At 18 years old, Lainey Wilson wrote a letter to her fellow Louisiana native, Tim McGraw, in a desperate effort to make her dreams of being a singer/songwriter come true. Unfortunately, the letter went unanswered…until now.
Even though she never received the advice she was seeking at the time, Wilson still managed to break her way into the music industry and over the weekend things came full circle when she finally got to meet McGraw for the first time and get that long-overdue response.
That simple but powerful letter now hangs in Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame. When she wrote it, Wilson was still just a dreamer living in her hometown. She saw how McGraw, someone who lived just a 30-minute drive down the road, was able to make it in the business so she thought what better person to get advice from than him?
Fans got to hear Wilson read the letter out loud in a clip of her Netflix documentary, Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool.
It reads:
Dear Mr. Tim McGraw,
My name is Lainey Wilson from Franklin Parish, Baskin, Louisiana. I am 18 years old and have just entered my first semester at Louisiana Delta Community College of Monroe to pursue a nursing degree.
I have been writing songs since I was 9 years old. When you listen to my CD, I want you to know that this is a sample of what I write. I have many others and they are just as good.
Please consider meeting with me and my family. Singing, writing and performing are the most important things in my life. All I need is the opportunity and I can do the rest.
Sincerely, Lainey Wilson
Up until last week, the “Somewhere Over Laredo” singer still hadn’t gotten the chance to meet Tim McGraw and personally tell him about that very special hand-written note from many years ago. The two finally came face-to-face on Saturday night, June 6, while sound checking for their surprise duet that would take place later that night at Nissan Stadium for CMA Fest.
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While backstage preparing for the epic on-stage moment, McGraw went over to Wilson holding a white envelope in his hand and admitted that he was embarrassed when he first learned he had missed the letter from her.
Wilson brushed it off saying she probably gave it to a family member of his who never ended up passing it on. Tim McGraw wanted to make right by not only writing her a letter back but also penning a song inspired by the entire experience.
“I wrote you a letter back and I wrote it as though I had gotten a letter. So I wrote it like, had I gotten it, this is what I would have said,” he shared before adding, “Tom Douglas also wrote a song about the letter. So I’ll send that to you to hear it.”
“You are lying,” Wilson responded as a wave of shock washed over her face. She admitted his words were going to make her cry.
The two shared a hug and McGraw emphasized how proud he is of his fellow Baskin native.
“Mama and daddy are not going to believe this,” the female songstress continued. “I did text them earlier and I was like, ‘you won’t believe it. You won’t believe what finally happened after all these years.’”
While the response took years to arrive, the timing couldn’t have been more fitting. That hopeful young girl who once asked Tim McGraw for a chance is now standing beside him as one of country music’s biggest stars.