Lainey Wilson is giving fans a glimpse into her real-life relationship with boyfriend, and former NFL player, Devlin “Duck” Hodges in her new single, “Hang Tight Honey.”
LISTEN NOW: Lainey Wilson joins Audacy’s Rob + Holly for the Friday Night Takeover
Full of playful lyrics that show the balance and fun the pair have found in their years-long romance, Wilson says she’s proud to sing about the love she’s found and how it plays a positive role in living out her Country music dreams.
“He knew gettin’ into this, this is what I’ve been doin’ my whole life, this is what I’m gonna do and so he knew what he was gettin’ himself into,” Lainey laughed, telling Audacy’s Rob + Holly how the two have found balance between their hectic schedules. “He is a supportive cheerleader and he’s got his own things goin’ too and I support him and I cheer him on. He high-fives me in the door and on the way out.”
Chasing his own dreams of playing professional football from the time he was five, Duck has a in depth understanding of the work Lainey puts in, but is also able to be there as an escape from the chaos. “It’s awesome to have that kind of relationship to where he gets it,” she shared. “He played football for a while and he had to work his tail off to get to where he ended up and he went for that from the time he was five years old ’til he made it to the NFL. So in a different kinda way, he’s done what I’m doin’.”
She continued, “He knows just enough about the music industry, but not too much to where, I can completely turn it off and we can just be cooking’ supper and talkin’ about the most random things [while] watchin’ Family Feud… it’s good to have him to escape.”
“Hang Tight Honey” is a taste of Lainey’s next album, Whirlwind, arriving August 23. With her debut album, Bell Bottom Country, earning her endless awards, including a GRAMMY, it would be easy for Wilson to feel the pressure to “top it,” but she’s taking a humble Louisiana approach to the project and just focusing on what she knows best.
“When we were making Bell Bottom Country, I was not in the mindset of, 'this is going to win some awards,’ or ‘we gotta make sure we get a GRAMMY with this record’… I was just giving 190% whether I was writing a song or whether we were in the studio with Jay [Joyce] working on the music… and that’s kind of the approach that I’m taking for this new batch of stuff too. I feel like if I start trying to write music for the wrong reasons, I think that’s when we could really mess up.”
Part of writing authentic music for Lainey comes from living life and being in the moment, and after mentioning her dad is a big WWE fan, she isn’t against adding a WWE experience to that list of life experiences.
“We were always watching the rodeo channel or he also watched WWE wrestling a lot,” she said of what she remembers being on TV throughout her childhood. After being presented the idea of making a WWE appearance like fellow “Wait in the Truck” duet partner HARDY, Lainey playfully responded, “Y’all ain’t seen nothin’.”
“Out of all the cool things that I have done, my daddy would think that is the coolest,” she laughed. “Let’s throw that around.”
Hear more about Lainey’s possible WWE takeover, new album and and the story behind her single, “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” by checking out her entire interview with Audacy’s Rob + Holly on the Friday Night Takeover above.