Lainey Wilson Was An “Old Soul” As A Child, The First Song She Ever Wrote Was About “Tequila & Cigarettes”

She was wise beyond her years… or watching or listening to something she wasn’t supposed to.

Either way, it worked out in the end…

Lainey Wilson grew up in rural northwest Louisiana, the daughter of a farmer, and she worked her behind off over the last ten-plus years to become one of the premiere mainstream country artists who has become a household name.

Last night, Laney stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which has less than a year left as it has been canceled and will end in May of 2026, where she talked about her childhood and growing up in a small town loving country music.

It’s honestly a bit strange that Lainey would want to appear on the clearly struggling Late Night show considering it’s on its way out and they’re a pretty outdated format, let’s just be honest, and I noticed that the comments were turned off on all the social media posts about Lainey being on the show, a contrast to all the other guest clips where they comments section is always open:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Late Show (@colbertlateshow)

Anyways, Lainey did share a bit about her childhood, saying she only knew about country music as a little girl and fell in love with storytelling at a very young age:

“Where I come from, country music is just life. We eat, sleep and breathe it. and it was about the storytelling… when you’re from a town of 157, you live your life on the edge of your seat waiting for the next story.

That’s how it was with my folks. I wrote my first song at 9-years-old, I felt like the voices on the radio were speaking to me.”

But the funniest part was when Lainey admitted she was writing about “tequila and cigarettes” before she even turned double digits:

“I was writing about tequila and cigarettes and everything else. I was. Old soul.”

Indeed…

Lainey also recalled making her first $20 for singing a the grand opening of a convenience store in her hometown of Baskin:

“I made my first $20 at 9-years old singing a capella down at the grand opening of a convenience store in Baskin. My daddy still has got the $20.”

In addition, she shared her story of moving to Nashville with big dreams, determined to make it happen for herself, which meant living in a camper trailer for her first three years in town. She’s talked about that a lot before, but her grandfather had helped out a friend in the 70’s with moving to Music City, and eventually, he wanted to return the favor and allowed Lainey to park the camper on his studio lot for several years while she started her career.

Lainey explained that she’s always had a sense of faith that it would work out and that she would make a career out of being a country artist one day, and her parents, who are very practical people, knew it too. They helped her a lot as well over the years, but there’s no doubt Lainey put in the hard work to get where she is now, and it’s been an incredible journey to witness.

You can watch the full interview below, and she’s of course as charming as always:

Here’s her performance of “Somewhere Over Laredo,” which was included on the deluxe edition of her Whirlwind album:

The post Lainey Wilson Was An “Old Soul” As A Child, The First Song She Ever Wrote Was About “Tequila & Cigarettes” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.