Stephen Wilson Sr. didn’t know much about music. He knew cars, and he knew boxing.
He was a single father in Seymour, Indiana, and “a second-generation auto body mechanic by day” who later ran his own shop, Wilson Auto Body. He loved boxing and idolized Muhammad Ali, and he started training his son Stephen when the boy was 7. Stephen got good enough to become an Indiana State Golden Gloves finalist.
Stephen’s brother, Nic, remembers that their dad pushed hard. “He wasn’t easy on us,” he told Indianapolis Monthly. “It made us tough as nails.”
Music was a different world. Stephen’s dad “didn’t speak the language,” as the magazine put it. But when Stephen was 16, his dad bought him a cheap guitar and left it in his bedroom.
Stephen grew up to be a songwriter. For years he wrote songs for other artists, and in 2016 he became a staff writer at Big Loud. Along the way he also worked in a Mars food-science lab.
His dad wanted more for him. Over and over, he asked Stephen to get up on stage and sing his own songs.
Stephen always gave him the same answer. “I told him the same thing I’d told everyone else who asked, ‘I don’t sing the songs, I just write them.'”
Then, in September 2018, his dad passed away.
Stephen has talked about him on Theo Von’s podcast, and this clip is a chance to hear how he remembers his father in his own words.
Stephen Wilson Jr. remembers his dad
Not long after his dad was gone, a grieving Stephen was talked into playing a songwriters’ festival in South Dakota. He got up and sang “Stand by Me.”
“I sang that song like I was singing to my dad,” he said. “That’s when my artist was born.”
He kept going. His debut album came out in 2023, and he named it “søn of dad.” The song “Father’s Søn” is about his father, and the video is worth watching if you’ve ever missed a parent.
The video for “Father’s Søn,” Stephen’s song about his dad
Even his name is a tribute. Stephen kept the “Jr.” on purpose, and it goes back to the sport his dad taught him.
“You don’t have to put Jr. after your name. It’s an optional suffix. But it is very powerful,” he said in a 2023 statement from his label. “It carries a lot of weight in the sport of boxing, because it means you’re an extension of your father.”
The moment it really sank in came on late-night TV. “When Seth Meyers announced me, it hit me all at once: That’s my name. That’s my dad’s name. Oh my God. This is happening.”
Last November, Stephen stood on the CMA Awards stage and sang the same song he’d first sung for his dad. Watch it and remember where that song started for him, at a festival in South Dakota.
Stephen sings “Stand by Me” at the 2025 CMA Awards
This year he’s back as a nominee. He’s up for Male Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year, and his song “Gary” is up for Song of the Year. The 60th CMA Awards are Wednesday, Nov 18, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
The man who left that guitar in his son’s bedroom never got to see any of this. His name is on every poster anyway, and Stephen put it this way: “I’m an artist now, but when I see my name on a show poster, I still look at it like a fight card.”