Lainey Wilson is certainly one of the reigning hitmakers in country music, but her path to success wasn’t an easy one. The 31-year-old moved to Nashville in August of 2011, with little money, big dreams and a determination to become a singer, unaware of how long and arduous the process would be.

“When I moved here, I thought, ‘Dang right. I’m about to get me a record deal,'” Wilson tells Apple Music Country’s Trailblazers Radio with Fancy Hagood. “When I found out what a publishing deal was, because I didn’t even know those existed. I just remember thinking, ‘I’m going to do it. It’s not going to take me long.’ And then here we are 12 years later, but I’m glad, I’m thankful for every single good thing and bad thing that’s led me to here, because I don’t know if I’d be as appreciative of the moments.”

Wilson grew up in a musical household, and began taking guitar lessons when she was 11 years old. And once she did, she never looked back or wavered in her decision to pursue country music as a career.

“It really became one of those things, even as a child, it just grabbed a hold of me and would not let go,” Wilson remembers. “I did extracurricular activities like all the other kids did, and I cheered and played basketball. I wasn’t good at any of it, but I would go home and I would play music and I just loved it. It had become a part of me.”

Ironically, it was when Wilson began impersonating Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus’ character, while still in high school, which became the beginnings, albeit humble, of her now-soaring career.

“I would open up for myself a lot of the time,” Wilson shares. “I would do three or four birthday parties a weekend… And actually it was funny because for five years of doing Hannah Montana, I was booked and busy. And then when I got to Nashville for the next 12 years, I wasn’t booked and busy, so a lot of highs and lows, but I did that for a long time. I started playing with a cover band called the Cadillac Kings, and I wasn’t even old enough to really be in those places, but we would do four-hour gigs, and I did that for a few years.”

Even as a child, the Louisiana native felt a pull to Nashville, where she knew somehow, in some way, her dreams would come true.

“First time I drove through Nashville, I was nine,” Wilson remembers. “The same year I wrote my first song. And I just knew. I remember exactly where I was on the interstate when I told my mama and daddy, I said, ‘This is home.'”

Wilson, who recently won four ACM Awards, including for Female Artist of the Year, attributes at least some of her success to her unwillingness to do anything else but country music.

“I wrote my first song at 9 years old. I’m…31 years old this year, and it’s like I’ve been preparing ever since I was 9 years old,” Wilson tells People. “I’ve known that this is my calling, and there’s nothing else that I want to do, that I can do, and I’ve always just kind of been like, “No Plan B, this is it.’

Wilson just celebrated two No. 1 hits, both her “wait in the truck” duet with HARDY, as well as her “Heart Like A Truck” single.

Find all of Wilson’s music and tour dates at LaineyWilson.com.