Lainey Wilson on the ‘Yellowstone’ Finale, Her Friendship with Taylor Sheridan, and the Joys of Giant Bell-Bottom Jeans

How did you know you needed to market your art like this?

I learned that while in Nashville for 13 years! I think that’s all my time here. It was year seven when I signed the publishing contract. In my eighth year, I signed a recording contract. You know, when you’re 16, you think, man, if I could buy a car but then you have it and you think, if I could have a boyfriend, if I could be good university career? I thought, if I can cut a song, if I can get a publishing deal, if I can get a record deal. Then you realize, okay, you signed on the dotted line. But that’s really when the work begins.

I know that the type of music I write and make wasn’t cool when I first got here. It’s not like that. And just like fashion, everything has style, everything goes away. But I still knew that I wanted to tell stories and I thought, okay, I think things will turn around. I think at some point, there will be a need for this particular sound, and if I can keep it going, hopefully I’ll find my audience. For me, it’s each team member, each friendship, each fan, everything. It really just started from scratch.

I’m so grateful for that because to tell you the truth, the last few years have been crazy and my life has completely changed, but I still feel the same way. I’m glad I’ve been here for a while and been around so things aren’t scary anymore. And at the end of the day, you ask and you shall receive, and sometimes it’s tenfold, but a group of people who love and care for me, we’re all on this journey together, and it’s a great feeling.

Your latest album, whirlwind, Talk about the feeling of being caught up in something truly crazy! How did you capture that feeling in the song?

It was a time when my life was constantly changing, and thank God I was writing and had these tools where I could sit down and think. During a time in my life where it seemed like everything was going by like nothing, these were the things that reminded me of who I was and why I started doing this in the first place. And as long as you can always go back to that and rethink that, it will help you get through whatever you’re going through to get you to the next thing.