You’ve heard of a marriage made in heaven? This is a marriage made in Alabama. That’s close enough.
Alabama is well-known for football, country music and hunting. Those three things merged in the engagement just before Valentine’s Day of Devlin Hodges, 28, and Lainey Wilson, 32.
You likely know Lainey Wilson, an award-winning country music singer. She was the County Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year in 2023. She was the first female CMA Entertainer of the Year since Taylor Swift in 2009. She has won seven CMA awards.
You may not know Devlin Hodges. At age 13, the Kimberly native won the national championship for duck calling. Now, there’s an Alabama competition for you. He went on to be the quarterback at Mortimer Jordan High School and Samford University. He quarterbacked stints at the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Rams and the CFL's Ottawa Redblacks.
The duck calling national championship earned Hodges his nickname, “Duck.” Now, there’s an Alabama nickname for you.
Wilson had performed at the 2025 Grammy Awards. She is about to embark on the “Whirlwind World Tour.” The tour is named for her Grammy-nominated current album, "Whirlwind."
The two have not been in a hurry to get married. They began dating in 2021 but did not begin appearing together in public until 2023.
Wilson’s father has the same name as Beach Boys founder and musical icon Brian Wilson. Notably, Lainey’s music never went in the direction of pop, rock or surf music but headed in the country music direction.
At age 15, she produced her own extended play (EP) on MySpace, which she called “Country Girls Rule.”
After moving to Nashville in 2011, she lived through a rough time, living in a camper outside of a recording studio. The struggle paid off.
Her first commercial album, 2014, was "Cupit." Her second, in 2016, was "Lone Chief." The third, an EP, was “Things a Man Oughta Know.”
The rest is country music history.
Wilson wrote a kid’s book, “Howdy. Welcome to the Grand Ole Opry!” It was inspired by her own debut at the Opry.
Hodges and Wilson have not set a date for their wedding. They have also not set a venue. Will it be an extravagant Nashville wedding or a quiet, simple Alabama wedding?
"Country music for me and my family, it was more than music. We lived the words to those songs." - Lainey Wilson
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.
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