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The 2026 CMA Fest was full of surprises, but there was also — in a way — a dream that came true.
As Tim McGraw performed on the third night of CMA Fest, he was joined by someone who has admired him for years, but whose path had never had the privilege of crossing his before… until now.
While singing his 1995 hit “I Like It, I Love It,” McGraw brought out Lainey Wilson after the first chorus for a lively duet of the iconic tune.
For Lainey Wilson, this was particularly meaningful, as she had written McGraw when she was 18 and was still trying to get her foot in the door of the country music scene.
All these years later, they were able to meet and perform together as peers at the top of the country music industry.
Watch Lainey Wilson Finally Meet Tim McGraw
“We’re going to meet Tim McGraw,” said Lainey Wilson. “This is my childhood dream, right here.”
She added, “He don’t understand how much of an influence he is to me.”
As recently as August of 2025, when the “Lainey Wilson: Tough as Nails” exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame had recently opened, Lainey revealed that she had never met Tim McGraw.
This revelation was shared as she looked at a letter on display at the museum that she penned to McGraw when she was 18.
Now, at the age of 34, she is one of the top country artists in the industry.
However, back in 2010, when she wrote this letter, she was just starting school for nursing, studying at Louisiana Delta Community College.
In the letter, she asked McGraw for help getting into the country music industry, with her family feeling they could “trust someone like” McGraw since he’s a fellow Louisiana artist.
“We could use some in site [sic] on the choices that we need to make in order to propel my career the smartest way possible,” she wrote to McGraw.
Concluding her letter to McGraw, Lainey said, “Singing, writing, and performing are the most important things in my life. All I need is the opportunity, I can do the rest.”
Now, 16 years later, as she hugged Tim McGraw backstage at CMA Fest, Tim McGraw told Lainey, “I finally found out about your letter.”
Later in the video, we see them all dressed and ready for the show, and McGraw says, “I recently … found out about your letter. I was embarrassed, first off, that I never saw it, so I wish I would’ve seen it.”
Lainey then shared, with tears welling up in her eyes, that she had given the letter to an aunt of hers to pass along to him, but it must’ve never gotten to him.
Regardless, McGraw then shared that he wrote her something special, saying, “I wrote you a letter back, and I wrote it as though I had gotten the letter … This is what I would’ve said.”
Beyond that, McGraw then said that he and country music songwriter Tom Douglas wrote a new song together about the letter Lainey sent him.
He promised Lainey that he’d send the song to her, and then hugged her, saying, “I’m so proud of you.”
Lainey then exclaimed, “Momma and Daddy are not gonna believe this!”
Watch the touching moment, here:
Watch Lainey Wilson Perform And Tim McGraw Sing “I Like It, I Love It”
Sixteen years since writing her letter to Tim McGraw, Lainey now has a Grammy, and has won Entertainer of the Year twice from both the ACM Awards and the CMA Awards, among numerous other awards and honors.
On June 6, she got to not only meet McGraw, but perform with him, too.
Writing on social media after their performance together, McGraw posted, “CMA fest was on fire! Big thank you to [Lainey Wilson] for joining us for a song! Fun night!”
In a diary entry penned in 2009, which can be seen on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame, Lainey wrote the following:
“My dream is to become a country singer/songwriter. I know I can do it. I just have to have faith. I passed a church yesterday and a sign read, ‘Living by faith.’”
After a performance with McGraw at CMA Fest, it’s safe to say that she’s fulfilled that dream.
Watch Lainey Wilson and Tim McGraw’s performance, which aired during the CMA Fest TV special, below.
Beyond performing with McGraw at CMA Fest, Lainey also sang with Christian artist Brandon Lake in the morning of Sunday, June 7; and she also performed with bluegrass artist Molly Tuttle.
