Before she was dominating the country music scene—and yes, even before she made her acting debut on Season 5 of Yellowstone—Wilson shared that she used to work as a Miley Cyrus impersonator.
Ahead of the CMT Music Awards on Sunday, April 7, where she took home the award for Female Video of the Year, the “Watermelon Moonshine” crooner admitted to E! News that her pre-fame job prepared her for Hollywood. That’s because she stepped into the Disney Channel alum’s shoes at Hannah Montana-themed parties.
“I love Miley Cyrus, I used to impersonate Hannah Montana when I was little,” she said, adding that it was a “middle school, high school job” that she held for “like five years.”
She elaborated on the gig, which seems like the perfect fit for anyone interested in showbiz, noting: “Every weekend I would do birthday parties, fairs, festivals, St. Jude, all of it.”
“I would open up as Lainey Wilson for ‘Hannah Montana’ a lot of the time,” the self-proclaimed Miley fan explained, adding that she was “killing it” often making “300 bucks a birthday party.”
“It was a good little gig to have,” she concluded.
While a Miley collaboration has yet to happen (though we’re crossing our fingers it’s in the cards), she has teamed up with some other big names in the industry, recently performing alongside Jelly Roll at the iHeart Music Awards. She also previously joined forces with Kelly Clarkson on a duet of her single “Country’s Cool Again.”
And her career’s only been taking off in the past few years. In addition to her CMT Award nominations, she was a first-time Grammy nominee, earning two nods for the 2024 awards show—one for Best Country Group/Duo Performance with Jelly Roll for his song “Save Me” that she’s featured on, and another for Best Country Album with Bell Bottom Country.
The 31-year-old also just snagged her third consecutive nomination for Song of the Year at the upcoming ACM Awards just this morning on April 9.