Lainey Wilson‘s father is, finally, on the mend, after suffering a series of health setbacks. In July, Wilson unexpectedly canceled two shows to be with her father, Brian Wilson, saying at the time that she just had a “family emergency.” But now, the “Heart Like A Truck” singer is opening up about her father’s illness, and how grateful she is that he is still alive.
“He spent two months in a hospital from a fungal infection that completely took out the left side of his face,” Wilson tells Taste of Country. “They had to remove his eye and they had to remove some bones in his face. He had a stroke on top of all of that. He had nine surgeries in a month and a half. He’s not supposed to be here,”
Wilson also shared more about her family’s unexpected journey in an interview on Apple Music’s Today’s Country Radio With Kelleigh Bannen.
“He was in a rehab facility for three and a half weeks, and then he just had his 60th birthday,” Wilson reveals. “He’s still got a long way to go, but he’s here. He had nine surgeries in a month and a half… He had a stroke on top of all of that, but he is a tough son of a gun.”
Wilson honors her father, whom she affectionately calls “Deddy,” with a song called “Those Boots (Deddy’s Song).” which she wrote with Terri Jo Box and Trent Tomlinson. The song is from Wilson’s Bell Bottom Country album, out on October 28.
“What really sparked the song is, growing up, me and my family, we lived in this uninsulated house,” Wilson recalls. “And instead of adding on like a normal person would do, [my parents] bought a portable building and cut out the side of it and attached that thing to the house. So me and my sister were living in the trailer. We’d run in the house. I remember every morning, before Deddy would go to work … I remember he would holler my name and I would run from the portable building into the house, and I would help him pull his blue jeans down over the top of his boots.
“That was just my job as a little girl,” she continues. “It made me feel like I was doing something. It made me feel special, like I had a job. I’ve just always kind of thought back to that memory, and I was telling it to Trent and Terry, Joe, and we ended up just coming up with this idea around Deddy’s boots and it’s going to take a very special person to fill them.”
Wilson’s father will walk the red carpet at the CMA Awards with her, along with his neurologist and her husband. Wilson is the most nominated artist heading into the ceremony, with six nods, including for Female Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year, for her debut Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin‘ album.
Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning will serve as hosts of the 2022 CMA Awards. The ceremony will air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, November 9, at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.
Wilson will join Luke Combs for part of his global World Tour in 2023. Find music and tour dates at LaineyWilson.com.