The 2018 CMA Awards are set to take place in Nashville on Wednesday, Nov. 14, and the show will be hosted for the 11th year in a row by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood. In the past, the duo has used their monologues to address everything from their fellow country stars to current pop culture events, but this year, Paisley says there’s one topic that’s off-limits — politics.
“I’m not gonna touch that. I just don’t find politics funny anymore,” he said, via Taste of Country. “There was a time when it was. It’s just not funny to me anymore. To me, I wanna do fun stuff. I don’t wanna talk down, I don’t wanna talk up — it’s like, ‘Let’s have fun.’ And let’s talk about things that everybody can agree are funny.”
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“I want everyone to feel welcome and inclusive and we’re not out to offend anyone,” he continued. “I try to find the thing we can all agree on, whatever that is. What’s the common ground? What’s the thing you can sit with anyone no matter where they stand and say, ‘Don’t we agree on this?’”
Paisley added, “I don’t know that it’s always music’s job to do (be political). It can be, but I also think that sometimes it’s music’s job to get you away from some of these things.”
In previous years, Paisley and Underwood have touched on politics during their stints at the mic, including performing parody songs like “Obamacare By Morning” and “Before He Tweets.”
During a recent appearance on Good Morning America with Underwood, Paisley elaborated on the duo’s decision to stay away from politics this year, explaining that he and his co-host want to give people a “respite” from what’s been happening in the news of late.
“What’s important is that we have fun this time,” he said.
“It just seems like there’s a lot that are kind of off-limits right now,” Underwood chimed in. “We just don’t even wanna go there, we want to keep it light and fun and entertaining and just give people a break.”
The pair also indicated that they won’t be pulling a repeat of Underwood’s first pregnancy, when Paisley revealed the sex of her baby during the 2014 CMA Awards broadcast.
“You’re taking great pains to make sure that I don’t even know,” Paisley told Underwood. “Right now I’m so in the dark. She knows better — I’ll blow it again.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Taylor Hill
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