-Welcome back.
Congrats on the new album. What a year you've been having,
by the way. -It has been wild. -Can I just go through
a couple of things first? Your last album,
"Bell Bottom Country," won Best Country Album
at the Grammys. Congratulations.
That's a big deal. -Not too bad. -You just recently
received the highest honor in country music. You became a member
of the Grand Ole Opry. Come on! That's, like --
-That takes the cake. -That's iconic.
-That takes the cake. -And yesterday, you were
nominated for four CMA Awards, including
Entertainer of the Year, which you also won last year. Lainey Wilson, welcome.
That's what I'm talking about. -My hype man.
-That's what I'm talking about. -My hype man.
-I'm your hype man. -You are. -Thanks for sitting down
and talking, because I know you've been
on the show performing a couple times, but now I get to talk to you
and find out where it all began. I've heard stories that you
used to perform in a Walmart, in the aisles. -I would play anywhere
that they let me play. I'm talking about nursing homes,
flatbed trailers. Anywhere that -- My parents
would be like, "Hey, Lainey, sing that song you just wrote
last week for anybody. -Is that right?
-And I'd just do it. -How young were you when you
started writing and performing? -I wrote my first song
at 9 years old and I got bit by the bug. I think it's because
I'm from a town of 180 people, Baskin, Louisiana,
little speed trap. [ Light cheering ]
-There's five of them. Yeah, five people --
-It's probably my family. -Yeah.
-It's probably family. I love y'all. But, yeah, where I'm from, being
such, like, a small community, we sit around and we tell
stories and we listen to stories and we hear the same ones over
and over again, but they get better
every single time you hear them. -Yeah, they
keep embellishing, yeah. -Yeah, yeah. My daddy
tells this story about, like, hitting the fence on
his horse and flying 5 feet. The next time
he tells the story, he's like, "And then I flew
through the air 10 feet." And then,
"I flew through 15 feet." But, yeah,
I wanted to tell stories. I wanted to make
people feel something. -I think we have a photo
of your first CD that -- Is this your first?
You made this, and -- -Oh, my gosh. Lord help us.
-Yeah. -Yep.
-And you would sell these? What would you do with
these CDs? -Well, nobody was buying them. -You were trying to sell them.
-I'll tell you that. I was trying to sell them,
though. I was handing them out
like candy. It was like Halloween. I was, like, anybody giving
them to neighbors, friends, family,
anybody who would take it. My granny actually printed
these little pictures out
and put them on all of the CDs. -Come on, granny. Come on.
-Yeah, it was a family affair. -Do you remember any
of these songs? Do you remember
"Country Girls Rule"? -I do, I do. You want me to do
a little bit of it? -Could you?
[ Cheers and applause ] -It's not good. Y'all are clapping right now,
but you might not be clapping here in a minute. It's funny. Okay, so one of the verses,
I think it says... ♪ We wear our
jeans just a little too tight ♪ ♪ Tank tops, spaghetti straps,
looking just right ♪ ♪ Long hair,
take a dare anywhere ♪ ♪ Country girls rule ♪ ♪ Yeah, country girls rule ♪ -Oh my God! Come on.
[ Cheers and applause ] That's actually great. -But my favorite line
that I didn't sing for y'all, because I don't want
nobody stealing this line, is... ♪ Pea-picking,
finger-licking, butt-kicking ♪ -Oh, wow! That's some good lyrics
right there. -That's some
good stuff right there, right? -I found this online,
and this has been out, but I just wanted to show
everyone that you were a
Hannah Montana impersonator. And --
[ Cheers and applause ] I love this.
-He's not lying. -But this is you
as Hannah Montana. -That's me as Hannah Montana.
-And that's fantastic. -That's it. Check it out, y'all.
I mean, the wig. -But how fun was this? Did you change, like, from Lainey Wilson
to Hannah Montana or... -Well, a lot of the times, I would open the show
as Lainey Wilson and then I would run
behind a tree or whatever it was and
put on my Hannah Montana get-up. So, I did this from
8th grade to 12th grade. I did like three or four
birthday parties a weekend. -No way.
-Oh, yeah. -That's what I'm talking about.
-It's -- Yeah. -And then, full-circle moment, you get to meet Miley Cyrus
and perform -- -I did, I did, I did. -Perform for her
at the Disney Legends thing. What was it like --
Have you met Miley or -- -No, that was
the very first time, very first time
I had ever met her. And it was just really cool
to be able to shake her hand and tell her how
much Hannah Montana meant to me. I mean, truly, like, I think
for a lot of little girls, but especially for what
I wanted to do in the future, like, I mean,
it put me through the wringer. Like, I've been touring
since eighth grade, so it really, like -- it gave
me an opportunity to see if this is actually something
that I wanted to do. And I owe it to Hannah Montana. -Aww! That's a --
Thank you, Miley. Let's talk about
your new album, "Whirlwind." Did you always know
what the title would be? -No, but I knew what
my life has been lately. -Yeah, Yeah, exactly, right?
So it's perfect. It is a whirlwind.
-It has been -- It's been crazy. But I will tell you,
writing this record and recording this record, I got to record this record
with my band, and I'm very, very proud of it. But making this music,
it, like, brought me home during a time of my life that just felt
like it was constantly changing. And even right now still, I feel like my life
is a whirlwind, but I'm figuring out how to hold
on a little bit more, you know? -Yeah, you are.
-Yeah. -And you're performing for us
tonight, which I appreciate. Thank you so much
for doing that. Do you --
[ Cheers and applause ] Before you perform,
do you have a pre-show ritual? -Well, you know I do.
-Yeah, I do know. -Do you want to do one
with me? -I do.
But what is it called again? It's called the -- -Well, okay, so,
most of the time, I do this thing called
holler and swaller. But we're not doing that.
-Okay. Alright. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you.
We're not doing -- -Instead, we're gonna do this
new thing that we started doing called the squat and shot. Okay? So, we're gonna,
like, drop it low, and then you're gonna
take a shot. -Oh, really?
-Yeah. And we're going to see
if you can get back up. -Why do you squat? -I mean, just to see
if -- you know, if your pants are good. And I'll tell you what --
these Wranglers -- which, by the way,
I got a Wrangler collection. -Dude, I mean, come on.
This is the Wrangler? It looks gorgeous. -It's going to be a part of
my collection. -Isn't that crazy?
-Yes. I have a lot to talk about. But, anyway, we're gonna do
the squat and shot. -But, I mean, you think about
that young girl that was doing that --
those in the Walmart aisles, and now you have, actually, your
own aisle of Wrangler stuff. I mean, you actually --
You're living the dream, bud. -We're living it.
-Alright, here's a shot. What have we got?
Some whiskey here? -Alright.
-Alright. Now, what do I do? -Come up here.
-Okay. -Come on. -I'm gonna do
a squat and shot. Let's do this.
-Alright. Are you ready? -I don't know. -Are you gonna need, like,
a Life Alert or something to get back up? -All I know is that
I can't turn around once we play this game. These are real tight. This is
from two seasons ago, yeah. -We're gonna -- Yeah,
get it going, get it going. ♪♪
Unh, unh, unh, unh. Ready? You're gonna squat.
-Yep. -Go.
One, two, three, squat! Now get up. Shot! [ Cheers and applause ] -Yes! Come on, now!
Who's better than you? Lainey Wilson, everybody!
"Whirlwind" is out now. Lainey's performing
when we come back. Stick around, everybody.