Brad Paisley is one of the most successful, and most beloved, country music artists, of at least the past few decades. The West Virginia native, who was one of the first in the genre to start selling out arenas and amphitheaters, still headlines some of the most successful tours of the year, every year. But instead of feeling confident, if not a little bit cocky, of all his hard work, Paisley admits he still has nerves just like he did in the beginning.
“The one moment every night that gets to me is the walk to the stage,” Paisley recently admitted to CMT. “It feels like I have done that walk a lot. I’m not tired of it at all, it’s just that somewhere in the back of my mind, there’s always a little bit of the thought, ‘Are they going to be tired of me tonight?’ Just a little bit. That’s on my mind.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
Still, Paisley, whose first headlining tour was Time Well Wasted in 2005, has a long list of hits to run through, including “American Saturday Night,” “Celebrity,” “Mud on the Tires” and many more. But the 45-year-old says he makes sure neither he, nor his audience, ever tires of the same tunes.
“The way that we do our songs now makes them feel new. And even a song that’s been around as long as ‘I’m Gonna Miss Her (The Fishing Song)’ never gets old, because it never fails to please the crowd,” he said.. “That’s crazy to me, in a way, because the song is built to some degree around a punch line. And when I get to the first ‘I’m gonna miss her,’ they’re all raising their beers in the air.”
Paisley carefully plans his tours to not play the same city too many times in a row, which also works in his favor.
“Immediately when we start, I realize that these people aren’t tired of me because they haven’t heard me for a year or two,” Paisley explained.
The “Heaven South” singer is currently on his Weekend Warrior Tour, with Chase Bryant, Lindsay Ell and Dustin Lynch serving as his opening acts. Dates are available on his website.
