Lainey Wilson Tells Kelly Clarkson Her Mantra To Live By

Lainey Wilson appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show this week, and the show kicked off with the two of them singing Lainey's latest song, "Country's Cool Again."

Kelly professed herself to be an "obsessed fan" of Wilson's as the two women sat down to talk. The subject? Dolly Parton, of course.

Clarkson started the conversation by telling Lainey that she is a fan of '90s country, saying, "'90s country is usually my genre." Wilson replied, "Mine too." Kelly then observed Lainey's voice, "Your voice is a musical baby of Dolly Parton and Lee Ann Womack." Wilson replied, "I'll take it, I'll take it."

Clarkson then brought up Lainey's mantra, and Wilson said, "The one that I think about daily is WWDD, and that is, 'What Would Dolly Do?'" Kelly laughs, "WWDD!" Lainey quipped, "You see what I did? I love that woman."

Clarkson gushed of Parton, "She is so kind, so cool, so genuine and even better in person than on TV. She's awesome on TV, but you meet her in person, and you're like, 'How are you this nice?'" Wilson said, "Well, and that's how I feel about y'all (Kelly and Hoda Kotb) too. I'm not just sitting here saying that."

Kelly added, "You know, sometimes you meet people, and it's not that lovely." Lainey agreed, "I know they say don't meet your heroes, but it's really cool that you see people are just as kind as they are talented. That right there, it's wild, and she's (Dolly) given me so much advice. And even before I knew her, the amount that she taught me just from the way that she carried herself. She's not scared to go do it all, to straddle that line. She's this little girl from this little town where probably nobody ever left."

She concluded, "I just look up to her a whole lot. I think she's the best."

Clarkson has another reason to love Parton: "I knew I would love her when I found out she contacts people via fax machine." Lainey laughed, "I heard that too." Kelly added, "I was like, come again. And they're like, no, she doesn't have a phone number to give out, so she has a fax machine. I was like, 'Oh my God, miss 9 to 5.' This is so amazing." Wilson said, "I know; I'm waiting on that fax from Dolly. I guess I need to get me a fax machine."

Kelly summed it up, saying, "She's loved everywhere. You can go to any country, and they know Dolly Parton. That's not easy to me."

The third week of January is always one of my favorites in my work as I get to write about and celebrate Dolly Parton's birthday (1/19). Her birthday has become "Dolly Parton week" in Nashville and anywhere her millions of fans are located.

I love diving back into one of the reasons I fell in love with country music in the first place, not long after seeing the movie 9 to 5 in the movie theater and wanting to know more and more about the wonderful Parton.

When I was a teenager, the way to get good seats to see your favorite music stars in concert was sleeping outside at night in line at the box office to be first in line when the box office opened. I did just that in January in the cold of Salt Lake City, Utah, waiting to get tickets to see Dolly in concert with Kenny Rogers. The feat paid off as I sat in the first row of the show, singing every word.

In the many interviews I have done with Parton since I moved to Nashville, I never confessed to her my devotion and sacrifice to see her the very first time. However, it was those early days and my teenage years of devotion that made me appreciate her work so much.

As we celebrate her birthday this week (1/19), I dove into her many music videos and because of when my love for this icon began in the 1980s and 1990s, a couple videos from my list of her best videos are from that time period. Before we look at the five videos, I wanted to highlight two of her most recent music videos from her 2023 Rockstar album.

"We are The Champions/ We Will Rock You" (2023) - This video came out and focused on her covers of two Queen classics.

Another video I must mention from Rockstar is the one she did with Linda Perry, covering Perry's 4 Non Blondes song "What's Up?" Perry appears with Parton in the video, playing guitar and singing along in the chorus. It's also fun to see Parton wearing jeans, which she rarely does.

This music video shows footage and moments of Dolly and Kenny Rogers when they toured together for a few years in the early 1980s. It is to be cherished; although they recorded together many times, the music icons only toured together in the 1980s.

This music video is also a gem. It is the only music video to feature Parton with fellow country music Queens and icons Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn, who have both since passed. The beginning of the music video shows a fun clip of music and guitar icon Chet Atkins trying to get backstage to see the country queens. The security guard says, "I don't care if you are Chet Atkins, you can't get in," and Chet replies, "I am Chet Atkins." It was Atkins who first signed Dolly to a RCA recording contract in the 1960s.

This fun video starts with Dolly auditioning men to play her leading man in the video, and it's pretty funny. At one point, a car salesman auditions just to meet her, and she quips, "I think you're real cute." The video starts after he says, "Dolly, is that you?" This is just pure fun.

This is one of Dolly's songs that I always thought should have been a big hit. It was one of the rare songs not written by Parton. The music video, shot in black and white, shows Parton singing as well as scenes of people overcoming obstacles in their lives.

Broadway actress and movie star Kristin Chenoweth plays in this video that is circus-themed and shows Parton dressed as a circus conductor advising women to "get to living." In true Dolly style, the song shows a positive attitude toward life, something she has always possessed.