Lainey Wilson Shares ‘Yellowstone’ Update, Says She’s ‘Like a Fish Out of Water’
Wilson will appear on season five of ‘Yellowstone.’
Lainey Wilson; Photo by Andrew Wendowski
Lainey Wilson is set to appear as a co-star on season five of Paramount’s western drama Yellowstone, telling Sirius XM’s The Highway she will play a musician named Abby and will get to “play [her] songs.”
The “Things a Man Oughta Know“ singer told Country Now and other media outlets how her relationship with Yellowstone began before she even had a record deal, how filming the show is going, and why music is still her number one priority.
“Mandelyn [her manager] pitched my song ‘Working Overtime,’ before I had a record deal, to Yellowstone,” said Wilson. “And Taylor Sheridan, the writer and producer of the show, became a fan.” In 2019, Sheridan invited Wilson to play a horse-riding competition in Las Vegas, where they became friends and she became acquainted with Yellowstone’s music supervisor, Andrea von Foerster. Several of Wilson’s songs, including “Workin’ Overtime,” “Rolling Stone” and “Small Town, Girl” have appeared in various episodes of the show, but in February of this year, Sheridan called Wilson to offer her a co-starring role.
“He said, ‘I’m going to create a character specifically for you. What do you think about it?’ And I was like, ‘You sure you want to do that?’ So, we’re doing it.”
The Louisiana native says that only divine intervention could bring such an incredible opportunity. “God is a blessing,” says Wilson. “My prayer has been for God to open doors for me and I’ve just said, if He does, I’m going to run through them. And for it to be doors that like no man himself could open or close. And this is truly what that is.”
Wilson is currently filming Yellowstone and says, “I’m like a fish out of water. I’m learning, I’m growing. But it’s a huge opportunity for me to share more of my music with the world. And I’m gonna whoop some ass!”
While she is dipping her toes into the world of acting, music is still Wilson’s number one priority. She’s been in Nashville for 11 years and for the first seven years, she didn’t have anything going on. “But I’ve always been me. I’ve always wrote the kind of songs that I write. Of course, I’ve gotten better, and I’ve grown and I’m figuring out who I am a little bit more every single day, but I truly do believe that timing is everything,” said Wilson. “I’ve never had a plan B. This is the plan A for me, I ain’t going home and helping Daddy farm – it ain’t happening! So, this is it till the end.” She added, “Even in 20, 30 years, we are still gonna be putting music out. We are still gonna be like ‘what’s next?’ It doesn’t mean that I’m not satisfied or content, it just means that I know I was given this gift for a reason and I’m going to use it as long as I possibly can.”
Wilson has announced that her sophomore album, Bell Bottom Country, will be released on October 28, which will include her new single “Watermelon Moonshine” and hit song “Heart Like A Truck,” which coincidentally parallels the western lifestyle of Yellowstone, showing her taming a wild horse on a ranch.
Season five of Yellowstone will premiere on November 13.
Written by
Nicole Palsa
Nicole Palsa is a freelance writer based in Nashville, Tennessee. Since 2012, she has written about the newcomers, superstars, and legends of country music for publications including Music Mayhem, Country Now, and Country Music Tattle Tale. Palsa has served as a volunteer guide with Musicians On Call since 2016 and is a Troubadour member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communications and her Bachelor of Arts degree in French. In addition to being a devoted country music fan, Nicole is a family historian and genealogist who can often be found in stacks of research. She is also an avid traveler with a passion for wildlife and nature photography.