Lainey Wilson Weighs In On The Abundance Of Fake, AI-Generated Stories Surrounding Her: “Freaks Me Out… It’s Eerie”

Fresh off the release of the deluxe version of her ACM Album of the Year-winning Whirlwind, Lainey Wilson appeared on Today’s Country Radio with Apple Music’s Kelleigh Bannen. Discussing everything from her struggles breaking into the industry as a woman and her unique sense of style to her new deluxe album and the letter she wrote to Tim McGraw when she was 18 years old, the “4X4XU” singer covered a lot of ground in the 20-minute interview.

During the final minutes of the interview, Bannen brought up what is quite possibly one of the most annoying trends plaguing the industry today: the rise of fake, AI-generated stories.

This is a topic that has been covered here at Whiskey Riff multiple times recently, most notably debunking the fake Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire One Last Ride Tour that has been making its rounds on Facebook the past month.

The Dolly and Reba tour isn’t the only fake, AI-generated post that has gained traction and fooled people, however. Back in June, a post depicting an AI-generated Willie Nelson crying, claiming the 92-year-old singer/songwriter received an 8-minute standing ovation at the 2025 Outlaw Music Festival in Phoenix, Arizona.

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The photo, which we also debunked due to its clear use of AI, received 194,000 likes on Instagram alone and, even more worryingly, 304,000 likes on Facebook, with many comments actually believing that the image was genuine. Needless to say, there’s growing concern among both artists and journalists due to the rise of these fake stories that are clearly tricking thousands upon thousands of people online.

For Wilson, she’s been at the forefront of plenty of different fake, AI-generated stories over the past year. Most notably, after her engagement to former Steelers quarterback, Duck Hodges, back in July, there was a massive increase in AI-generated photos of their wedding… that obviously hasn’t happened yet.

In the interview with Bannen, Wilson said how weird it is to see the uncanny images of herself and even noted how they ended up tricking some of her family members:

“It definitely freaks me out. ‘Cause I’m like, ‘Lord, if they’re doing this [what else are they doing]… People were really believing it. Folks [were] calling my parents, being like, ‘They already got married?'”

She’d also noted that an AI image out there of her holding a pregnancy test alongside Hodges. And after doing a quick Google search, there is, in fact, an image on Facebook with over 13,000 likes and hundreds of comments congratulating the two over the fake pregnancy.

Finally, she noted another wedding-related AI image that was making its rounds, claiming that they held their wedding at a hospital due to her father being sick:

“Another one was that my daddy was sick, back in the hospital, and I did my wedding in the hospital room. And they had him up in the bed playing a guitar, but they put Kevin Costner’s face on him. And they put his eyepatch [on] but they didn’t connect it, so it’s just a floating eyepatch. I showed daddy, and he was like, ‘I got more hair than that…’ It’s weird. It’s eerie.”

Once again, there was another clearly AI-generated photo of Wilson in a wedding gown standing beside her “father” in a hospital room. Though this one had plenty of comments calling it out as fake (thanks in part to the eyepatch being on both his left and right eye in various photos), the Facebook post still managed to garner over 5,800 likes and a plethora of comments congratulating them on the wedding.

It is eerie to say the least. What makes these fake posts surrounding Wilson in particular concerning is that the last two were made by the same account, a Facebook page named Lainey Aysa. Not only is the page posting seemingly non-stop fake/AI-generated photos and stories of the “Heart Like a Truck” singer, but they’re also linking to sites outside of Facebook promoting the sale of random t-shirts as well.

Needless to say, do not trust any stories published by these random pages/fan accounts on Facebook, and definitely do not buy anything using the links that they are promoting.

Watch here:

@thekelleighbannen 6 fingers should always be the dead giveaway!! @Lainey Wilson #laineywilson #applemusic ♬ Somewhere Over Laredo – Lainey Wilson

Lainey Wilson Tour Dates:

August 28—Calgary, AB—Scotiabank Saddledome*
August 29—Edmonton, AB—Rogers Place*
August 30—Saskatoon, SK—SaskTel Centre*
September 11—Baton Rouge, LA—Raising Cane’s River Center†
September 13—Bossier City, LA—Brookshire Grocery Arena†
September 18—Austin, TX—Moody Center‡
September 19—Fort Worth, TX—Dickies Arena‡
September 20—Houston, TX—The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion presented by Huntsman ‡
September 25—Toronto, ON—Budweiser Stage§
September 26—Clarkston, MI—Pine Knob Music Theatre§
September 27—Grand Rapids, MI—Van Andel Arena§
October 2—Nashville, TN—Bridgestone Arena||
October 3—Noblesville, IN—Ruoff Music Center§
October 4—Cleveland, OH—Blossom Music Center§
October 9—Columbia, MD—Merriweather Post Pavilion§
October 10—New York, NY—Madison Square Garden§
October 11—Mansfield, MA—Xfinity Center§
October 16—St. Louis, MO—Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre||
October 17—Rosemont, IL—Allstate Arena||
October 18—Saint Paul, MN—Xcel Energy Center||
October 24—Knoxville, TN—Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center#
October 25—Charlotte, NC—Spectrum Center#
November 7—Tampa, FL—Amalie Arena#
November 8—Orlando, FL—Kia Center#

~with special guest Zach Meadows
*with special guests ERNEST and Kaitlin Butts
†with special guests ERNEST and Maddox Batson
‡with special guests Muscadine Bloodline and Drake Milligan
§with special guests Muscadine Bloodline and Lauren Watkins
||with special guests Muscadine Bloodline and Maddox Batson
#with special guests ERNEST and Drake MilliganThe post Lainey Wilson Weighs In On The Abundance Of Fake, AI-Generated Stories Surrounding Her: “Freaks Me Out… It’s Eerie” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.