March 2019 30 • His full name is Brad Douglas Paisley. Paisley was born on October 28, 1972, in Glen Dale, West Virginia, to Douglas Edward "Doug" Paisley, who worked for the West Virginia Department of Transportation, and Sandra Jean "Sandy" (née Jarvis) Paisley, a teacher. • He has stated that his love of country music stems from his maternal grandfather, Warren Jarvis, who gave him his first guitar, a Sears Danelectro Silvertone, and taught him how to play at 8 years old. Just the Facts BRAD PAISLEY • Williams starred in Paisley's 2002 video for “I'm Gonna Miss Her,” but the singer admits he hired her because he hoped she'd agree to go out with him. The two were married in a surprise ceremony on March 15, 2003, at Stauffer Chapel on the campus of Pepperdine University after a nine-month engagement. • Paisley and Williams' first son, William Huckleberry, or "Huck", was born on February 22, 2007, in Nashville. Brad’s favorite author is Mark Twain. Their second son, Jasper Warren was born on April 17, 2009. Jasper was named after his grandfather, who bought Paisley his first guitar. • The Paisleys keep a messy bedroom. In a 2004 column for Redbook, Kimberly Williams admitted she and her husband fight about who should make the bed. Recently, Paisley admitted that he won that fight. "Neither one of us makes the bed anymore," he says. While he's a perfectionist onstage, the singer admits that he's prone to walking through the house in muddy boots or flopping on the couch to watch a NASCAR race. "Deep down, I'm just a West Virginia hillbilly," he admits. • He runs a very successful publishing company. Early in his recording career, Paisley founded Sea Gayle Music, a publishing company whose writers have since went on to pen dozens of the last decade's most popular songs by artists like Garth Brooks, Darius Rucker, Josh Turner and many more. Artists Jerrod Niemann and Wade Bowen owe their start to this venture, as does Brent Anderson. In recent years, Sea Gayle artists have been funneled into Arista Records, Paisley's label. • His dad goes everywhere with him. The elder Paisley can often be seen helping out backstage before, during and after his son's concerts. Along with Mama Paisley, he'll watch the grandkids so Brad and Kim can have a night out as well. • He doesn't keep his award trophies. An article in People reveals that Paisley hands all of his hardware off to his parents. "I don't like reminders of the past all that much," he says. "Nor do I have time to dust or polish the statuettes, so my parents take care and display most of them at their house." He does have plenty of guitars at home, however. He and Kimberly have an agreement that they must ask each other before buying anything over $5,000. One can get plenty of six-stringed beauties under that cap. • Paisley released his third album, Mud on the Tires in 2003. The album features the hit song "Celebrity," the video of which parodies television shows such as Fear Factor, American Idol, The Bachelorette, and According to Jim, and included such celebrities as Jason Alexander, James Belushi, Little Jimmy Dickens, Trista Rehn, and William Shatner. • He and William Shatner are football buddies. If Paisley is in Los Angeles during football season, he calls up his old pal William Shatner to watch the big game. It's a star-studded affair. “He has great parties, and everybody’s there from Ben Stiller to Patrick Stewart, you name it. It’s a blast," Paisley tells ESPN. "It’s really amazing to watch the enthusiasm that this Canadian guy has for the game. Watching it with a guy like him, it’s really hilarious. I love those parties.” Paisley also admits he had dreams of playing for the Cleveland Browns but ended his playing career after junior high. • In 2005, after touring with Reba McEntire and Terri Clark on the Two Hats and a Redhead Tour, he released Time Well Wasted, containing 15 tracks. This album includes "Alcohol", two duets — "When I Get Where I'm Going" with Dolly Parton and "Out in the Parking Lot" with Alan Jackson — and a bonus track, "Cornography," a comedy track featuring the” Kung Pao Buckaroos" aka Little Jimmy Dickens, George Jones, and Bill Anderson. • The singer wanted a place where his songwriter buddies could feel comfortable and inspired, so he built an Irish pub-style bar in his Franklin, Tenn. home. That is kind of ironic since he doesn’t drink. That's right, the singer of hits like "Whiskey Lullaby" and "Alcohol," who has a clothing line called Moonshine Spirit and is a longtime supporter of MADD would much rather kick back with a Yoohoo than the liquid refreshments he so often refers to in his music. • Paisley also contributed two original songs to Disney Pixar's film Cars. These can be found on the film's