Well, someone’s gotta be able to say “no” and not feel bad about it…
Lainey Wilson has been touring overseas in Europe for the first leg of her Whirlwind tour, and she recently sat down for a conversation on the Reign With Josh Smith podcast, where he of course had to ask her about working with her hero, Dolly Parton.
She has worked with Dolly several times, notably on the Judd’s tribute album, recording a duet of “Mama He’s Crazy,” and Lainey also penned a song that Dolly recorded with Post Malone F-1 Trillion called “Have the Heart.” She co-wrote it alongside Post, Louis Bell, Ryan Vojtesak, Brad Paisley and Ashley Gorley, and can officially say her musical hero recorded one of her songs… pretty cool and I’m sure a lifelong dream for Lainey.
Josh commented on how neat that was, and Lainey remembered the first ten minutes she got to spend with Dolly, and Dolly giving her some kind of unconventional advice… Dolly asked Lainey if her manager was an a**hole, and Lainey assured her that she certainly is:
“I spent ten minutes with the lady, and in those ten minutes, I was trying to soak up everything she had to say. She asked me, she said, ‘Do you have a good manager?’ And I was like ‘Yeah.’ She said, ‘Well, is he an a**hole?’ And I said, ‘Yes she is.’ And she was like, ‘You need somebody who can speak on your behalf. You need somebody who can say no if you need it.’
And I asked her, I said, ‘How do you decide to this day what you do, what you don’t?’ And she said, ‘Everything I do, I have to be really excited, and genuinely fired up about doing it.’ She said ‘Yeah, it might seem like I’m doing a lot, but it’s because I care about everything I’m doing.'”
Honestly, that’s probably some of the best advice you can give to any young artist, because it’s so easy to be taken advantage of in the music industry and you really need someone who has your back and can stand up for you and make the tough calls on your behalf. If you don’t have that kind of backbone, or someone on your team in a leadership position who does, more importantly, you’re probably not going to get very far.
Dolly always looks out for the girls, and she always passes on wisdom I think any of us can use in life and career because it’s so universal.
You can watch the clip here:
Turn it up…
“Have The Heart”
Here’s “Mama He’s Crazy” from the tribute album, A Tribute To The Judds:
