entire band record in studio for the album — an uncommon practice in the music industry as highly-trained, studio musicians are usually hired to record albums.

“My band is so talented and if they weren’t on the road with me — I truly think that they could all be studio musicians,” she said with confidence. “We have played hundreds of shows together— these are the guys that used to travel around with me in my flat-bed truck and we’d strap our equipment down to the back and they’re the ones that ate dirt with me, and the ones that believed in me then and sacrificed a lot to be out there now. I just believe in them just like they believe in me.”

While she staying true to her roots by spotlighting her entire band, Lainey also welcomed some new friends to the project who have helped her maintain a good headspace when her "whirlwind" felt a bit more like a tornado. One of those friends is Country star, Miranda Lambert, who appears on the only collaboration for this project, “Good Horses.”

“Miranda has kind of become my Country music big sister and she calls me and checks on me — she’s like, ‘Where you at? How’s your heart? Where’s your head?’ And I think it’s really important to have females in your life that do that and she has kind of become that for me,” Lainey shared. “She called me one day and she was like, ‘I want you to come out to my farm, I want you to take a nap, I’m gonna feed ya and maybe we’ll write a song and that’s what happened.”

Overall, the process doesn’t get much more authentic than Wilson’s third album, Whirlwind. From the inspiration for the songs, to the writing, recording and even live performances on her current Country’s Cool Again Tour, Lainey is as real as they come and we’re all for watching the good ones succeed.

Hear more from Lainey about the new album, creative process and her Nashville music journey by checking out her entire conversation with Audacy’s Coop above.

Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Coop