Lainey Wilson zoomed in for a talk with Scotty Kay about her upcoming album, 'Whirlwind,' working with Post Malone, and more.
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00:00I want to dive into the the album, but every song on there is so different in so many of the
00:05production of it, the influences that are behind it, even the vocals, every one of those is so
00:10different and so interesting. And so I do want to dive into a couple of like, can we just start with
00:15the good horses with Miranda? Because that's the one that stuck out to me with the production.
00:21I think at first, it doesn't feature Miranda on like a verse, but these incredible harmonies
00:27that feel so gentle, I think is the word. Yeah. But then I want I want to ask you about the
00:33production, because there's like this big room reverb at the end. You have this text painting
00:38where you're kind of in the distance and then you come back and it just feels so intentional.
00:43Can you talk to me about making that song? This was one that we knew what the bones were
00:48going to be, but we knew that it had like a lot of room to do to kind of create a world around it.
00:54And my band played on this record. And so I feel like they all kind of knew really what was missing
01:00from my live show without talking about it. And I kept telling them, I'm like, I want some like
01:08thump. So whatever that means, I want to like feel it like in my chest. And I remember all of us
01:13just kind of like sitting around. We're in the middle of Jay Joyce's studio, which is an old,
01:17renovated church. And so it's got lots of like beautiful sounds that just kind of like go
01:23through the entire sanctuary. And when we were kind of like headed towards the back of the song,
01:32I remember Jay being like, OK, we're going to act like we're fading out here and then we're
01:36going to like kind of come back with it. And his reasoning for that is because good horses come
01:41home. And anyway, all of those things were very, very intentional. And it's one of my favorite
01:47songs. Yeah, that's the part that caught my attention the most was that ending of how it's
01:52so congruent with the words. But also I like the the imagery of good horses because it could be a
01:58man. It could be a dream. It could be it could be literally a good horse. It could be you to your
02:04hometown, which I think it's so it's so special, especially because I know your parents feel about
02:11Miranda. Are they best friends now? My parents and I wish my daddy, look, he has this picture of him
02:19and Miranda on his phone and he'll show all his buddies. He's like, check this out. I'm like, oh,
02:24Lord, that's so that's so fun. I love that they that you have created those relationships, too.
02:30Now, there's some of these other songs to your different sounds in there. You're the four by
02:35four by you, which kind of has this 90s like R&B vibe for me with the synths. Yeah. And because
02:42your influences, they're all over the place in every single song. They're a little bit differently.
02:47So can you run me down the thought process of why you wanted each one to sound so different?
02:53Because, like I said, all of my band members played on this record and they're all just
03:00incredible musicians and they they come from different types of music. Like one comes from
03:05funk, one comes from jazz, blues, one comes from rock, one comes from punk, one comes from like
03:12Americana. There's a little bit of everything. And like I trust my people and and when they
03:20find like certain guitar tones and things that they felt like were right for the song, I trusted that.
03:26And so you can hear a lot of them kind of sprinkled all in it. And that's really what happened.
03:30Yeah, it's truly the essence of country music, right? All those influences coming together
03:34to create something so special. So what before we get off the album here, I like to go through
03:41the songs on the album and see if you can think about them in maybe a way you haven't thought
03:44about the songs before. And since obviously we haven't heard all of them, you just tell me which
03:49song on the album would relate to each of these scenarios. So which song on the album would you say
03:55you put on for a really good cry?
03:59Whiskey Color Crayon.
04:01Okay. What about a Let's Get Drunk song?
04:06Oh, my gosh. Bar and Baton Rouge.
04:08Okay. What's the best song to sing in the shower?
04:12Four by Four by You.
04:15The power ballad kind of situation. Yeah, I like that.
04:20Best song if you're going to be romantic with your partner to put on?
04:23Oh, my goodness. Hmm. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
04:28Like, it's also weird to listen to my own songs during that.
04:31That too. That too. Um, I guess like if you're wanting to be like romantic in a cute way,
04:38Counting Chickens.
04:39Okay. And the best song for you, you got a lot of road trip songs. What would be the best song for a
04:47road trip?
04:48Probably Good Horses.
04:50Okay. Like that. So now, now, as we hear them, I'm gonna listen back and go, okay, this,
04:54this is the one. This is, this is the cute romantic one. My wife's gonna be like,
05:00Laney told me to. It's gonna be good. So every, I mean, everything's happened so fast for you,
05:04which is just so special and so awesome. What do you feel like you need help with?
05:09I just need help in general.
05:12Wear my shoes.
05:13Yeah, honestly. I feel like that, like, I've been in town for 13 years. I've been in Nashville
05:19for 13 years trying to do this. And I started working on this way before then. I wrote my
05:23first song at nine years old, and I've, like, dedicated my life to this. But I will tell you,
05:30I think those first 10 years of me being here prepared me for everything that's happening,
05:37with nothing happening at all. I think it just kind of, like, it built character. And
05:42it just kind of, like, got me ready. And I wrote tons of songs and met tons of people and
05:49really just kind of got to know this town. And I guess the thing that I need help with is,
05:54I need somebody to help me pack my bag.
