Lainey Wilson discusses her teenage years impersonating Hannah Montana and her journey to country music stardom in this week's PEOPLE cover story
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Wilson shares Miley Cyrus' reaction to her past impersonating Hannah
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Wilson says she's got "a good balance right now" between her personal life and her career
Like Hannah Montana,Lainey Wilsonfeels she's got thebest of both worlds.
"I get to be the songwriter and businesswoman, and then I get to take the hat off every now and then and be Lainey the sister, the friend, the daughter, the fiancée," the country star, 33, tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story, on newsstands Friday. "It's a good balance right now."
It's fitting for the star, who, before finding fame herself, spent her teen years impersonating the fictional Disney pop star played byMiley Cyrus. Several clips of her performing as Hannah are featured in her newNetflix documentary,Lainey Wilson: Keepin' Country Cool, streaming April 22.
"It's crazy that we're putting this documentary out, and it shows a little bit of my Hannah Montana journey, and then Miley did her Hannah-versary," Wilson says of theHannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special. "It feels pretty serendipitous."
Wilson even got to join Cyrus, also 33, at theHannah Montana 20th Anniversary Specialpremiere in Los Angeles on March 23.
"Miley knows about my Hannah Montana journey, and I'mveryaware of her Hannah Montana journey," she says. "Ours looked very different. I didn't have the Malibu mansion, but I had a little portable sound system and a lot of birthday parties that I got to go sing at."
Wilson adds Cyrus "absolutely loves" that she impersonated Hannah.
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"I told her impersonating Hannah really showed me, like, 'Okay, if you want this, if you want to do this not as Hannah Montana but as yourself, you're going to have to go get it,'" she says. "I wasn't really even old enough to be driving, but I was going to Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana trying to play in front of whoever I possibly could."
Wilson says the grind "really taught me a lot."
"It taught me that this wasn't going to be easy, but it was going to be fun," she says.
Wilson went on to land her first major-label deal in 2018. Since then, she's become one of country's brightest stars, earning a Grammy, notching nine country radio No. 1s and landing a recurring role on the blockbuster Paramount seriesYellowstone.
“Even 15 years in Nashville could not prepare me for the way my career exploded,” says Wilson, who will alsoheadline the Stagecoach music festivalin Indio, Calif., the last weekend of April. “I mean, this is all I could have ever wanted and more. At the end of the day, I think little Lainey would be very proud of big Lainey."
For more from Lainey Wilson, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE on newsstands everywhere Friday.
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