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Lainey Wilson “was lying” to Devlin “Duck” Hodges on the couple’s first date.
The Whirlwind hitmaker reminisced on her first date with her fiancé in a new interview with Southern Living Editor-in-Chief Sid Evans, which also included stories behind Wilson’s home in Tennessee, her family in Louisiana, her music and more. The interview published online on Thursday (October 2). The magazine’s November issue will arrive on newsstands on Friday, October 17.
“On our first date, I told him that people call me Goose,” Wilson said, making a joke about her fiancé’s nickname. “ I was lying, but he fell for it. I think he was like, ‘Oh, I’m in love.’”
Wilson, 33, also shared how Hodges, 29, got his famous nickname. She said Hodges “was a world-champion duck caller,” but “that’s not even why he got the nickname Duck. He said he was playing football at Samford [University], and the coach there [said], ‘You remind me of one of my favorite quarterbacks ever, and his name was Duck.’ And he had a really good season that year. And so the whole team started saying, ‘It’s Duck season; it’s Duck season!’ So that’s how he got Duck.”
Hodges popped the question earlier this year at late legend George Jones’ estate in Franklin, Tennessee, outside of Nashville. Wilson, who possibly manifested her engagement ring with a joke, said after the proposal that she’d been “wanting to see the George Jones estate for quite some time, and his buddy had it listed for sale.” When Wilson and Hodges arrived at the estate, the returning CMA Awards host said she knew her fiancé had “different plans. …It could not have been more perfect.”
“That’s a wild thing for me,” she added, when asked about expressing her romantic side in her music (including ballads like “4x4xU”). “I didn’t know I had that side there for a while. But it’s an exciting side to discover. I found somebody who is my biggest cheerleader, my best friend, somebody who is in my corner no matter what.
“He makes it real easy to write love songs. I can’t believe I’m saying that,” Wilson said. “He’s a good person.”