Lainey Wilson stopped by The Tonight Show to showcase her song “4x4xU,” off her recent LP Whirlwind. The country singer performed the track on guitar and vocals alongside her live band and backup singers, who joined Wilson on adjacent sofas on the late-night show’s stage.
Wilson released “4x4xU” in July as the third single of Whirlwind. The soulful mid-tempo ballad tells the tale of a fast-blooming highway romance that takes place in the cab of a pickup truck: “Your hands 10 and two on this heart of mine,” she sings.
“This song is about finding that someone that gives you the comfort and peace of home anywhere in the world as long as you’re by their side,” said Wilson, who confirmed that she believes the co-write among Wilson, Jon Decious, and Aaron Raitiere “could be my biggest song yet.”
Whirlwind, which arrived in August, marked Wilson’s follow-up to 2022’s Bell Bottom Country, which took home Country Album of the Year at the Grammys. Wilson recently played several songs off the LP on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series.
During the performance, Wilson expressed her gratitude for playing NPR’s Tiny Desk, saying, “This has been a bucket list thing for us. She added, “We decided to name the record Whirlwind because, well, that’s what my life has been since we put out my last record Bell Bottom Country, just trying to keep one foot on the ground. I feel like my life has changed, but I feel like I haven’t.”
On The Tonight Show, Wilson also sat down with host Jimmy Fallon to discuss the album, as well as her experience meeting and performing in front of Miley Cyrus for the first time. Wilson recalled being a Hannah Montana impersonator when she was a teenager, confirming she did “three or four birthday parties a weekend.”
“It was just really cool to be able to shake her hand and tell her how much Hannah Montana meant to me,” Wilson said of meeting Cyrus, explaining that playing as the fictional character gave her an opportunity to see if “this is actually something that I wanted to do.”