Better late than never.
Lainey Wilson had all-circle moment this past week at CMA Fest, as she finally got to meet her hero, Tim McGraw. She has spoken before about how she wrote him a letter as a young girl, who grew up in Louisiana just like McGraw, and it was on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame, and in a YouTube video which documented this whole full-circle moment, Lainey read the opening line of the letter, which was really sweet:
“Dear Mr. Tim McGraw, Singing, writing and performing are the most important things in my life. All I need is the opportunity, I can do the rest.”
That part was certainly true…
And fast forward to last week, Lainey she got to meet Tim, finally making her childhood dream come true. She spoke about how long she’s wanted to get to meet him in person and what an influence he’s had on her career, and during that meeting, he explained to her that he actually just found out about the letter last year.
He told her he was “embarrassed” that he’d never seen it, and he took the time to actually write her one back, though he put a really personal and heartfelt touch on it. He wrote it as if he had seen her letter back then, and shared what he would’ve said when she was still that young girl in Louisiana.
Of course, Lainey got emotional, saying she was about to cry and mess up all of her makeup, as this was right before she was set to join him on stage:
“I was embarrassed, first off, that I never saw it. I wish I would’ve seen it… so, I wrote you a letter back, and I wrote it as though I had gotten the letter. So I wrote it, had I gotten it it then, this is what I would have said. I’m so proud of you.”
Such a classy move by Tim McGraw. They say to never meet your heroes, but it sounds like Lainey getting the opportunity to meet Tim was more than worth it, and I’m sure the letter he (finally) gave her back is something she’ll treasure forever.
Lainey also got a good laugh out of McGraw when she told him she has a dance routing to all of his songs:
Later that night during Tim closing set on the Nissan Stadium Main Stage at CMA Fest, he brought Lainey out to join him in performing his 1995 classic hit, “I Like It, I Love It,” which I imagine was a dream-come-true for Lainey after all of those years of making up dances to his music.
Honestly, I’m not sure why these two Louisiana natives haven’t teamed up yet… you can watch them sing “”I Like It, I Love It” here:
