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On a sunny Los Angeles day in late March, Lainey Wilson<\/a> is commanding the set of her People<\/em> cover shoot.\n<\/p>\n One minute she\u2019s dolled up, posing on a bar in her signature cowboy hat and bell-bottoms. The next she\u2019s dressed down in a trucker hat, her golden waves tucked into an oversize bomber jacket, as she heads out to catch a flight home to Nashville.\n<\/p>\n The switch from country superstar to incognito face in the crowd feels Hannah Montana<\/a>-coded \u2014 fitting for a singer who impersonated the Disney icon at parties<\/a> before finding fame herself.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I have the best of both worlds,\u201d Wilson tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story, lyrical reference intended. \u201cI get to be the songwriter and businesswoman, and then I get to take the hat off every now and then and be Lainey the sister, the friend, the daughter, the fianc\u00e9e.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Alex G. Harper<\/a><\/p>\n <\/span> Despite her success, Wilson, 33, feels she can still \u201cgo undercover pretty easily\u201d in her daily life. Until she speaks.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI could be at Walgreens or Walmart, and as soon as I\u2019m checking out at the counter, the cashier will kind of look at me weird,\u201d she says in her unmistakable Louisiana drawl. \u201cThere\u2019s no hiding the voice.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Since her 2019 breakout hit<\/a> \u201cThings a Man Oughta Know\u201d introduced the world to that voice, Wilson has become one of country\u2019s brightest stars, earning a Grammy, notching nine country radio No. 1s and landing a recurring role on the blockbuster Paramount series Yellowstone<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n \u201cEven 15 years in Nashville could not prepare me for the way my career exploded,\u201d says Wilson, who will headline the Stagecoach music festival<\/a> in Indio, Calif., the last weekend of April. \u201cI mean, this is all I could have ever wanted and more.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Now Wilson is giving fans a peek behind the scenes of her breakneck rise in the new Netflix documentary Lainey Wilson: Keepin\u2019 Country Cool<\/em>, streaming April 22. It covers both her professional and her personal triumphs \u2014 including her engagement to former NFL player Devlin \u201cDuck\u201d Hodges<\/a>, 30, who proposed in February 2025<\/a> \u2014 as well as her struggles with mental health.<\/p>\n Alex G. Harper<\/a><\/p>\n <\/span> Wilson was raised in Baskin, La. (population approximately 200), by her dad, Brian, a fifth-generation farmer, and mom, Michelle, a schoolteacher<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n After writing her first song at 9, she spent her teen years impersonating Hannah Montana, the fictional pop star played by Miley Cyrus.<\/a> \u201cI didn\u2019t have the Malibu mansion, but I did have a little portable sound system,\u201d she says.\n<\/p>\n Lainey Wilson\/Instagram<\/p>\n <\/span> At 19, Wilson moved to Nashville in a camper trailer, then spent nearly a decade grinding before landing her major-label deal in 2018.\n<\/p>\n As her career took off, Wilson struggled with anxiety and depression, and a relentless schedule pushed her to her breaking point.\n<\/p>\n ABC News<\/p>\n <\/span> Advice from Reba McEntire<\/a> helped: \u201c’When I feel like I can\u2019t do it anymore, I do it for somebody else,\u2019\u201d Wilson recalls McEntire telling her, adding, \u201cIt was like a light bulb went off.\u201d\n<\/p>\n She carried that message into her Whirlwind world tour (which wrapped on March 6) by bringing a young \u201ccowgirl of the night\u201d onstage during each show and telling them, \u201cYou are beautiful, you\u2019re smart, you\u2019re talented, you can do anything.\u201d\n<\/p>\n That sentiment helps keep Wilson grounded too.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not just<\/em> a singer, songwriter, musician \u2014 that\u2019s what I do,\u201d she says. \u201cTrophies and awards are things that come along with success, but it cannot define me as a person, because that\u2019s when I lose sight of who I am. I got to keep my head screwed on straight.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Alex G. Harper<\/a><\/p>\n <\/span> Through it all, Wilson is thankful to have fianc\u00e9 Hodges, whom she met through mutual friends in 2021, by her side.\n<\/p>\n In the two years before making their relationship public, Wilson realized that Hodges \u201cloves Lainey way more than Lainey Wilson<\/em>,\u201d she says. \u201cHe understands what it means to really work hard for something that you\u2019ve always dreamed about.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Chris Saucedo\/WireImage<\/p>\n <\/span> At home in Nashville the pair keep date nights low-key, \u201changing with our dogs, drinking an old-fashioned,\u201d she says. \u201cHe can cook the best steak in Nashville. He\u2019s just that place that I get to come home to and fill my cup back up.\u201d<\/p>\n
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