05:57Are you, how far ahead of, before your trip are you trying to pack?
06:02Oh, shoot. I'm leaving in the morning and I ain't packed yet. And I'm gonna be gone for
06:05several weeks.
06:06Okay. Are you a throw everything in the bag? But I mean, you got, you got your,
06:10you got your show outfits, right?
06:12Well, for the most part, I, when I get home from the Grand Ole Opry tonight,
06:17I'm definitely gonna have to try on a few things and make sure we're good to go. But
06:22yeah, I feel like I'm not super organized. But I know, like, I know where everything is.
06:28Right.
06:29And even if I did cram it in there and something was kind of hanging out of the zipper,
06:32we'd still get there just fine.
06:34Yeah, just squish it back in. You're doing the Opry tonight with Post Malone, right?
06:37I am doing the Opry.
06:38That's super, super fun with that, that album coming out on Friday.
06:42What's it been like to work with Post? What did you, did you, were you guys ever in the
06:45studio together? Did you write together? Did you send your parts? How did that song come?
06:49Yeah. So the first time I really got to spend time with him was when we wrote and we wrote
06:53through the night, we wrote probably 12, 13 hours. And that's the first night, right. I had
06:58ever done. I mean, I'm normally like 1030 in the morning to about three and then, you know,
07:03then might write again in the evening, but it was crazy. It was, I was like, this is some
07:06rockstar stuff. They were playing me some of the stuff that they had been writing. And one song
07:10that him and Luke Combs had written together really just kind of stuck out to me and it was
07:14on in the background. I kind of started singing some harmony and he was like, do you want to get
07:18on this song? And I'm like, all right, sure. And so that's how that happened. But we ended up
07:23writing several other songs that night. And one of the songs on the record that him and
07:28Dolly Parton do together is one that we wrote that night.
07:30Oh, that's cool. Cause I'm excited to hear that song. Cause that's, that's one of the,
07:34what we haven't gotten any teasers of that song from him. And we got so many others and they're
07:40I haven't heard it either.
07:41Oh, wow. So you haven't heard the final version?
07:44No, I have not heard it since we wrote it.
07:47You wrote the song, haven't heard the final version. It's not like you're going to go,
07:51oh, Post Malone and Dolly, I'm not going to like the final version. So
07:55Well, maybe when I see him tonight at the Opry, I'll be like, hey, play me a little snippet.
08:00That would be awesome. Well, I'm excited to see that one. What about, you've been popping up
08:04everywhere, obviously. What about the Miley thing? How did that come about? Like, obviously you have
08:09your whole story of performing in Santa Montana, but for this specific, did she call you and be
08:14like, hey, you want to bring your wig and we're going to do this? Or how did that happen that
08:18they involved you?
08:20Um, one of the producers of the show, her name is Tabitha. I worked with her
08:34for the ACMs a couple of years ago, dancing involved. And so she's, she's a dancer,
08:39but she also like produces shows and stuff and was reminded that I used to impersonate Hannah.
08:43And she called and just asked if it was something I'd be interested in. I was like,
08:48duh, sign me up. I finally got to meet her.
08:53That's so fun. And so that was the first time you met?
08:55First time we met.
08:56What's the first thing you said to her?
09:00I think I just said congratulations because she came up on stage and we met and we went
09:03backstage and, and talked a little bit, but she just seems
09:07What a really cool. I'm excited for this album. The last thing I want to do is a game we do on
09:10the show every day. So I want to involve you and it's called good news, bad news. And so I'll give
09:14you the good news of a weird news story. You're just going to try and guess what the bad news of
09:19that story is. Okay. All right. All right. So the good news of the story is that there is a couple
09:25that recently moved in together. And so a man and a woman and a woman decide, Hey, I really want to
09:30get a dog man was like, that's cool. Go ahead. Adopt the dog. She did adopted a beautiful dog.
09:35What do you think the bad news of that story is?
09:38The bad news is the day they got home with the dog. He got ran over.
09:46Damn,
09:49I'm just trying to go there. Or like maybe he grabbed in the house. I don't know.
09:55Very plausible. I don't know the bowel movement situation. However, the bad news
10:00of the story is that she adopted a dog with the same name as her ex-husband.
10:06Oh, no, no. He saw Steve and brought Steve home with this game. I don't need to go so hard.
10:16I mean, that was pretty dark. I'm not going to lie. That was pretty dark. I can go there. I just
10:20can't imagine that Steve is going to be allowed to sleep in the bed with that, right? No, Steve
10:26gonna be in the dog house. I love that. Well, Lainey, congratulations. And so excited to hear
10:31the rest of whirlwind. And I know you're taking over and doing some cool stuff across our odyssey
10:35stations for your album. So congratulations on anything and everything. Take a deep breath and
10:40enjoy the ride. Thank you, brother. Good to talk to you. Bye.