Lainey Wilson Brings Rugged ‘Wildflowers + Wild Horses’ to ‘Kimmel’ [Watch]

Lainey Wilson brought a touch of the Wild West to Hollywood, Calif., during her stop as the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night (Dec. 12), performing a rugged, high-drama rendition of her new song, "Wildflowers and Wild Horses."

Wearing a dressed-up, fringed version of her typical bell-bottom ensemble — plus an oversized turquoise belt buckle and cowboy hat — Wilson hit the ground running as she began to sing the pulsing first line of "Wildflowers."

Her stage design matched the song's mood perfectly: Wilson performed in front of a bed of sparse desert grasses, in front of a screen depicting wild horses galloping free across the desert.

Wilson brought a similarly wild aesthetic to her performance of "Wildflowers" — which appears on the track list of Bell Bottom Country — on the stage of the 2023 CMA Awards in Nashville in November. That show was a triumphant one for the newly minted superstar, who won her very first Entertainer of the Year trophy in an upset over favorite contenders Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen.

When she stopped to talk to press backstage at the end of that show, Wilson — who also won Album of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year, Musical Event of the Year and Music Video of the Year — had so many trophies to carry that she had to crouch down on the floor for photographers to snap photos of her with all of them at once.

"You're gonna think I'm crazy. I knew this would happen. I knew that I would be here," Wilson reflected, in response to a question about her long climb to stardom and how she was able to manifest her dreams even when they seemed out of reach.

When she first moved to town to pursue country, Wilson lived in her RV in a parking lot in West Nashville.

"I feel like sometimes you gotta pretend. You gotta put yourself in the shoes of things you're not, so you can become them," she remembered, thinking back on that time. "I was envisioning myself being here."