<\/p>\n
So much needed to happen for Shaboozey and Stephen Wilson Jr.’s song for Stephen King’s latest film adaptation to come together that it seems to be nothing short of serendipity. The duo wasn’t simply asked to create a credits song for The Long Walk<\/em> \u2014 which they debuted live at the CMA Awards on Nov. 19 \u2014 they basically manifested the “dream” gig.<\/p>\n First, they met by chance at a party. “[We] met a couple years ago, actually at a CMA after party,” Wilson Jr. recalled in a Nov. 23 interview with Variety<\/a><\/em>. “I think [Shaboozey] had heard a song or two of mine, and was like, \u2018You\u2019re a bad dude.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018You\u2019re a bad dude.\u2019 \u2026 And then sure enough, two years later, you know, he asked me to be a part of this song.”<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I met him, the first thing I said to him was, \u2018Has anybody told you you look like Stephen King?\u2019” Shaboozey recalled. But both artists’ history with King began long before that.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s wild is, I started singing this song called ‘Stand By Me’ because of the movie called Stand By Me<\/em>, based off the Stephen King novella called The Body<\/em>,” Wilson Jr. explained. “It\u2019s haunted me my whole life, that song, and I sang it in this dude\u2019s basement, and it blew up online. A big reason why I have a career is because of that song \u2018Stand By Me\u2019 and because of Stephen King.\u201d<\/p>\n Shaboozey is a longtime fan of the celebrated horror author as well, so he was blown away to learn that his song “Last of My Kind” was used in the trailer for The Long Walk<\/em>. “Like Stephen here, I\u2019m also a huge Stephen King fan \u2014 Christine, Salem\u2019s Lot, The Shining<\/em>, the list can keep going. So I was really like, this is a dream come true, just having a song in the trailer.”<\/p>\n However, he was ready and willing to do more. “I hit up my team and I was like, \u2018Hey, is there any more opportunity to create for this movie?\u2019” he shared. When he learned they still needed a song for the end credits, he watched a preview for the film and then “just got to got to cooking.”<\/p>\n “I was really moved by it, and then I wrote the song that day,” he admitted. “Immediately after watching the movie, I got some members from my band together and we came up with some chords… I sent [Wilson Jr.] a text, and it just made sense; it came from my gut. I didn\u2019t think of anybody else.”<\/p>\n Wilson Jr. was immediately blown away by the song, which they called “Took A Walk,” and did his best to match the energy and quality of Shaboozey’s verse and chorus. “Two days later, I sang it. Two weeks later, we heard it on a trailer,” he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd here we are singing it at the CMAs,” Wilson Jr. added. “I\u2019m singing \u2018Stand by Me,\u2019 and I\u2019m singing \u2018Took a Walk,\u2019 both from a Stephen King movie. My name\u2019s Stephen with a ‘PH.’ I ain\u2019t no King\u2026 It\u2019s just a weird full circle thing. I couldn\u2019t have planned this if I tried. It is a God thing.\u201d<\/p>\n “It\u2019s funny, how he has this whole lore behind it,” Shaboozey agreed.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfac <\/strong>SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a> \ud83c\udfac<\/strong><\/p>\n If you’re not already familiar with Shaboozey’s collaborator, you may be after their CMAs performance, which many fans considered the highlight of the night. Following the standout moment, fans called him<\/a> “the best thing since sliced bread,” “the best artist in decades,” and “the most talented artist at the awards.” One commenter added, “Great to see SWJ finally get the recognition he deserves. Man is a genius.”<\/p>\n Wilson Jr. first made his mark as a songwriter after signing with BMG Nashville in 2016, writing music for notable artists like Tim McGraw and Leigh Nash. His breakthrough as a solo artist came in 2023 when he signed with Big Loud Records and released his debut EP bon aqua<\/em>, followed by his 2025 album s\u00f8n of dad<\/em> \u2014 a tribute to his late father.<\/p>\n Wilson Jr. was nominated for New Artist of the Year at the 2025 CMA Awards, but he lost out to Zach Top. Some angry fans believed he was “robbed” of the honor, but the standing ovation for his performance with Shaboozey was likely a nice consolation.<\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Nov 24, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So much needed to happen for Shaboozey and Stephen Wilson Jr.’s song for Stephen King’s latest film adaptation to come together that it seems to be nothing short of serendipity. The duo wasn’t simply asked to create a credits song for The Long Walk \u2014 which they debuted live at the CMA Awards on Nov. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2174353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[272527,52282,416321,352621,362806],"class_list":["post-2174352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-shaboozey","tag-stephen-king","tag-stephen-wilson","tag-stephen-wilson-jr","tag-wilson-jr"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Shaboozey-and-Stephen-Wilson-Jr-Share-the-Wild-Story-Behind.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2174352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2174354,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174352\/revisions\/2174354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2174353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2174352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2174352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2174352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Who is Stephen Wilson Jr.?<\/h2>\n