Did Lainey Wilson just put boyfriend Duck Hodges on blast? A new song called “Counting Chickens” from her Whirlwind album suggests she’s ready for marriage.

But it’s her interview with Taste of Country Nights that really feels like screws tightening.

• Whirlwind — featuring “Hang Tight Honey” and “Good Horses,” a duet with Miranda Lambert — was released on Friday.
• Wilson and Hodges went public in spring 2023 at the ACM Awards.
• He is a former quarterback for the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers.

Related: Miranda Lambert Gave Lainey Wilson the Best Advice

Wilson, Trannie Anderson, Josh Kear, Dallas Wilson and Jon Deciuos wrote “Counting Chickens,” a plucky, acoustic statement that finds Wilson dreaming of a domestic life.

“Far as I know, you ain’t bought a diamond / You ain’t sat my Deddy down and asked if it’s alright / I don’t mean to jump the gun on perfect timing / But if you brought up Vegas I’d be on a plane tonight,” she sings to begin.

The reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year starts talking about her boyfriend at about 3:29 in this video. You’ll also find a recap of the conversation below.

After revealing Hodges’ new career, Wilson recalls what he thought about “Counting Chickens.”

“He loved it, because at the end of the song I say, “one chicken, two chickens, three chickens — oh shoot, I think that’s a duck … that’s just for him.”

The chorus goes:

“I’m already counting chickens pecking corn in our backyard / Hanging up a frame with both our names cross stitched in a heart / Might be off my rocker dreaming ‘bout a hilltop front porch view / Baby, maybe cart and horsing ain’t the smartest thing to do / Cause they ain’t even hatched yet but my eggs are in one basket / And I’m loving counting chickens with you.”

There wasn’t any weirdness the first time Hodges heard the song, Wilson says. He was actually flattered to hear his girlfriend thinking longterm, for reasons she explained to Evan Paul after laughing and saying:

“I guess I’m going to have to propose to his a–, because he ain’t proposed to me.”

Seriously now: “I think it needs to be during a season of our life where we really have the time to enjoy it,” Wilson says. “Right now it would be like, ‘Oh shoot, I’m engaged. OK, onto the next thing.”

“I just want to be able to really soak it in.”

Billy Dukes is a Senior Editor and Executive Producer of Video Content at Taste of Country. He specializes in country music interviews, trend analysis and the Secret History of Country Music. Additionally, Billy covers Yellowstone, 1923 and related television shows through the Dutton Rules podcast. To date, he’s written more than 13,000 articles for Taste of Country and produced over 3,000 videos for the Taste of Country YouTube channel.