Submitted Photo: Country star Gretchen Wilson returns June 7 to Wild Adventures Theme Park.

VALDOSTA – Gretchen Wilson spent the day in the park when she played Wild Adventures in 2007.

She pulled on a ball cap and rode rides with her young daughter. She can be seen feeding a giraffe in a 2007 photo taken at Wild Adventures.

The country music star returns to Wild Adventures June 7 in a concert with Big & Rich but Wilson said things have changed since her visit 18 years ago.

“When my daughter was little, I’d book shows at parks so we could spend time together in the parks before or after a show,” Wilson said in an April phone interview with The Valdosta Daily Times. “Now, she’s grown up and works my social media accounts. … So, we won’t be riding the rides this time.”

Wilson has been regaining her health and putting her career back together the past couple of years. The pandemic left her dealing with “long-haul covid” and asthma, she said, adding she had gained weight and dealt with high blood pressure, too.

“It took me a couple of years to get my health back,” she said.

Wilson has her own record label, Redneck Records, which she launched in 2009. The name is derived from her breakout hit, “Redneck Woman.”

“Here for the Party,” her first album, featured “Redneck Woman,” “Homewrecker,” “When I Think About Cheatin’” and the title track, “Here for the Party.”

Though the album’s climbing to No. 1 is described as part of Gretchen Wilson’s “meteoric rise” in 2003 and 2004, when she earned a Grammy Award for “Redneck Woman,” she said her success was built on several years of struggling in Nashville. She moved to Music City in 1996, paid her dues, singing, writing songs, playing.

“Nashville is a 10-year town,” Wilson said. “Nobody comes out here and makes it overnight. … You have to pay your dues. I was rejected by everybody. You have to find the right song at the right time.

“I had no backup plan if music didn’t work out. I had the ‘it’s this or bust’ kind of mind set.”

Wilson has recorded several albums. She charted 13 singles with five in the Top 10. “Here for the Party” is certified five-time multi-platinum. Her follow-up album, “All Jacked Up,” went platinum.

In addition to winning a Grammy for best female country vocal performance, she is an 11-time Grammy nominee, won Country Music Association awards and an Academy of Country Music award.

Wilson said she plans on re-recording her album, “Here for the Party,” in its entirety, similar to what Taylor Swift did with her early albums but Wilson plans to re-record her debut album with a twist.

“I want to put other artists on it,” she said. “I have a couple of well-known artists already in mind. Looking at making it an album of duets.”

She said Travis Tritt is set to be on the album.

Wilson said she enjoys working with other musicians. Audiences for the Wild Adventures show can expect to get the “full Big & Rich/Gretchen Wilson experience,” she said.

“We usually end up performing together on stage. It’s a mixed show. It starts out like this and ends up like that. We have a really good time together.”