Lainey Wilson is at work on her third full-length studio album on the heels of Bell Bottom Country’s smash-hit success, and this time, she shared that she’s writing love songs.
Wilson said she’s writing more music about love shortly after publicly revealing her relationship with former NFL quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodges — “one of my biggest cheerleaders and champions” — for the first time on the ACM Awards red carpet last month. They’ve been dating for two and a half years. the “Heart Like A Truck” superstar recently caught up with PEOPLE for the magazine’s summer StyleWatch issue, talking about everything from her Dolly Parton-inspired mantra in life (“what would Dolly do?,” a line many of her fans will recognize in the Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’ track, “WWDD”), to her hard-earned success in her career after nearly 12 years of living in Nashville, to her family, to her acting debut in Yellowstone, to her signature fashion pieces and more.
During the interview, Wilson confirmed that she’s in the studio working on her third album (following Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’ in 2021 and Bell Bottom Country less than a year ago in 2022). Some of the music she’s working on throughout that process include ones inspired by Hodges.
“I said, ‘We gonna see if you’re in it for the right reasons.’ Turns out, he is,” Wilson told PEOPLE. “Somebody said how funny it was watching him high-five all of my artist friends at the ACMs, and I said, ‘Those are his friends!’ He’ll FaceTime me, and he’ll be with HARDY and Morgan [Wallen] and Luke [Combs], and I’m like, ‘Stop stealing all my buddies.’ They’ll always be out golfing and drinking a beer. I don’t have to convince anybody to like him. He’s a very lovable person. …I was never really able to write love songs, because I don't know if I had actually felt it, but I'm writing me some love songs now. I’m grateful for him.”