Lainey Wilson has a big night coming up. The country singer behind the No. 1 hit “Heart Like a Truck” is hosting the CMA Awards next Wednesday, Nov 18. Country Now says she “will return to host the CMA Awards for the third consecutive year.”
But this year feels a little different. It’s her first time hosting as a married woman.
Back in the spring, Lainey married Devlin Hodges, a man almost everybody calls Duck. They said their vows on Sunday, May 10, 2026, at Ruskin Cave in Dickson, Tennessee.
If the name Duck Hodges rings a bell, you might be a football fan. He’s a former NFL quarterback who started six games for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2019. The nickname has nothing to do with football, though. It comes from duck calling. He won the 2009 Junior World Duck Calling Contest when he was only 13 years old.
So yes, Lainey married a champion duck caller who once played quarterback in the NFL. That’s quite a combination for one man.
“We wanted it to be special and beautiful, but really welcoming and comfortable for our guests,” Lainey told Country Now about the wedding a few days after it happened.
She also said this: “It made me feel giddy about turning the page into this next chapter of marriage.”
Plenty of her music friends came to celebrate. One of them was Jelly Roll, the country star, who was among the artist friends at the reception.
Now Lainey is talking about the gifts. She opened up about her wedding registry on Amazon Music’s “Country Heat Weekly,” a weekly country music show. Taste of Country picked up the story on Nov 11 under the headline “Lainey Wilson Reveals the Interesting Wedding Gift Jelly Roll Bought Her.”
According to Taste of Country, Lainey put a rowing machine on her registry and Jelly Roll actually bought it. The site’s summary also says some friends joked that they “weren’t getting her any of it.”
Good for Jelly Roll. He shopped the list like a gentleman.
Her husband, on the other hand, had a different idea about what belonged on that list.
Duck tried to sneak a side-by-side onto the registry. If you’ve never seen one, a side-by-side is a two-seat off-road utility vehicle. It’s the kind farmers and hunters drive across fields and down muddy back roads.
For a guy who grew up calling ducks, it makes perfect sense. For a bride building a wedding registry, not so much.
Lainey caught it fast. Here’s how she told it on “Country Heat Weekly”:
“Duck was trying to put a side-by-side on there. I said, ‘What are you doing?'”
Anyone who has ever built a registry with a partner knows that exact moment.
The whole conversation is in the episode below, and Taste of Country points readers to the spot about 24 minutes in, where the registry talk comes up.
Lainey Wilson on Amazon Music’s “Country Heat Weekly”
Next Wednesday she’ll be back in front of the cameras for country music’s big night. The 60th CMA Awards air live from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Wednesday, Nov 18, at 8/7c on ABC and Disney+. If you miss it, the show streams on Hulu the next day.
And if Lainey cracks a joke about married life from the stage, now you’ll know where Duck’s head is at.