soundtrack. This was in recognition of his contribution to the "Route 66: Main Street America" television special. • Paisley's fifth studio album, 5th Gear, was released in the United States on June 19, 2007, and he released the single "Online," which was ahead of its time in poking fun at "cat-fishing" before "cat-fishing" was a thing. The narrator of the song claims he is six-foot-five and drives a Maserati, while in actuality he plays tuba and lives in his mother's basement. As a promotion for the song, Paisley allowed fans to recreate the music video and flew the winners out to a concert. • Chances are if you are going on tour with Brad Paisley, you will be involved in some sort of shenanigans. All in lighthearted fun, he has done everything from photo- shopping Darius Rucker into unflattering beachwear to creating a video of Taylor Swift's "fall from stardom." The practical jokes haven't gone without repercussions including the time Jewel had him arrested for "noodling his guitar." • As emcee of the Wild West Comedy Festival in Nashville, Paisley took the stage with his guitar and sang about his "first taste of lovin' with his...first cousin" and purposely garbled the names of the other performers. The singer, who has had plenty of practice ribbing celebrities alongside co-host of the CMA Awards with Carrie Underwood, had to go it alone this time, but said he was excited to be "...more rude than he's ever been in his career." • On May 24, 2014, on a trip to Afghanistan to perform for the troops, Paisley was invited to ride alongside President Obama on Air Force One. While onboard, he finished mixing a track for his latest album and snagged a couple of souvenirs. • If you have attended a Brad Paisley concert in recent years, you may have seen an animated video accompanying a portion of his instrumental performances. As it turns out, these sequences are drawn entirely by Paisley himself. • He goes way back with Little Jimmy Dickens. The two became friends after running into each other in the halls of the Grand Ole Opry (both are members), and Dickens has appeared in many of the Paisley's videos. But the relationship began long before that. After becoming a member of the Jamboree USA, Paisley frequently opened for ... yep, Little Jimmy Dickens. • Paisley graduated from John Marshall High School in Glen Dale, West Virginia, in 1991, and then studied for 2 years at West Liberty State College in West Liberty, West Virginia. He was awarded a fully paid ASCAP scholarship to Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he majored in music business and received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Mike Curb School of Music Business in 1995. • He interned at ASCAP, Atlantic Records, and the Fitzgerald-Hartley management firm. While in college, he met Frank Rogers, a fellow student who went on to serve as his producer. Paisley also met Kelley Lovelace, who became his songwriting partner. He also met Chris DuBois, and he, too, would write songs for him. Within a week after graduating from Belmont, Paisley signed a songwriting contract with EMI Music Publishing and he wrote David Kersh's "Top 5" hit, "Another You", as well as David Ball's 1999 single, "Watching My Baby Not Come Back." The latter song was also co-written by Ball. • His debut as a singer was on the Arista Nashville label with the song "Who Needs Pictures" released February 22, 1999. His debut album, Who Needs Pictures, was released on June 1, 1999. In May of that same year, he made his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. • He started the Brad Paisley Foundation in 2000 to help charities in and around his hometown of Glen Dale, WV. • In 2001, Paisley published He Didn't Have To Be, which salutes step-fathers around the world — much like the song of the same title. He followed that up in 2011 with the autobiographical Diary of a Player, which chronicles his journey of becoming a guitar virtuoso. Paisley first saw his wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley onscreen while watching 'Father of the Bride' with an ex-girlfriend who broke his heart. Brad made his TV acting debut in 2002 on the sitcom According to Jim, which starred his wife, actress Kimberly Williams. Brad wrote his first song, "Born on Christmas Day," when he was 12; his school principal was impressed and asked him to play it at a Rotary Club meeting. He performed on WWVA's Jamboree USA, a weekly country-music radio show after the station's program director saw him play at the Rotary meeting. Paisley was a Jamboree USA regular for eight years, opening for country stars the Judds, George Jones, and Ricky Skaggs, among others. 96.3 Arizona’s Real Country Legends welcomes Brad Paisley to Ak-Chin Pavilion on Friday, May 31st.