Cole Swindell is celebrating a CMT Video of the Year nomination for his duet, “Never Say Never” with Lainey Wilson. The creation of the video comes at the cost of a very frigid, eerie day at an abandoned prison, ultimately bringing the friends closer… so close that Lainey Wilson convinced Cole to wear bellbottoms.
LISTEN NOW: Cole Swindell checks in with Audacy’s Rob + Holly
The CMT nomination comes as an extra special surprise to an always-humble Cole, who says he had to brave a totally creepy abandoned prison and frigid temperatures to get the shots needed for the video.
“That video was definitely one fo the coldest videos I’ve ever shot,” he told Audacy’s Rob + Holly. "We were at Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary outside of Knoxville, TN… I think it was colder in the prison than it was outside because obviously, it’s not functioning.”
He continued, “It was a weird feeling. Pretty creepy. The stuff on the jail cells — like the walls — just the stuff people had written on there. One guy had like, the tally marks [of] how many days [he’d been there]. Stuff like that is just kind of creepy.”
According to Cole, he didn’t even experience the worst of it, he left that to his duet partner, Lainey.
“Lainey saw more of the prison than me because she shot her solo performance somewhere where I guess people do tours there and there was some hologram of some old prisoner there and I was like, ‘I’m glad I did not see that.’ I was creeped out enough!”
Perhaps it was all payback for Lainey, who released a video of Cole in skin-tight bell bellbottoms for all of the Country music industry to see during her performance at Country Radio Seminar’s 2022 New Faces of Country Music showcase.
“Those things never get leaked out and Lainey posted it! I was like, ‘Dang Lainey!’” Cole laughed, poking fun at Wilson.“It just shows how much I’d do anything for Lainey. That was funny getting to see the finished product. She sent it back to me and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to get crushed for this!’ But I was like, ‘I don’t care, I’m a Lainey Wilson fan.’” Aren’t we all??
Hear more about Cole’s experience shooting the video, his new album and more on the Friday Night Takeover with Rob and Holly, airing April 8. Tune in via your favorite Audacy Country stations at 7PM. Plus, be sure to get your votes in for Rob + Holly's daily Top 7 @ 7 countdown!
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