Lainey Wilson reflected on the unforgettable moment she surprised her Las Vegas audience with special guest Miranda Lambert. Wilson said it’s “crazy” that she can consider Lambert a friend and mentor. She invited the Palomino artist on stage while she’s was in Vegas to perform her own show, the Velvet Rodeo residency.
Wilson and Lambert performed the Texas-born superstar’s 2005 hit “Kerosene,” marking a full-circle moment for the Bell Bottom Country hitmaker. Wilson laughed as she said the song selection was “hilarious because one of my first guitar recitals I ever did, I played ‘Kerosene,’ back in the day.”
The Baskin, Louisiana-born trailblazer recently delved into her life “On The Road” in a “whirlwind 48 hours” with CMT. The special premiered on Wednesday (January 31). Wilson spoke about milestone moments in her career — including her first-ever Grammy Award nominations, winning the Entertainer of the Year honor at the CMA Awards (the first female artist to do so in more than a decade) and more — throughout the special. She uncovered “dreams I didn’t know I had,” and the moments that have made her “feel empowered.”
“She’s become one of my mentors. She’s there for me,” Wilson said in the CMT special of Lambert. “You know, when I feel like, ‘man, as a female in this industry, who can I go to?’ Who can I call and be like, ‘what would you do in this situation?’ Or, ‘how would you handle this?’ Or, ‘hey, when you’re feeling under the weather, and you’re losing your voice and this is happening, what do you do?’ She’s that person that I call.”
Wilson joined Lambert on “Kerosene,” and the duo also revealed a song they wrote for the first time on the Las Vegas stage. They performed “Good Horses” together, which they wrote with Luke Dick, Wilson noted when she shared a video of that moment in December. The “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” star said at the time that she had “a lot of highs this past week in Vegas and this is definitely one of them. …It was special gettin’ to perform it for the first time for a crowd of horse lovin’, rodeo-in’, country lovin’ people like us.”
Wilson, who is nominated at the Grammy Awards on Sunday (February 4) for Bell Bottom Country and joining Jelly Roll on “Save Me,” said she’s “been on a rocket” in recent years — and she’s not slowing down any time soon: “I know for a dang fact that I’m supposed to be doing this”
Wilson is nominated in multiple categories at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards, nominated alongside Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Kane Brown, Jelly Roll and others. The former iHeartRadio Music Awards Best New Country Artist winner (2022) is up for Country Song of the Year (“Heart Like A Truck”) and Country Artist of the Year. See the full list of country artists nominated at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards here.
Fans across the country will be able to watch the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards live as the show will be airing live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Monday, April 1st from 8pm-10pm ET live/PT tape-delayed on FOX. The event will also be broadcast on iHeartRadio stations nationwide and on the free iHeartRadio app.