Sorry boys, but Lainey (and her dumptruck) are officially off the market.
There have been rumors flying for a while that Lainey Wilson and former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodges were an item.
And those rumors really ramped up during a recent concert in Pittsburgh when Lainey and her entire band were wearing Duck Hodges jerseys onstage.
Then after the show, Hodges tagged Lainey in a retweet asking her to “holla” at him:
To which Lainey obliged:
Well now the cat’s out of the bag, as the two showed up to the ACM Awards red carpet hand in hand, confirming the rumors that Hodges is not just a big Lainey Wilson fan, but is also her boyfriend.
Hodges has been hyping Lainey up on Twitter for na few months not – but people weren’t sure whether he was just a big fan (like most guys are) or whether there was something more there:
The former quarterback was a four-year starter at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama before being signed as an undrafted free agent by the Steelers in 2019. He was named the starter during the 2019 season when Mason Rudolph went down with an injury, going 3-3 as a starting quarterback before being waived by the Steelers and signed to the practice squad prior to the 2020 season.
Hodges then played one season for the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League before retiring from college football.
After the show, Lainey posted some shots from the ACM Awards on her Instagram, and Hodges commented on the post:
“Now can I take you hunting?”
He may be retired from football but it looks like Hodges has still some game left in him.
And as for going hunting with her new boyfriend? Well it looks like Lainey already got her a Duck. (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist).
Lainey Wilson Gives Incredible Speech At ACM Awards
Lainey Wilson had a helluva night at the ACM Awards yesterday.
She was a big winner, and took home the trophy for Female Artist of the Year, as well as Album of the Year for her 2022 project Bell Bottom Country, in addition to winning awards for Visual Media of the Year and Music Event of the Year for her collaboration “wait in the truck” with HARDY.
And after co-host Dolly Parton presented her with her Female Artist of the Year trophy, Lainey gave a very touching and inspiring speech about how much the award means to her.
She thanked Jesus and her family for helping her get where she is today, as well as her team who helps keep the ball rolling and puts in so much work in behind the scenes so she can have the career she does in country music:
“I can’t believe I just met Dolly Parton, first of all, woo! This is crazy. First of all, I want to say thank you to my Father, thank you Jesus for this. This is absolutely insane.
Thank you to my family, they’re out here somewhere, my first believers. My label, Broken Bow, Red Light, Sony Music Publishing, WME, I have so many people on my team who fight for me every single day.
And the ladies in this category, I look up to y’all so much and I’m up here because of y’all. Because of people like Dolly Parton, paving the way.”
And being the classy lady that she is, Lainey acknowledged her fellow nominees in the category, Kelsea Ballerini, Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce, saying that she knows from personal experience just how much each and every one of them have sacrificed over the years.
Lainey certainly has done so herself, living in a camper in a friends backyard for three years in Nashville while getting her start in the industry.
But my favorite part of her speech came when she told little girls watching everywhere that the trophy didn’t really represent a good album, but an incredible amount of “hard work.”
Lastly, she gave some perfect advice, saying very honestly and poignantly that “if you’re gonna be a dreamer, you better be a do-er”:
“Add I’ll tell you what, everybody in this category didn’t just wind there up here by happenstance. They have worked their fingers to the bone, they have put the blood, sweat tears and years and years into this.
Made so many sacrifices, missing a lot of weddings, a lot of funerals, not that I wanna go to all of them anyway, but I’m just sayin’.
Oh my goodness, y’all. For the little girls watching this, this right here, it stands for hard work. If you’re gonna be a dreamer, you better be a doer.”
If there’s anyone qualified to get up there and say that, it’s Lainey.
I mean, how can you not just love her? She deserves all of this and so much more…
She also echoed that sentiment in a post on Instagram last night, saying she hopes her story can inspire anyone else out there with a dream to chase it and “work your dang butt off for it”:
I’ve been a fan of her for a long time, so it’s awesome to see Lainey at the forefront of mainstream country music and having everyone see every bit of the superstar she’s always been.
Lainey also performed with Jelly Roll on his single “Save Me,” and damn near set the stage on fire with a solo performance of her new single at country radio, “Grease”:
Lainey Wilson Taking The Dolly Parton Approach To Viral Butt: “She Flaunts It”
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again…
If ya got it, flaunt it.
And in this case, I’m talking about the one and only Miss Lainey Wilson, whose mega viral butt has been all over the internet the last couple months.
It first started with the video below, which features an absolutely perfect angle of her butt looking fantastic in a pair of leopard print bell bottoms:
And it’s spread like wildfire from there, with guys fawning over her and girls wishing they were so blessed in that area.
She’s taken it all in stride, poking fun at herself throughout tidal wave of attention, saying more than once that if it will ultimately point people to her music, she doesn’t care one bit.
In a recent interview with radio station KMLE, she hilariously told them that she doesn’t exactly know why people are just figuring out she has a great butt (my words, not hers), hilariously adding that it’s been back there for quite a while:
“Well, so before everybody like all of a sudden found out about my fat butt, years ago, like five years ago, somebody had actually started a Twitter account, so they beat everybody to it.
It was called ‘AssLainey.’ I’m like, I don’t know how y’all just realized I got a fat butt, I mean I can’t see it, it’s been back there a while…
I’m not shocked, if you literally get on TikTok and type in Lainey Wilson, the thing that pops up is ‘Lainey Wilson dumpy truck.'”
Most interestingly, she added that, while it was a bit strange to be “sexualized” by thousands of people on the internet that she’s never met before, she’s taking the Dolly Parton approach to it all… meaning, she’s gonna be “proud of it” and flaunt it:
“And I’m like, at the end of the day, if that’s what brought people to my music and they stuck around because of it, then to hell with it.
It’s a little weird in the beginning, being sexualized, but also I’m like, I have worked my fingers to the bone, I’ve been in Nashville for 12 years, and I’m not gonna let it slow me down.
At the end of the day, we were talking about Dolly. I mean, she flaunts it. She’s proud of it.”
Amen to that, Lainey… you really can’t argue there.
And while I do understand that it’s probably flattering, yet simultaneously really weird, to have people looking at you in that way, it’s refreshing to see her turn around and use it as a positive, similar to that of her musical hero Dolly Parton and two of her most famous assets:
@kmlecountry1079 No more accounts about @laineywilsonmusic ‘s butt please! 🤣 #countrymusic #countryartist #podcast #wmphoenixopen ♬ Heart Like A Truck – Lainey Wilson
Lainey is currently out on the road for her Bell Bottom Country tour, and she’s actually a regular character on the hit series Yellowstone now too playing Abby, and she put out a great record in the aforementioned Bell Bottom Country last year as well.
Needless to say, she’s one of the most exciting names in Music City right now, and I couldn’t be more excited to see where her career goes next.
A couple weeks ago, Lainey became the only artist with multiple songs charting in the Top 10 at country radio right now, making her the first female artist in over a decade to do so with “Heart Like A Truck” and “wait in the truck” with Hardy.
“Heart Like A Truck”
