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Jim Shea
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Jeff Lipsky
Brad Paisley is no stranger to a catchy turn of phrase.
In fact, clever wordplay has, in part, made Paisley the country megastar that he has become today. When he broke onto the scene with his debut album, Who Needs Pictures, and its breakout single “He Didn’t Have to Be,” it was Paisley’s smart and sentimental lyrics that made him stand out amongst his country music contemporaries. As his career evolved, so did his playful lyricism. Songs like “I’m Gonna Miss Her,” “Celebrity,” and “Ticks” all showcase Paisley‘s funny and punny personality. But recently, while working on his most current single, “Same Here,” one phrase tripped him up.
Paisley and co-writers Lee Miller and Taylor Goldsmith (front- man for the band Dawes) were comparing their life experiences as they worked on the track for which Paisley already had the title. As the West Virginia native and California boy Dawes started talking about the differences and similarities of where they came from, the lyrics came into view.
“It was the idea of talking to somebody from somewhere else and saying are these the things y’all care about? Is this what y’all do? [The first verse says] ‘California seems so different from Nashville with paparazzi and the ocean, but do y’all have a bar?’ And then the second verse being about Mexico and a wedding— not understanding the language, but seeing that it looks exactly like the emotions that we would see if somebody gets married at Cheekwood,” says Paisley. “[We were writing about Europe], but so much of it is life as we know it just with different languages. We started that song around the time of the invasion of Ukraine and if you think about this one country there that’s fighting for its life and how much more apparent their values are... It’s one thing to appreciate our shared values, it’s another thing to have that conver- sation with someone who’s not sure they have them right now.”
In the studio, Paisley felt like something was missing from the track. “I thought it would be really cool to have a Ukrainian singer saying a refrain at the end.” The singer, by chance, had been tapped to participate in an NBC fundraiser for Ukrainian aid and was able to bring up the concept to some of the Ukrainians involved. In a global turn of events, Paisley pitched the idea of talking to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the similarities between the U.S. and Ukraine and recording it for the song.
“The next thing you know—and I say ‘the next thing’ but it was a long process scheduling and canceling between air raid sirens—I’m sitting there on Zoom and there he is. I asked him, ‘What is same here in Ukrainian?’ And he said, ‘‘Так само.’”
The conversation plays out in the last minute and a half of the song, which Paisley released on the year-anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s a haunting reminder of what’s happening on the other side of the world and brings the humanity and the heart of the people involved closer to home. The release marks more than one milestone for the singer, as well. It’s the first off his forthcoming album Son of the Mountains, Paisley’s 12th studio album but his first with a new label, Universal Music Group. It also kicked off a wild series of events that saw the singer joining a delegation of bipartisan U.S. senators for a trip to the war-torn country in question.
President Zelenskyy, Brad Paisley
“I’ve been friends with [Arizona Senator] Mark Kelly for a long time and he wrote me and said, ‘I heard your song; it’s fantastic. Did you go to Kyiv?’ I said no, we did it over Zoom and he wrote, ‘Do you want to go?’ He wrote down a date and said they were getting a delegation together.’”
With high-ranking officials and a war-ravaged country in play, security was tight and Paisley found himself having to keep a big secret.
“My wife knew I was there, but not many others,” he says. But that all changed when the embargo was up and Paisley posted a video of himself performing the song in front of tanks in Kyiv’s St. Michael’s Square. It’s a striking image that was as emotional for many watching it as it was for the singer himself. But that wasn’t the only emotion stirred up in the comments.
“I posted [myself ] standing in front of a banner with red letters that just said, ‘help us, world.’ That really struck me because someone was so desperate that they took a sheet and wrote on it like that. It’s crudely written and it’s hanging up on a Ukrainian statue that’s covered in sandbags so it doesn’t get destroyed because that’s one of the things Russia does—they get rid of the history,” he says. “But then you get home and see the comments, one of which was, ‘Those are Photoshopped sandbags.’ And you’re just like, ‘Oh, that’s not an American.’”
And while most of the responses to Paisley’s trip were positive, he wasn’t thrown by those few and far between critics.
