Lainey Wilson hinted at “a little surprise,” at the end of her new “Hang Tight Honey” music video that premiered on Wednesday (July 3). The reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year said there’s more to her story that she plans to share on Thursday (July 4).
Wilson wrote “Hang Tight Honey” with Driver Williams, Jason Nix, and Paul Sikes. The high-energy anthem, produced by Grammy Award winner Jay Joyce, followed “Country’s Cool Again” as the Louisiana-born singer-songwriter began to share tracks from her highly-anticipated studio album, Whirlwind. The Dano Cerny-directed “Hang Tight Honey” music video offers a vibrant visual to the single that’s “rooted in the spirit of hardworking women, empowerment, and resilience,” and “blends Country with elements of 60’s Funk and Rock into Wilson’s signature sound,” reads a press release issued Wednesday.
Next, Wilson is set to debut another Whirlwind song and video, “4x4xU.”
“In more ways than one, ‘4x4xU’ is a continuation of my story and a direct follow-up to ‘Hang Tight Honey.’ So we had to make a couple music videos to match,” Wilson said. “4x4xU” will release on Thursday. The music video will premiere at 1 p.m. ET, seemingly picking up where the “Hang Tight Honey” video left off. It ends with Wilson and a man in a cowboy hat standing hand-in-hand as her tour bus drives off into the distance. Text over the screen reads: “to be continued…”
Wilson wrote “4x4xU” with Jon Decious and Aaron Raitiere. She said she’s “got a feeling this is the best one yet,” and promised, “you and yours are gonna love it. Send this to your driver or shotgun rider.” Wilson said in an interview last summer with PEOPLE that she was working on her next album, following 2022’s Bell Bottom Country. She said at that time that she was working on “some love songs now,” thanks to her relationship with former NFL quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodges.
“It's cool to be able to write your story and your truth and get vulnerable and have people appreciate that. …The truth is, I mean, preparing for something like that is really scary,” Wilson said during a previous interview with iHeartCountry, speaking about Grammy Award-winning project, Bell Bottom Country. “You're like, 'well, I mean, all I can do is do what I do and hope that folks like it.' But it seems like I just keep on getting surprised, and people are finding little pieces in each song to connect to and relate to. And a lot of people have shared their stories with me on why they love each song and why it means something different to them. And that's what country music's about. It's about making people feel like they're not alone. And I've known from a very early age that I was supposed to be doing this, and it feels really nice to just be embraced.”
Whirlwind will arrive on August 23.
Watch the “Hang Tight Honey” music video here: