Chris Young got a big case of the willies when he was making his new album…and by “willies,” in this case, we mean Willie Nelson. Chris is a major Willie fan, and the two of them sing a duet on the song “Rose in Paradise,” but even when Chris knew that Willie was on board to sing on the album, he really didn’t expect that he’d actually get to be in the studio with Willie at the same time. And frankly, Chris says, he got a little starstruck. He laughs, “I have no idea what I said to him the whole day…but I don’t think I said hardly anything that was coherent or worth listening to.” (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• “Rose in Paradise” will be on Chris’ upcoming album, The Man I Want to Be, available on September 1st! And if you even needed another reason to pick up the album, you can hear that reason all over the radio right now with Chris’ irresistible smash, “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song).”
• Did you know…that “Rose in Paradise” was made famous by the great Waylon Jennings? Waylon took the song all the way to number-one back in 1987!
• This weekend, NASCAR fan Chris will be at the Michigan International Speedway, where he’ll be performing the national anthem for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series CARFAX 400 on Sunday, August 16th. Catch all the race action at 2pm, ET, on ESPN.

  Chris Young talks about recording a song with Willie Nelson. (:20)
“Man, it’s so cool that we did that. Really just bein’ a huge Willie Nelson fan, when we got to do this song together, I kind of figured that what would probably happen is we’d send him the hard drive and he would sing it and send it back from Austin. And when he ended up comin’ into the studio to record this with me, it’s just probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten a chance to do.”

  Chris Young was a little starstruck around Willie Nelson. (:06)
“I have no idea what I said to him the whole day. (laughs) I know everything he said to me, but I don’t think I said hardly anything that was coherent or worth listening to.”