When Lainey Wilson found out she’d earned six nominations at the 2022 CMA Awards — making her the most-nominated artist in the mix — she immediately wanted to share the news with her parents.
That’s because her mom and dad have been supporting her career since the very beginning. Lainey caught up with ABC Audio the day the announcements rolled in and said she’d already talked to her mom but not her dad, who is in the hospital as he continues to recover from a serious illness.
“I’m waiting for him to wake up and he is going to be my next call,” Lainey said. For her dad, her country music stardom is personal.
“This dream was actually my daddy’s dream years ago, when he was a little boy. He used to roll a picnic table out to the side of the highway and pretend he was Glen Campbell, and play his guitar for the cars passing by,” she continued.
Fans have gotten to know Lainey’s close relationship with her dad over the past weeks, when she took some time off the road in order to support him during his medical emergency. Now, she hopes that her exciting CMA Awards news will give his healing an extra boost.
“I’m hoping that this will give him an extra step and he’ll be like, ‘Okay, I got to get well now,’” Lainey said of her awards recognition.
She goes on to say that her father has “definitely turned the corner,” though he’s still recovering after a scary month for the whole family.
“My daddy really is the backbone of my family,” she said, “and he keeps it together for all of us, and right now we’re having to keep it together for him. So it’s definitely been rough.”
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