Jimmie Allen Shares How He Recruited Brad Paisley for ‘Freedom Was a Highway’ Duet

Jimmie Allen originally released his duet with Brad Paisley, “Freedom Was a Highway,” as part of his 2020 album Bettie James, and the song is now Allen’s latest single. During a recent appearance on The Bobby Bones Show, the two friends discussed how their collaboration came to be, revealing that the idea was born after a hangout with Allen, Paisley, Darius Rucker and Tim McGraw.

“We were at Brad’s house last year after the Opry,” Allen began. “I kind of invited myself and he kind of invited me..and just me, him, Tim and Darius hanging out and we started playing songs. I played ‘Freedom Was A Highway,’ a new song, and Tim was like, ‘We should do a song together.’ I was like, ‘Cool,’ so I sent Brad…” “Instead of Tim…” Paisley interjected. “Yeah, instead of Tim, I sent Brad ‘Freedom Was A Highway,’” Allen continued, “and he said yeah and hopped on it.”

“I saw you were on the Opry that night and those guys were already coming over, so I said, you’ve got to come over.’” Paisley recalled. “There’s a great couple of videos that I have on my phone of us. I put one of them up at the time and it was right before COVID…in February [2020] right before COVID hit. We sang some Hank [Williams] Jr. songs and goofed around and played some of the new things you were working on. It was so much fun just to sit around the way I think people envision Nashville artists hanging out.”

Bones asked Allen if he ever gets nervous spending time with such big stars, the Delaware native replied, “It’s kind of both. On one half, these are guys that have influenced me and my music and are guys I hope my career follows, but on the other side, we’re just dudes hanging out.”

“You belong there, though…and we’re thrilled you are here and I’m thrilled you asked me to be on this [song],” Paisley said. “When he asked, ‘Will you be on a song on my record?,’ it’s like, ‘Please let it be a good song. Please don’t give me the bad one, give me the good one.’ There aren’t any bad ones, though.”

Allen’s Bettie James EP also included collaborations with Rucker and McGraw, and those two songs plus “Freedom Was a Highway” also appear on his newly-released Bettie James Gold Edition, an expanded version of his EP that features collaborations with a number of Allen’s musical influences including Nelly, Keith Urban, Babyface, Little Big Town, Monica and more.