“I’m glad you finally got your letter.”
Lainey Wilson said that to Tim McGraw on Oct. 18, standing on stage at the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Medallion Ceremony, where Tim was formally inducted. She had just sung his 1997 hit “Just to See You Smile” in his honor, American Songwriter reported.
Next Wednesday, Nov. 18, the two share another stage. Lainey hosts the 60th CMA Awards on ABC for the third year in a row, and Tim is on the list of performers. She also has a new Whataburger ad out this week for National Fried Chicken Sandwich Day, on top of everything else.
The letter she mentioned goes back to when she was 18. Lainey grew up on a farm in Baskin, La., a town of about 250 people. Tim grew up in Start, La., roughly 20 minutes down the road.
So she sat down and wrote to him. She introduced herself as a girl from Franklin Parish who was starting a nursing program at a community college and had been writing songs since she was 9.
“Singing, writing and performing are the most important things in my life,” she wrote. “All I need is the opportunity and I can do the rest.” She closed with a request: “Please consider meeting with me and my family.”
The letter never reached him. Years later she found it among her old mementos, and in July 2025 it went on display in her “Tough as Nails” exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Lainey’s family, it turns out, had a connection to Tim long before she ever picked up a pen.
She explained it to Garth Brooks on his Tailgate Radio show in 2024. “Tim grew up right down the road from me,” she said. “My step-grandmother used to actually babysit him.”
She added, “But I’ve never met Tim.”
That changed in June 2026 at CMA Fest in Nashville. Tim had found out about the letter, and when they met backstage at Nissan Stadium, he had something waiting for her.
“I was embarrassed, first off, that I never saw it,” Tim told her. “So, I wrote you a letter back,” he went on, “and I wrote it as though I had gotten the letter.”
Lainey told him he was going to make her cry. Tim also said songwriter Tom Douglas had written a song about her letter, and he promised to send it to her.
According to All Country News, she had one more thought about the folks back home: “Mom and Daddy are not going to believe this.”
Lainey and the Country Music Hall of Fame shared the backstage moment on her YouTube channel, from the walk in to the letter in Tim’s hand.
Tim hands Lainey his letter backstage at CMA Fest
That same night, Tim brought her out on the main stage to sing his 1990s hit “I Like It, I Love It” with him.
Tim and Lainey sing “I Like It, I Love It” at CMA Fest
Tim later summed it up this way, according to American Songwriter: “It’s like… finding a letter you wrote a long time ago and learning it got to where it was going.”
The 60th CMA Awards air live from Bridgestone Arena next Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC and stream on Disney+. When Tim takes the stage that night, the host’s family can say they knew him first.