Lainey Wilson is celebrating Post Malone‘s success. The new Grand Ole Opry member joins him on “Nosedive,” one of the 27 songs on his just-released debut country album, F-1 Trillion. Although it may seem like an odd turn for the rapper and producer, Wilson says he definitely deserves a spot in the genre.

“I’m so proud that he’s a part of country music,” Wilson says on the Artist Friendly with Joel Madden podcast. “You can quiz him and be like, ‘Who wrote that song back in 1951?’ and he would know it. He seems very excited to be a part of it, and I’m proud that he is too, because I think that he’s gonna introduce a lot of people to country music.”

Wilson, who performed “Nosedive” with Post Malone during his Grand Ole Opry debut, is becoming known for her collaborations, joining with artists like Cole Swindell, Jelly Roll, Keith Urban, Lauren Alaina and HARDY to release powerful duets. But even Wilson admits there was something special about working with Post Malone, something that reaches far beyond their musical talents.

“I loved every second of it.” Wilson says of recording “Nosedive” with Post Malone. “And I love him. We’ve become great friends. What I noticed about him is, even the people who were coming into the studio, and taking the trash out and whatever, he treated them just like he treated the guy that was running the sound board. And I’m like, ‘You good people.'”

Wilson’s own Whirlwind album was released one week after Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion. The Louisiana native co-wrote all 14 tracks on the project, a way to tell her own story through the record.

“I don’t know any better,” Wilson tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I don’t know any different. I knew that I was going to chase this thing no matter what. Even if still nothing was happening, I’d still be chasing it. I didn’t know exactly what it was going to look like. And I had a feeling at a very early age that I was going to be in this industry. I was going to tell stories.

“I got bit by the storytelling bug from my parents sitting around the kitchen table and telling stories from their childhood about an alligator or this or whatever it was, and me and my sister would be like, ‘Tell us that story again,’” she continues. “And every single time we would hear it, it’s like I would hear something new about it that I didn’t before. I’d laugh in a certain place that I didn’t the time before and I just loved storytelling.”