A “Redneck Woman” needs her education too, and Grammy-winner country singer Gretchen Wilson now has one.

The 34-year-old Pocahantas, Il., native has earned her GED, she revealed to the Tennessean (get the full article at www.tennessean.com). Wilson, dropped out of school in the ninth grade, will wear a cap and gown in a May 15 ceremony in Wilson County near Nashville, where she resides.

Her 21-year-old cousin Matt Simmonds passed the test as well.

Wilson’s seven-year-old daughter Grace was one of Wilson’s main inspirations for finishing high school.

“I don’t want to be the dummy that says, ‘I don’t know how to do that.’ And I certainly don’t want her to think you can be this successful without an education,” she said. “It’s something that I should have done a long time ago and now I can file it away.”

Wilson spent most of her high school years working in bars, and doesn’t think she’d be the country superstar she is if she’d stayed in school.

“I may have been in the music business, but I don’t think I would have been an artist. I don’t think I’d have been pushy enough. I kind of had to get out there and start fighting and clawing my way through the world, and that started really early. And I think that’s a lot of what it took for me to finally get that record deal,” she says.

Wilson is currently working on her fourth album. The first single, “Growing Up Down South,” is looking to hit radio next month.

Wilson tentatively has a Sept. 19 date slated for the Pageant.