Brad Paisley
Brad Paisley
Brad Douglas Paisleyis an American country music singer and songwriter. Starting with his 1999 debut album, Who Needs Pictures, he has released 10 studio albums and a Christmas compilation on the Arista Nashville label, with all of his albums certified Gold or higher by the RIAA. He has scored 32 top 10 singles on the U.S. Billboard Country Airplay chart, 19 of which have reached #1. He set a new record in 2009 for most consecutive singlesreaching the top spot...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCountry Singer
Date of Birth28 October 1972
CityGlen Dale, WV
CountryUnited States of America
To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way.
I love being an enigma. Every time I'm tempted to respond to someone who tries to put me in a box, politically - you know, someone who gets on the Internet and says, you're pro-gun, or you're anti-gun - I stop and say to myself, 'This is great; this is what I wanted. I wanted to be the guy you can't figure out.'
When you're old-fashioned like I am, you know marriage is forever. Those vows are a promise.
My dad was president of the volunteer fire department, which was within walking distance to our house. I spent several days of each week there with him - any time the whistle blew, he went. It was truly inspiring to watch him lead that way.
It's a very smart, progressive bunch, these people that make country music. They're not country hicks sitting behind a desk with a big cigar giving out record deals and driving round in Cadillacs with cattle horns on the front grille: it's a bunch of really wonderful, open-minded, great people down on Music Row that make this music.
When I made 'Who Needs Pictures,' my first album, I had been west of the Mississippi River one time in my life, and that was in fourth grade. We traveled to California for vacation and stayed with some friends of my parents. It was culture shock, and it was different.
It just gets easier in that you become more you in the process.
There may be people in my audience who may not agree with me on some particular issue - you know, say, as a gun owner, they may not agree with me, or, you know, someone may not agree with me on a gay marriage topic. Any of those things. But those shouldn't be the reasons you listen to my music.
If you were to hold me to a standard of, 'What are you doing, singing about a scratch-off ticket at your level of success?' then my music's gonna be ridiculous.
I tended to lean towards the guys who both sang and played, such as Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Steve Wariner... And at the other end of the spectrum, I had Eric Clapton in a rock and blues sense, jazz guys such as Tal Farlow and Les Paul... Then Chet Atkins-type stuff.
I take his talent and his passion with me - to the stage of the Opry, to the podium at the CMA Awards, to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, into my own living room. I am the realization of my grandfather's dream. I am a player.
With my guys and with the way that we live out there, we work out a lot and try to eat right, but we try to basically keep it our own rhythm and our own world.
When I got married, I hired a great choir - the St. James Choir, an all-black gospel choir - to sing at my wedding.
I've heard my share of Van Halen. I never liked rock.