Top 77 Brad Paisley Quotes

If there’s a song where there’s a possibility of guitar stuff that would be fun to listen to, go for it. Don’t worry about what anybody thinks.

I go to eat dinner with my folks when I’m home. I think that’s the trick.

Even on the most serious ballads, I’ll throw in a tongue-in-cheek remark.

I’m sure there are a few things in my CD collection that might surprise people. I like classical music, the blues, and I’m a big fan of alternative rock.

You’re going to get flak if you tell the wrong joke, but it’s still the wrong joke. Give the wrong speech, you take it on the chin.

I don’t want to do risky. I want to do important. And lovable. Important and lovable.

The artists who stick around for a while are the ones who go, ‘Oh, that’s cool, never thought of that. Ought to do that.’

We learned that whether or not you support the war, you honor the soldiers that fight.

If you’re really on top, you probably didn’t do that great, ’cause you have to water it down a bit for it to get that mass appeal.

I really worked to try and be creative enough on the guitar parts so those who aren’t real educated would know that there was some difficulty in doing it.

When you’re a creative person, there are just times when you’re not listening. You know, I could be looking right at you and thinking about something else.

Our songs aren’t metaphorical, normally: they’re literal in their interpretation.

I try to write like the writers I admire – I rip them off in form. It comes from George Strait and Merle Haggard records, and country music in general is really good at that, the twisted phrase… So I’m always looking for that angle in my own work.

Some of the worst selfies I’ve ever seen are at Auschwitz or Ground Zero.

At certain times, your career should be a party.

Here’s the problem with talking about who I voted for. If I say I voted for Romney, then everybody’s like, ‘Of course.’ If I say I voted for Obama, everybody’s like, ‘Of course.’ And then I’m no longer the guy you can’t figure out.

I don’t think I’m influencing younger artists – they’re not trying to be me. But I don’t say that in bitterness. I say that with realism.

I’m not answering questions with my songs.

I’ve heard my share of Van Halen. I never liked rock.

That there’s no more important decision in life than who you marry.

I can’t play a solo without thinking about John Jorgenson. I always think about what he would do.

I like comedy.

You’re a sitting duck in a mall if you’re a celebrity. It’s like that scene from ‘Guarding Tess,’ I think it is, where Shirley MacLaine goes to the mall just to feel good about her celebrity.

My home town was really great to me. If you’ve ever watched ‘The Andy Griffith Show,’ it’s like Mayberry.

I’m a huge, huge fan of almost everything British. I love ‘The Office’ – I was a faithful follower of that show before the American version.

If you were to hold me to a standard of, ‘What are you doing, singing about a scratch-off ticket at your level of success?’ then my music’s gonna be ridiculous.

I don’t think you can get everything based on who you know, but you can’t get anything until you do know the right people.

I still consider myself working in Nashville. I visit Hollywood.

Anytime you do something from the heart, people just know it.

No one needs to recut ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today.’

I wanted to be Buck Owens and Bill Anderson and Roger Miller. With a higher-resolution video screen. And lasers.

A creative space is an important thing. There are so many studios that feel like doctor’s offices in Nashville. I couldn’t write there.

I’m done with rules that are there just to be rules.

I live in the extremes.

When I made ‘Who Needs Pictures,’ my first album, I had been west of the Mississippi River one time in my life, and that was in fourth grade. We traveled to California for vacation and stayed with some friends of my parents. It was culture shock, and it was different.

When you fall in love, you don’t have a whole lot of time. But when it comes to a heartache, all of the sudden you have time on your hands, and it’s an outlet for you to write.

When they say you’re the best, I always remember that the majority of the audience probably thinks someone else should have gotten the award.

Even in your darkest moments, you’ll think of something that’ll crack you up.

I changed my mindset and figured, Why not try to be really entertaining instrumentally?

To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way.

I’m sick of feeling like we’re in a decline. Let’s look at the good.

I don’t have the answers. But I am asking the questions, and that’s the fun part. I’m like the kid in class with his hand up, going, ‘Um…’ I think that’s a powerful place to create from.

My father’s a firefighter. He was my whole life. And my brother-in-law and several family members are firefighters.

When you see Obama and Trump shake hands and seem to show respect to one another – that is what we need.

Everybody goes through a period where you’re fighting a lot, I think. Sometimes that can be a good thing for your relationship. That conflict can lead to making up.

I’ve been ripping the Rolling Stones off with every song I write in some form or another.

I don’t think I’ve changed anything in the country format whatsoever. But I’m not worried about it. I’ve found my place in it.

The nice thing about the world that I’ve been able to inhabit for the last couple of years is that I’m given a lot of freedom. Not all artists really get that.

As a guitar player, it’s harder for me to impress somebody than it is to write a song that they like.

Willie Nelson, out there 200 days a year, calls his band family. And it is.

I don’t want to be hurtful to anyone.

In the past, I tried to be more of a typical session guitarist. I wasn’t so concerned with impressing anybody.

I had an old, red-covered ’63 AC30 – one of the best AC30s I’ve ever heard. I cut the whole of the first record with it.

We have to be as good as we want to be as a nation.

At certain times in your life, some things are heavier than others.

The only reason I wound up in Nashville and went to Belmont University is because that’s where I needed to be.

Something about cactuses and rock music is a good combination.

I try to be careful how much I sing about the suburban house or whatever.

I’m always trying to think of things we haven’t done.

I don’t have, you know, an ‘overcoming addiction’ story, other than the guitar itself, and I haven’t overcome that. I don’t have a jail time, you know, story, or any arrests.

I really like Ed Sheeran.

The Stones were a big influence on me and the Beatles, obviously.

My dad was president of the volunteer fire department, which was within walking distance to our house. I spent several days of each week there with him – any time the whistle blew, he went. It was truly inspiring to watch him lead that way.

I love to play. When I’m off, I feel a little lost – like, shouldn’t I be on stage somewhere?

I’m the smart aleck. The class clown. I’m the guy who does the song nobody expects.

I love the Smothers Brothers.

I consider myself a bit of a comedian. I write a lot of humorous songs.

I take his talent and his passion with me – to the stage of the Opry, to the podium at the CMA Awards, to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, into my own living room. I am the realization of my grandfather’s dream. I am a player.

Country music has become the music that best represents the reality of American life.

We’re trying to do the thing you don’t expect out of country music. Which is to say, ‘Go see the world.’

When you’re with somebody as iconic as Mick Jagger or John Fogerty, I’m really aware that, in asking these guys to collaborate with me, I don’t want to add a footnote to their career that’s like, ‘Shouldn’t’ have done that.’ It’s important to make sure that they’re well represented.

I like Katy Perry. I like Kesha.

It comes down to building your own world out here on the road. It’s who you surround yourself with. My band and crew are really positive guys.

The last thing I ever want to do is be preachy.

You shouldn’t listen to my music for political messages.

When you’re old-fashioned like I am, you know marriage is forever. Those vows are a promise.

A hat has to be shaped to a person’s face so it fights just right. It has to be done right. If you put my hat on, with my shape, you’d look like an idiot. If the bill is too high or too saggy, you look like a European tourist going to their first country concert.