Lainey Wilson’s Netflix Documentary Keepin’ Country Cool Premiered On April 22
On Wednesday, April 22nd, Lainey Wilson’s new documentary premiered on Netflix. Titled Keepin’ Country Cool, the new documentary shows a rare glimpse into the life and career of Lainey Wilson.
“I couldn’t be more excited that this documentary is going to be on Netflix,” Wilson told Deadline in January when the doc was announced. “This was such a special project to make, and I hope that folks who watch it see that no dream is too big and that staying true to who you are will always lead you exactly where you’re meant to be.“
In 2024, Hulu released a one-hour documentary titled Lainey Wilson: Bell Bottom Country, which followed her “meteoric rise from a humble small-town to sold out arena tours.”
Keepin’ Country Cool will highlight a bit of her past, but mostly about how she is handling her career now and showing us parts of her personal life that we’ve never seen before.
For instance, in the trailer, we find out that she was “so broke” when she first met her fiancé, Devlin “Duck” Hodges, and that she froze her eggs.
See the trailer below.
10 Things We Learned About Lainey Wilson In The Keepin’ Country Cool Documentary
1. She Is Not An Overnight Success
Despite her meteoric rise to fame that seemed like it was overnight, Lainey revealed she’s been seriously chasing her country music dreams for over 14 years.
She said, “So a 14-year overnight success, if you want to call it that.”
In reality, she’s been pursuing a music career her entire life. She entered every local competition show she could find, and performed as a Hannah Montana impersonator from 8th-12th grade and was driving herself all over to make those shows, even before she had a driver’s license!
She’d perform for no people, 40 people, and was once even paid with a card that gave her a lifetime supply of hot dogs. She joked, “That is my biggest flex.”
Her journey as a performer recently came full circle as she released a song titled “Younger You” with Miley Cyrus, who famously played Hannah Montana on the the hit Disney Channel show. Cyrus recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the show with a TV special and wrote “Younger You” as a celebration of it.
2. Her Best Friend Is Her Manager
Lainey and Mandelyn Monchick met in Lainey’s early years in Nashville, and began working with her in 2015, years before the “Watermelon Moonshine” singer’s mainstream success.
Monchick first started working with Wilson as a songwriter and eventually became her manager.
People didn’t think it would work because of their close friendship, but it’s clear that their strong bond is actually a good thing. Lainey explained that sure, they do fight, but it’s more like a sisterhood where the love is unconditional, so they come back together quicker than most business partnerships.
3. She Wants To Be A Mom
A common theme throughout the documentary was Wilson’s fast-paced life with touring, songwriting, award shows, and more. And while this is her reality for now, she doesn’t want her life to look like this forever.
“Just like I was called to do this,” she said, “I feel it in my heart too that I was called to be a a mama.”
Lainey reveals early in the documentary that she is planning to have her eggs frozen. Although she is only 32, she wants to be able to have options for down the road. She knows that once she does get pregnant, she can’t continue at the pace she is currently going.
Wilson said, “I’m gonna be able to be a wife, I’m gonna be able to be a mama. I know it’s not easy, but I’m gonna do it.”
Throughout the documentary she was taking hormones for the egg retrieval and in the last scene, she was going in for the procedure to do it, wearing a hair net and hospital gown, and all.
4. Songwriting Is Incredibly Important To Her
Lainey revealed that she’s been writing songs her whole entire life. She would play her songs for anyone who would listen and sent out countless burned CDs to every label, and even wrote a letter to Tim McGraw who is from a town not far from where Lainey grew up.
@countrymusichof The Museum’s newest exhibition, “Lainey Wilson: Tough as Nails,” is now open. Watch @Lainey Wilson as she takes her first look at the exhibit. Reserve tickets at the link in bio. #laineywilson #countrymusichalloffame #musicmuseum #visitmusiccity #thingstodoinnashville ♬ original sound – Country Music HOF & Museum
“I knew whenever I had written my first song that I loved how it made me feel. Whenever I was in the middle of a song, when I was coming up with an idea, feelin’ like, ‘Man, I created something from nothing. How cool is that?’ I knew that feeling was so special that I couldn’t let it go and I think that’s why I knew it was my calling.”
