From Hannah Montana Impersonators to Grammy Winners

Before they topped the charts and collected Grammy Awards, Kacey Musgraves and Lainey Wilson had something surprising in common. They both got their start pretending to be Hannah Montana.

Kacey Musgraves, raised in the small town of Golden, Texas, first caught national attention as a contestant on Nashville Star. Although she didn’t make it into the top five, she kept grinding. To help pay the bills early in her career, Musgraves worked as a Hannah Montana impersonator. Donning the wig and singing Miley Cyrus hits at kids' events. She eventually turned her focus to songwriting, penning tracks for country heavyweights like Miranda Lambert and Martina McBride before stepping into her own spotlight. Today, Musgraves is a Grammy-winning artist known for her genre-bending sound and fearless storytelling.

Lainey Wilson’s path was equally unconventional. Hailing from tiny Baskin, Louisiana, Wilson also spent her teenage years performing as a Hannah Montana tribute act. She traveled to birthday parties, children's hospitals, and anywhere else she could perform. At 19, she moved to Nashville and spent years writing songs in relative obscurity. Her breakthrough came with the hit single “Things a Man Oughta Know,” which shot to No. 1 and launched her into country music stardom. Like Musgraves, she, too, is now a Grammy winner.

Their stories prove that in country music every journey is unique, and sometimes the road to the Grammys starts in a wig.