Shaboozey and Stephen Wilson Jr. on How They ‘Took a Walk’ Into Stephen King Land With Their ‘Long Walk’ Theme (and Wilson’s Own Viral ‘Stand by Me’ Cover)
- - Shaboozey and Stephen Wilson Jr. on How They ‘Took a Walk’ Into Stephen King Land With Their ‘Long Walk’ Theme (and Wilson’s Own Viral ‘Stand by Me’ Cover)
Chris WillmanNovember 24, 2025 at 1:26 AM
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Shaboozey and Stephen Wilson Jr. chose the CMA Awards telecast for the live television premiere performance of their theme for the Stephen King adaptation “The Long Walk.” Titled “Took a Walk,” the duet aims to let viewers down easy from the brutal dystopia they’ve just been witness to, and to suggest, in ballad form, that there may yet be unity at the end of the road, as unlikely as that seems right now… er, in the movie.
In a visit to the Variety CMA Awards Interview Lounge — presented by Duke Cannon at Anzie Blue — the two talked about how the collaboration came to be.
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“To be honest, how it came about for me was, they used one of my songs in the trailer, ‘Last of My Kind,’” explains Shaboozey. “I’m very particular… (but) I love a lot of Midwest, Middle America textures… and it was a Stephen King movie. And like Stephen (Wilson) here, I’m also like a huge Stephen King fan as well — ‘Christine,’ ‘Salem’s Lot,’ ‘The Shining, the list can keep going. So I was really like, this is a dream come true, just having a song in the trailer.
“And then I hit up my team and I was like, ‘Hey, is there any more opportunity to create for this movie?’ The team reached out to the studio and the studio’s like, ‘Hey, we need an end credit song.’ I just got to got to cooking. They showed me a preview, I checked it out, and I was like really moved by it, and then I wrote the song that day. Immediately after watching the movie, I got some members from my band together and we came up with some chords, picked up our guitars and started writing.
“And then, Stephen, everyone in my band is a huge fan of you. Like they would rather play for you than play for me, truthfully,” laughs the “Tipsy” singer. “It’s all right, but they love him so much… I sent him a text, and it just made sense, man; it came from my gut. I didn’t think of anybody else. … He just jumped on it and did his thing. Man, you make me look like a bad-ass.”
Wilson refers to it as a “full circle” experience, the circle beginning with his obsession with all things King.
The Big Loud-signed singer-songwriter says that he and Shaboozey “met a couple years ago, actually at a CMA after party. It was right before he like started taking off. I was just about to put out a record and he stopped me — I think he had heard a song or two of mine — and was like, ‘You’re a bad dude.’ And I was like, ‘You’re a bad dude.’ … And then sure enough, two years later, you know, he asked me to be a part of this song.
“What’s wild is, I started singing this song called ‘Stand By Me’ because of the movie called ‘Stand By Me,’ based off the Stephen King novella called ‘The Body.’ It’s haunted me my whole life, that song, and I sang it in this dude’s basement and it blew up online. AA big reason why I have a career is because of that song ‘Stand By Me’ and because of Stephen King.” Notably, Wilson’s solo-acoustic rendition of that song, which he performed on the CMAs in addition to the Shaboozey collaboration, was considered by many to be the highlight of Wednesday’s telecast.
“Then in the midst of all the craziness of that year, this dude hits me up and says, ‘Yo, I got this song that I want you to be a part of for this Stephen King movie called “The Long Walk.”‘ And they’d teed it up. I mean, they had this incredible verse and chorus and all I could do was screw it up. So I really went into songwriter mode and tried to, I don’t know, just support this in any way possible, not knowing where it was gonna go. I wrote the verse and they loved it. Two days later I sang it. Two weeks later we heard it on a trailer.
“And here we are singing it at the CMAs. I’m singing ‘Stand by Me,’ and I’m singing ‘Took a Walk,’ both from a Stephen King movie. My name’s Stephen with a PH. I ain’t no King… It’s just a weird full circle thing. I couldn’t have planned this if I tried. It is a God thing.”
Says Shaboozey, “It’s funny, how he has this whole lore behind it. When I met him, the first thing I said to him was, ‘Has anybody told you you look like Stephen King?’ … Everything he put on the track is just, you did us all proud, man. Honestly, thank you.”
They worry about giving away spoilers in talking about the way the song succeeds the ending of the film, although the movie has had its run in theaters, so much of the potential audience has seen it. (Mild spoiler alert…)
“I also like the way the story ends with two characters, with the duality of the two. I think that’s a beautiful thing… there’s two singers and it ends with two walkers … I think that was just meant to be, whether we meant for it to be or not.”
The journey metaphors come easily. “I’m just walking the walk. He and I both are. And when he and I met each other, it was at the beginning of our walk — at least the busy part of our walk. But when we were singing that during rehearsal, there’s a line in the chorus: ‘I know you’re tired. Hell, so am I, we can’t take the same road again…’ And I think, looking at each other now, singing that line, it comes with a beautiful sting that rings a little bit more true. And I’m grateful to be on that road… especially with you, dude.”
Shaboozey talked about the tour he recently wrapped up: “I had this concept for doing this tour called the Great American Road Show for a couple years now. I kind of was just talking about how I felt like America has gotten so far from the idea of what it was originally — people coming here looking for a new life to settle in and just be free to practice and worship and live culturally the way they they choose to, as long as it’s not infringing on other people’s rights. So I just wanted people to know that I’m here with them as well, and we just all want for the same thing… to be respectful of each other and embracing other cultures.”
Speaking of the movie, Wilson says “the attempt here is to level the playing field and just remind everybody that we’re all just trying to survive and we all just want the best for one another. A hundred percent trying to live the best life we can because it’s really such a precious thing. Life is so fragile and humanity in itself is fragile, and we need to cherish and protect our civilization and not take it for granted.”
Wilson talked about his just-released single, “Gary,” off a planned 2026 sophomore album. “I had this epiphany a little over a year ago that there ain’t a lot of boys named Gary anymore. And where I come from, the Garys just know how to fix things. They don’t know why. They just do. And, I think we’re gonna need our Garys, because tech is great and all, but at the end of the day, septic tanks ain’t going nowhere, and we’re gonna need a Gary to show up. … I’d like to celebrate some people that usually are never celebrated. And I think Gary might be one of them, or at least the metaphorical Garys that we’re gonna need that make the world go round and keep our trucks running and keep the tires full of air and keep the plumbing working and, and pretty much all the stuff that nobody really wants to talk about… that keep the world going around.”
Shaboozey was more mum when asked about the seemingly likely prospect of a 2026 album.
He’s “just working, honestly,” he said. “I just wanna keep telling my story, and telling stories. I’m a huge storyteller and world builder. So I can’t really speak too much on it, but I’m really excited for anything for what’s coming in 2026. It’s gonna be really, really, really awesome.”
Both artists were put up in the best new artist category at the CMAs. Ultimately, the prize went to Zach Top. But the competition was anything but cut-throat, as far as these two were concerned.
“Being nominated is a huge win for me,” said Wilson. “I’ve never been a cool kid, so I feel like the nerdy kid in the ’90s movie that they nominate as prom king, just so they can make fun of him.”
“Don’t be Carrie in there, man,” said Shaboozey. “Don’t rise up and bring down Bridgestone Arena on top of us.”
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
