Lainey Wilson officially has her own exhibit in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

Wilson, 33, gazed upon some of her most glamorous wardrobe pieces — including, of course, her signature bell bottoms — monumental awards, childhood trinkets and more as she and her family saw the Lainey Wilson: Tough as Nails exhibit for the first time. Interview clips and footage of iconic performances are interwoven into the museum space. Wilson and her family, her team and others gathered for the opening celebration on Thursday evening (July 17). Museum CEO Kyle Young paid tribute to Wilson, and introduced her to the stage to deliver heartfelt remarks in the museum's Hall of Fame Rotunda, which honors some of the most legendary figures to contribute to the genre.

The artifacts displayed behind glass take museum attendees through the Baskin, Louisiana-born artist’s life story. Wilson said in an interview with iHeartCountry that “it puts a lot into perspective” to see her own exhibit. She reminisced on her first-ever visit to Dolly Parton’s Dollywood after looking at the ticket stubs. She reflected on her first time sitting in the seats at the historic Grand Ole Opry when she was 9 years old. Wilson watched Little Jimmy Dickens, Phil Vassar, Crystal Gayle and Bill Anderson take the legendary stage, and had “an overwhelming feeling” she would be there herself one day.

‘This Journey Has Been A Wild One’

“It puts a lot into perspective in the best kind of way. I feel like this journey has been a wild one. At times, it’s hard to wrap your head around everything that’s happened. But this is like, ‘wow, I’ve been working at this for my whole life,’” Wilson told iHeartCountry. “I’m proud of that little girl,” she said as she thought back to the childhood items, including from Kindergarten, displayed in the exhibit. “I’m proud of her, and I feel like I have held onto that part of me that made me ‘me’ ...And also seeing, too, that my parents kept all these things, and they believed in me. That’s why I thought I could maybe believe in myself.

“I would say, first of all, keep that spitfire spirit,” Wilson said when asked what she would tell her younger self about her life now. “Take every opportunity that you can. I mean, every little singing competition I entered, and even writing a letter to Tim McGraw asking for an opportunity, that clearly, he never got. Honestly, I should give it to him now,” she said with a laugh. “I’ll tell you this, just going up and down here, getting to read all these little things and seeing how a lot of these are like little steps, and all like the big steps in between, it seems like the stars have had to align over and over and over again. ...Even though this tells a big story, I think that there’s still so much left of the story, and that excites me.”

Wilson spent much of her childhood riding horses, riding four-wheelers and swimming as she grew up in a farming community in Franklin Parish. She made her public singing debut at her Kindergarten graduation, and wrote her first song at 9 years old. Now the reigning Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year for her second consecutive year, Wilson held down a job as a Hannah Montana impersonator to sharpen her skills as a performer. She moved to Nashville in 2011, and connected with Franklin Parish-born producer Jerry Cupit. Cupit served as a steadfast mentor to Wilson until his death in 2014, and although she felt a wave of uncertainty after losing Cupit, Wilson powered through with her career pursuits. She met now-manager and longtime advocate for Wilson, Mandelyn Monchick, the following year, and Monchick introduced the Bell Bottom Country star to her current band leader, Aslan Freeman. By 2017, Wilson scored a song-publishing contract, and signed with her record label the following year. Wilson’s “Things a Man Oughta Know” skyrocketed as her first No. 1 single 10 years after she made the move from Louisiana to Tennessee in a camper trailer.

“When I was 19, when I first moved to town in my little camper trailer, I’d come up here [to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum] and I’d buy a ticket and stand in line, and I’d come walk up and down these halls and dream about having something of mine in a shadowbox,” Wilson told iHeartCountry. “I thought, ‘man, how cool would it be to have music that meant enough to somebody that they wanted to put an outfit of mine in a shadowbox?’ So, it’s wild. It’s like a humbling, really cool moment for me and my mom and daddy to share together because...(of) the blood, sweat and tears that they have put into helping me to achieve these goals, too. Their (belief in me) made me believe myself.”

Bo Dalton