She continued, “For me, songwriting is taking care of my mind”
5. She Has Struggled With Her Mental Health
Wilson revealed suffers from anxiety, which she spoke about in the documentary. She’d look at the calendar eight months ahead and think, “Oh gosh, how are we gonna make it eight more months?”
She loves to be funny and make people laugh, but a few years ago she didn’t feel like herself. She believes it was because everything she ever dreamed about happened all at once.
“When opportunities come at you, and you didn’t have any for so long, you just want to take them all,” she said.
She says a lot of that went really well, but she knew it wouldn’t last forever, which is why she said yes to everything.
“A lot of my self worth came from what I was doing. The singer, the performer, the songwriter,” she admits
When she gets too over stimulated or “people’d out” she will wear a sign that says, “Nobody Speak To Lainey.”
“I was an extremely anxious person and the anxiousness caused depression and the depression caused more anxiousness because I was like ‘Why in the world am I depressed during this time of my life?’ This is everything I ever wanted,” she said emotionally in the documentary. “I have had several breakdowns. I was losing it.”
She revealed that she had a multiple-day panic attack, but still played shows during that time, saying, “I was terrified. It was a chemical imbalance happening. I was spiraling out of control. And then it’s like the fear of thinking that you’re always gonna be stuck in that mindset causes more anxiety. It’s just a vicious cycle.”
6. Reba McEntire Helped Her Change Her Perspective
Lainey explained that she was so lost, so she reached out to Reba McEntire for guidance. The “4x4xU” singer asked the country legend what she does when she feels like she can’t go any further.
Reba said, “I do it for somebody else,” which completely changed Wilson’s perspective.
Reba’s revelation made Lainey realize that what she was doing was bigger than her. She began spotlighting her fans in her shows, bringing up young girls to be “Cowgirl of the Day” and interacting with them more by reading their signs. This is how she met Hurricane Helene survivors, cancer survivors. She began asking fans to come backstage so she could pray over them, which put her life into perspective.
She might be worrying about singing the right notes or lyrics, playing the right chords, but these people are fighting for their lives, and they come to her shows to get a little happiness in the midst of their dark days.
Reba helped her see that.
7. Her Mentor Passed Away
Jerry Cupit, of Cupit Records, was a person very near and dear to Lainey’s heart.
He was from her town in Louisiana, and her grandfather gave him some money to move to Nashville in the late 70s.
Every time he visited Baskin, even when she was just nine years old, he would ask her questions that she says, “would get my wheels turning.” ex: you’re writing about a blue truck, how does it make you feel, etc
When she moved to Nashville in 2011, Jerry let her park her camper trailer in the parking lot of his studio and hook it up, and use his studio for free.
He had a bone disease that turned into cancer. About two years into her living outside of his studio, they realized it was not good. She wasn’t sure about her country music dreams anymore, but towards the end of his life, he told her, “I want you to keep going.”
She said, “I felt lost and lonely and scared and honestly it was like a dark season of my life. I didn’t know which way to go, I didn’t know who to turn to.”
But she stayed in Nashville, saying, “I owed it to myself and I also owed it to him.”
And we’re so glad she did!
8. She Fears Over-Exposure
She knows that she works hard and is everywhere, and she worries that the public will feel that too.
“I’d be sick of me, too,” she reveals.
9. Every Song That Was Featured
Wilson now has a huge catalog of music that could have been featured. In some cases, the documentary showed the songwriting process of a few, including “Yesterday, All Day, Every Day” and “They Never Do.”
But other songs that made it into the doc were:
“Hang Tight Honey,” “Dreamcatcher,” “Country’s Cool Again,” “4x4xU,” “Heart Like A Truck,” “Watermelon Moonshine,” “Keep Up With Jones,” “Good Horses,” “Peace, Love, and Cowboys,” “Atta Girl,” “Middle Finger,” “Things A Man Oughta Know,” and “Middle Of It.”
10. At The End Of The Day, It’s All About Love
After everything is said and done, she knows her career and her life is all about one thing: love.
“I know I lead with love. It’s all about love. It’s unconditional love. And that is beautiful,” she says in the documentary.
