Nothing like releasing your first greatest hits collection one week, and then following it up the next week with an Entertainer of the Year trophy! Brad Paisley did exactly that. Just over a week after Hits Alive hit stores, Brad took home top honors at the CMAs. Of course, anyone who’s seen Brad in concert already realizes what an amazing show he puts on — but if you haven’t, Brad feels the live disc of the Hits Alive collection should give a pretty good idea. It’s songs like “Alcohol” that Brad credits with creating the idea of including a live disc along with the studio hits. Brad says that he “realized that a lot of these songs become different arrangements and almost a completely different feeling thing when we start putting them in concert.” In the end, Brad also admits that he loves to listen to live albums, and as a guitarist, it fits him. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• Brad’s current top-five hit, “Anything Like Me,” is featured on the studio disc of Hits Alive.

  Brad Paisley thinks that now is a good time to reflect on the last decade of hits. (:15)
“This is an album of ‘this is what I’ve been up to for the last decade.’ It feels good to actually do that at this point, and recap, and show both on a record what we’ve accomplished, and then live what we’ve accomplished, which is probably something I’m even more proud of.”

  Brad Paisley’s Hits Alive gives fans a chance to re-live, or discover, what he does in concert. (:32)
“Live albums are always essentially…they’re fun to hear. I love them. As a guitar player, I think it fits me to do a live record like this. In the studio, we’re getting every guitar part right and making sure the songs are perfect and vocals are perfect. And live is neat in the sense that it’s not that, it’s the opposite of that. It’s whatever happens happens, and you get it on tape, and hopefully everybody can go grab this and re-live some of this stuff if they’re already fans, and if they’re not, then this is a pretty good example of what I’ve been up to ‘til now.”

  Brad Paisley came to realize some songs tend to morph when played live. (:38)
“I realized that a lot of these songs become different arrangements and almost a completely different feeling thing when we start putting them in concert. So, all of a sudden, here I am thinking as we do a greatest hits album, the record of ‘Alcohol’ is a really good record, but it’s grown so far from that to this song that’s almost the most important live song I do, for some reason. It’s become something that has to be performed every night, and do I let them hear the record version of that, or do I give them this new thing? And that’s where the live thing was born.”