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Backstage Country

Lainey Wilson: ‘I Want To Write A Christmas Record’

Lainey Wilson will be one of the performers on tonight’s (12/14) CMA Country Christmas, which will air at 8 PM on ABC and the next day on Hulu and Disney+….

Lainey Wilson in a black hat giving the peace sign on a red carpet
Monica Schipper/Getty Images

Lainey Wilson will be one of the performers on tonight's (12/14) CMA Country Christmas, which will air at 8 PM on ABC and the next day on Hulu and Disney+.

Lainey told us recently that she loves Christmas music and is planning on doing a lot more of it in the near future. She told us, "The truth is I haven't had enough time this year to create a Christmas record, but when things start slowing down a little bit, I want to write a record for Christmas. I might cover a few, but I want to write a Christmas record."

Wilson did record a Christmas song in 2021 called "Christmas Cookies." She said of doing that song, best known as a song George Strait recorded for one of his many Christmas albums, "The reason I chose 'Christmas Cookies' is because most of the verses are talking and a lot of people like to hear me talk more than they like to hear me sing. It makes them raise their eyebrows. I thought it was a good opportunity for me to do that; I thought, 'Why not? Let's give the people what they want.'"

She added, "I love George Strait. I love his version of it, but yeah, there's something so cool about speaking in a song."

We talked with Lainey about her first performance on the CMA country music show, which has become a Nashville tradition. She said, "Yeah, so I got to do 'Go Tell It On The Mountian' with Zach Williams; I'm a big fan of Zach Wiliams, I just like the grit in his voice. We met the day we recorded the song, and we hit it off immediately. He's just a good dude."

Wilson is no stranger to the classic song. She said, "I grew up singing that song. I remember singing 'Go Tell It On The Mountain' at a church special at Baskin Baptist church. I think it was the same night that I got the words wrong to 'Silent Night' and ran off the stage crying."

She laughed, "So, I was trying to redeem myself with this one, you know?"

CMA Country Christmas 2023 will also feature performances by Jordan Davis, Amy Grant, Lady A, Ashley McBryde, Jon Pardi, Lindsey Stirling, The War And Treaty, Zach Williams, and Trisha Yearwood.

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.