Lainey Wilson is one of the hottest acts in country music, but even she encounters haters from time to time. Luckily, she’s developed the perfect approach to blocking out the noise.
In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Wilson, 32, spoke candidly about dealing with naysayers. “I’ve definitely become thicker-skinned, which I’m proud of, because for a minute, I did let it get to me,” the “Hang Tight Honey” singer told Us at a New York City event celebrating her new Wrangler collection. “I’m human and I’m a songwriter. I think words are powerful — that’s why I started writing songs to begin with.”
“You’ll read something negative and it kind of pings your heart for a minute,” Wilson continued. “You have to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and keep on going.”
With 2.7 million Instagram followers, Wilson admits she’s “learned [her] lesson” about reading the comments: “You’ll look at a hundred positive [ones] and then you see that one negative, and that’s the one that you’re gonna hold onto.”
The Grammy winner, who’s clapped back at haters online and recently revealed she was spit on during a performance, is “trying to flip the script” when faced with adversity.
“Instead of coming from a place of like, ‘Man, I got a lot of people to prove wrong,’ instead [it’s], ‘Man, I got a lot of people to prove right,”’ Wilson shared. “There’s a lot of people who love me, believe in me and think that I can do this — that’s the foot that I try to lead with.”
That foot is leading her right to the stage for the Country’s Cool Again tour, and despite getting nervous every time she hits the stage, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“After I get that first song under my belt, that’s probably where I feel the most at home,” Wilson, who released her fifth studio album, Whirlwind, in August, told Us. “Once I get up there and settle into it, I feel like, yeah, this is my purpose. It makes me feel alive.”
She’s also thrilled to launch the new Wrangler x Lainey Wilson collection, inspired by her Western roots. “Every part of it, even the chapped jeans, goes back to when me and my sister were PRCA Rodeo Flag girls,” the Yellowstone actress told Us. “It’s a little ode to a lot of different things that make me, me.”
As for her personal style, “I’m all about what makes you feel good. I don’t really look at what everybody else is doing — I do my own thing.”
For more of Wilson’s interview, pick up this week’s issue of Us Weekly.