“I’d already been through doing a song with Zelenskyy and seeing that [reaction], so I knew it’s not going to be better when I go over. It’s not like they’re going to be like, ‘OK, now I get it!’ But it’s OK. I decided to do this. I care about this issue,” he says. “Somebody asked me why. I was filming some stuff for the record in West Virginia, which is a war zone in itself with the opioid crisis and the storefronts in some of these old coal towns boarded up, and somebody asked me [about Ukraine]. I said, ‘Our state motto is Montani Semper Liberi, which is Mountaineers Are Always Free . We broke away from Virginia to become our own state in the Civil War because we decided we were going to fight for the Union. This is the equivalent of Virginia wanting us back and they’re coming to get us.’ I was raised to believe in this concept of freedom and democracy, and this is one of the easier issues of our time to get behind.”
The travesties in Ukraine are just one of the tough topics Paisley tackles on his new album. For a singer/songwriter best known for his upbeat, tongue-in-cheek hits, it’s a foray into darker, more issue-driven storytelling.
“It’s written from the perspective of this kid who left West Virginia 20 years ago to do this for a living and what I’ve seen,” he says. “There’s more of an intense focus on writing songs that show reality right now—in my life and in others’ lives. ‘Same Here’ is no exception. That’s the largest theme on here in terms of a world-encompassing, overarching idea, but it really is a very simple perspective of here I am living in Tennessee, asking questions about other places and how are we similar. The other songs on here, there’s some that deal with freedom, there’s some that deal with the opioid crisis—that’s been heavy on my mind. There’s a song called ‘The Medicine Will’ that I wrote with Lee Miller. His family is from Kentucky, my family’s from [West Virginia] and these two areas are just ravaged. There’s a song that’s about depression and one of my favorite songs deals with the passing of time and making the most of certain things. There’s a million topics covered on this thing, now we’re just trying to figure out how it all lays out.”
The Tennessean
Brad Paisley performs during the Let Freedom Sing! Music City July 4th event in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, July 4, 2021.
While Paisley has yet to announce a release date for Son of the Mountains, he does have one important date circled on the calendar: July 4. This year, he’ll return to headline Nashville’s Let Freedom Sing event—one of the largest fireworks shows in the country. For the singer, who last headlined the festivities in 2021, it’s an exciting return with a renewed meaning.
“One of the greatest moments of the past few years for me was the 4th of July show two years ago because it was kind of our official ‘We’re totally back to normal’ celebration. I’ve never seen a more exuberant audience—it was like the shackles were off,” he laughs.
This year the holiday has even greater meaning for Paisley.
“It really hit me that we as a nation take the 4th of July for granted. Yes, it’s a time to say, ‘Happy birthday, America,’ but when you start thinking about what it is—we decided that no, we are not going to be that thing anymore. We’re not going to be a monarchy and we’re not going to be controlled by a tyrannical regime across the ocean. We’re going to have our own ideas. A few years ago, it was just all about the fact that we were able to gather together again, but this year feels more like it’s about the fact that we have our own system of government. That we are still going,” he says. “This 25-year-old woman from [Ukranian charity] United24 who was walking me around Kyiv said, ‘It is very hard to conquer a country when we refuse to leave.’ So yeah, the Fourth is going to feel very different for me this year.”
Giving Back
Paisley may be doing good on a global level, but that doesn’t mean he has forgotten his community. Closer to home, he and his wife Kimberly Williams- Paisley opened The Store, a free, referral-based grocery store which aims to empower low-income individuals and families in the Nashville area, in 2020. Working with nearly 25 local referral agencies , The Store allows people to shop for their basic needs in a way that protects their dignity and fosters hope. It also helps families in need access other support services for a more comprehensive and holistic approach. Currently, The Store serves more than 500 families a week.
The Paisleys were inspired by a similar concept in California. The Unity Shoppe has been helping families in and around Santa Barbara for more than one hundred years.
“One Thanksgiving my wife, who is a much better person than me said, ‘These two need to understand that there are hungry people in the world because I don’t like their attitude right now,” Paisley says, referring to his sons. “So, she called this wonderful couple that we know in Santa Barbara and asked where they could volunteer.”
The answer: The Unity Shoppe.
“Every time we were out there, they would go and volunteer at four- and six-years-old. That’s all it took for me to say, ‘We should do this in Nashville.’”