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.
— Brad Paisley
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.
I have a very down-to-earth father. My wife is an actress and famous herself is more down-to-earth than anyone I know.
I try to write like the writers I admire - I rip them off in form. It comes from George Strait and Merle Haggard records, and country music in general is really good at that, the twisted phrase... So I'm always looking for that angle in my own work.
I'm a huge, huge fan of almost everything British. I love 'The Office' - I was a faithful follower of that show before the American version.
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.'
No one dislikes LL Cool J. If you meet LL Cool J, you fall in love with LL Cool J. LL and I had mutual friends, and he and I had always talked about doing something. My fans know LL's music. And I love him - we're blood brothers at this point. We've been through the fire together. I know no finer person.
Country music has become the music that best represents the reality of American life.
Deep down, I'm just a West Virginia hillbilly.
No one can make the album they made 10 years ago with a straight face. There are two reasons: one is you change as a person. To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way. And the second thing is these are different times.
The nice thing about the world that I've been able to inhabit for the last couple of years is that I'm given a lot of freedom. Not all artists really get that.
Willie Nelson, out there 200 days a year, calls his band family. And it is.
I've been on the road I think probably three years.
Alison Krauss is definitely my favorite singer that's ever lived. I've never heard anyone like her.
In the past, I tried to be more of a typical session guitarist. I wasn't so concerned with impressing anybody.
As a guitar player, it's harder for me to impress somebody than it is to write a song that they like.
I don't stare at a sheet of paper and try to think of a good word to use. I try to see where the story should go.
My father's a firefighter. He was my whole life. And my brother-in-law and several family members are firefighters.
I don't have, you know, an 'overcoming addiction' story, other than the guitar itself, and I haven't overcome that. I don't have a jail time, you know, story, or any arrests.
When you're old-fashioned like I am, you know marriage is forever. Those vows are a promise.
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.
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.
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.
I love to play. When I'm off, I feel a little lost - like, shouldn't I be on stage somewhere?
I jetset around and play these songs and get to hang with some pretty amazing people, then I go home to a really great farm, though actually it's a disaster area of a farm at the moment. But it's certainly a blast. I wouldn't trade lives with anyone right now.
That there's no more important decision in life than who you marry.
I have a to-do list and I have a farm I care for, and things I like to do for fun - going to movies and all that stuff. It's a painfully normal life!
You look out there and there's people that, their day is changed because of your contribution to it.
I go to eat dinner with my folks when I'm home. I think that's the trick.
It just gets easier in that you become more you in the process.
If there's a song where there's a possibility of guitar stuff that would be fun to listen to, go for it. Don't worry about what anybody thinks.
I really worked to try and be creative enough on the guitar parts so those who aren't real educated would know that there was some difficulty in doing it.
Even in your darkest moments, you'll think of something that'll crack you up.
I like to look at the songs like they're little movies.
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.
When you're a creative person, there are just times when you're not listening. You know, I could be looking right at you and thinking about something else.
Date night is important, even if it's going to Schlotzsky's.
I've always known from the time I was eight years old what I wanted to do. I would have been fairly content to be someone's lead guitar player.
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.
When I got married, I hired a great choir - the St. James Choir, an all-black gospel choir - to sing at my wedding.
To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way.
My life would be very puzzling to most people if they had to follow me around for a day or two.
If you fall in love with somebody, then you're not even worried about your bills. Love can take your mind off of anything.
Anytime you do something from the heart, people just know it.
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.
It comes down to building your own world out here on the road. It's who you surround yourself with. My band and crew are really positive guys.
I imagine there's a market for total depression. I grew up on George Jones and that really dark stuff.
I changed my mindset and figured, Why not try to be really entertaining instrumentally?
Guitar playing isn't really for everybody.
Even on the most serious ballads, I'll throw in a tongue-in-cheek remark.
