Singer-songwriter Lainey Wilson has been part of the American country music scene for just about her entire adult life, dropping her debut studio album back in 2014, when she was just 22 years old. Since then, Wilson has had a stunning transformation, while her star has only continued to rise. Things really took off around 2020, when Wilson’s breakout single “Things a Man Oughta Know” went RIAA Gold. The track also reached the top of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, with Wilson’s 2023 single “Watermelon Moonshine” later achieving the same feat. All that being said, one major contributing factor to Wilson’s increased notoriety was her role on the super popular neo-Western series “Yellowstone.”
It all began in 2019, when the show’s Season 2 opener, “A Thundering,” featured her 2018 song “Workin’ Overtime.” “Yellowstone” continued to include a number of Wilson’s songs as part of its soundtrack, including “Hold My Halo,” “Smell Like Smoke,” and “Watermelon Moonshine.” Not only that, but starting with Season 5A in 2022, the country singer herself actually had a recurring role as Abby, in her very first acting gig. Wilson certainly has some stories to tell about the whole experience, from how it all came about in the first place to what she stole from the show’s set, and how the whole thing sadly almost fell apart before it even began. With that in mind, let’s take a look back at Wilson’s time on “Yellowstone.”
The creator of ‘Yellowstone’ wrote the role of Abby specifically for Lainey Wilson
One thing country singer Lainey Wilson has in common with fellow “Yellowstone” star Isabel May — who plays Elsa Dutton, and is seriously stunning in real life, by the way — is that her role was written specifically for her by series co-creator Taylor Sheridan. In a 2024 appearance on “Today,” the country star detailed how she struck up a friendship with the prolific showrunner after he started licensing her songs for the “Yellowstone” soundtrack, which Wilson acknowledged really helped get her name out there. But once the fifth and final season rolled around, Sheridan decided to add Wilson to the cast outright.
“Well, Taylor Sheridan told me […] ‘I’ve got an idea,’ and I’m like, ‘This man is full of crazy ideas.’ He is. He’s crazy,” she recalled. “But he said, ‘I want to create a character specifically for you, and I want you to sing your music and kind of be yourself, but go by a musician named Abby.'” However, Wilson had zero acting experience at the time.
Understandably, the “Hold My Halo” hitmaker confessed to the Associated Press in 2022 that stepping in front of the camera was “one of the most scary things I’ve ever done.” Still, Wilson was glad she went through with it. “It’s important for me to push myself,” she reasoned, concluding, “I feel like if you’re not pushing yourself you ain’t growing.”
Lainey Wilson almost backed out of ‘Yellowstone’ due to her father’s ailing health
During her chat with the AP, Lainey Wilson confirmed that she immediately accepted Taylor Sheridan’s offer to play Abby on “Yellowstone,” despite how intimidated she was about acting for the very first time. However, the country musician later revealed that she very nearly backed out of the show due to some serious health struggles her father was facing during production. It was apparently so bad that the doctors told Wilson and her family to say their goodbyes.
“He spent two months in ICU in Houston, fighting for his life. […] So, I was dealing with that,” Wilson shared on the “Yellowstone”-themed podcast “Dutton Rules” in 2023. “Professionally, I felt like, ‘Man, I’m in the best spot that I have ever been in.’ […] I felt like I was on top of the world when it came to opportunities,” she continued, adding, “But, personally, man, me and my family […] we were really, really going through it. […] I was like, ‘I’m not going to film. I can’t do it.”
Interestingly enough, it was actually the singer-songwriter’s ailing father who ultimately convinced her to go for it. “He said, ‘I don’t care if it was my funeral. […] If you got a job that needs to be done, you better go do it, and not come back until it’s done,'” she divulged. Defying the odds, Wilson’s father ultimately recovered, though complications from an infection cost him his left eye.
Lainey Wilson’s rules for kissing ‘Yellowstone’ co-star Ian Bohen
Like many of her “Yellowstone” co-stars, Lainey Wilson had both a fictional and a real-life significant other during her time on the hit show. In real life, Wilson is in a relationship with former professional football player Delvin “Duck” Hodges. The happy couple initially got together in 2021, and announced their engagement in early 2025. In the fictional world of “Yellowstone,” though, Wilson’s Abby sparked up a romance with the character of Ryan, a ranch hand played by “Teen Wolf” alum Ian Bohen. During her appearance on the “Dutton Rules” podcast, Wilson revealed some of the boundaries she set before sharing her first onscreen kiss with him.
As the country star explained, as the newcomer, Wilson took the lead, noting, “I was like, ‘Don’t do this, don’t do this, and don’t do this.’ And he was like, ‘Whatever makes you feel comfortable.’ And that’s what I love about him. […] He kinda let me just do my thing.” Still, while Bohen did everything in his power to keep things copacetic, the “Dirty Looks” singer professed that having to act out a convincing, passionate kiss in front of a cast and crew made up of hundreds of people was a strange experience regardless. As for the ground rules she mentioned, Wilson shared, “I was like, ‘Do not put your tongue in my mouth.'”
The unusual item Lainey Wilson stole from the ‘Yellowstone’ set
It’s not terribly uncommon for actors to sneakily take home a token from a film or TV set they worked on, especially when the production in question comes to a close. Whether it’s Nolan Gould stealing a bowl of fake fruit from the set of “Modern Family” or Jennifer Aniston snagging a dress from the set of “Friends,” actors regularly abscond with a souvenir or two because it has some kind of sentimental value, or simply because they think it looks cool. During a 2023 interview with Taste of Country, Lainey Wilson admitted that she “stole” something from the set of “Yellowstone,” though she was far more utilitarian in both her approach and her reasoning.
As the country star pointed out, “It’s not technically me ‘stealing.’ But there was one day where I showed up on set and I was like, ‘I don’t have deodorant on.’ I went into the bunkhouse, and I literally think, props that have probably been sitting there since Season 1. I used somebody’s razor, and I used somebody’s deodorant. And I’ve been waiting to tell somebody. […] I feel better, I feel like a weight has been lifted.” Wilson was asked to elaborate on this during her appearance on “Dutton Rules” that same year. There, the singer-songwriter admitted that she was amazed the razor hadn’t rotted away after sitting there for what was likely a couple of years.
Lainey Wilson’s surprise return at the end of ‘Yellowstone’
In total, Lainey Wilson appeared in five episodes of “Yellowstone,” all of which came in the show’s fifth and final season, which was split into two parts that aired in 2022 and 2024 respectively. Her first four appearances came in Season 5A and, for a while, it was unclear if the “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” hitmaker would be back for the final batch of episodes. Indeed, Wilson’s “Yellowstone” character was absent for almost all of Season 5B. However, just when fans had lost hope of ever seeing her on the show again, the country star returned for one last appearance as Abby in the series finale.
In early 2025, shortly after the episode aired, Wilson discussed keeping her big return a secret during a chat with CMT. “[It was hard] because for two years, everybody was like, ‘Are you coming back? Are you gonna be a part of, like, the end of it?’ And I just couldn’t wait to share it with everybody. So, it was just a great way to end the whole season,” she said, adding, “‘Yellowstone’ has been good to me.” At the time of writing, Wilson has yet to announce her next acting gig. That said, she clearly sees a future for herself on the small screen, telling Taste of Country in 2024, “I’d like to be in a sitcom, but I’d also like to do some voice acting. If you need a redneck cartoon, I got you, brother.”