Brad Paisley‘s latest big hit is a song called “Then,” and he says that when he and his co-writers sat down to write it, they had a specific focus in mind…and Brad’s really happy with how it turned out. The idea, he says, “was to capture the feelings that you have early in a relationship, and then to sort of take what is a mature relationship and describe how those feelings change and really do get better.” Brad — alongside Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban — is featured on the cover of the new People Country Special issue, where Brad talks about his relationship with his wife of six years, Kimberly Williams-Paisley. He credits laughter as a big part of what makes them click. “It’s probably 98 percent of why she’s with me,” he says. “It’s good to always have that sense of humor between you.” (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• “Then” is the first smash from Brad’s new album, American Saturday Night, releasing June 30th!

  Brad Paisley talks about how his new hit, “Then,” came to be. (:36)
“That song was somethin’ I wanted to write for a long time — that exact thing, essentially. I didn’t know I wanted to write that exact song, or I would have written that exact song a long time ago, but we had a goal in mind — the three writers and I who wrote that — and it was to capture the feelings that you have early in a relationship, and then to sort of take what is a mature relationship and describe how those feelings change and really do get better. I mean, we were all three in that place in our lives, and being able to say that as well as I think we did, it was really cool to see that come to life like it did.”