Brad Paisley has never been one to keep his musical heroes at arms length. He’s worked with everyone from George Jones to Buck Owens to  Little Jimmy Dickins to Vince Gill and so many more. His new album LOVE AND WAR sees two more iconic names added to that list, along with a living legend that Brad has collaborated with many times already. Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, and Bill Anderson all have contributions to Brad’s new project–and that was his plan from the start “One of the things I wanted to do on this record was collaborate with some legends that I have had the luxury of getting to know.” While you think it would be easy to make music with someone you’ve looked up to, but Brad says that it’s actually a tricky thing “You talk about leaving your comfort zone. It’s always hard to write with somebody new, even if they’re not someone that you are ultra familiar with. Even if it’s just a co-writer in Nashville that somebody has set you up and said ‘hey! you guys would write well together.’ It’s always awkward. It’s like a first date. You don’t know exactly how that person works. In this case, when you collaborate with someone that you have spent your life looking up to, it’s ultra-uncomfortable. But it’s also conversely twice as exciting as anything you can do.” Brad compares working with Mick and John to playing country music’s most hallowed concert venue “It’s similar to the feeling you get playing the Opry the first time. You know how important this is, you’ve spent your life hoping you’d get to this stage. You want to soak in every minute of it and you also don’t want to blow it. You also want to make sure that you do something well.” Brad was not about to waste the chance to work with music icons, so when they showed up, he showed up with his “A” game, “I was really prepared when a couple of these guys showed up.”  The songs that Brad worked up with Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, and Bill Anderson join his current single “Last Time For Everything” on his new album LOVE AND WAR–which comes out this Friday April 21st!

  Brad Paisley talks about working with musical legends on his new album LOVE AND WAR. (:62)
“One of the things I wanted to do on this record was collaborate with some legends that I have had the luxury of getting to know. You talk about leaving your comfort zone. It’s always hard to write with somebody new, even if they’re not someone that you are ultra familiar with. Even if it’s just a co-writer in Nashville that somebody has set you up and said ‘hey! you guys would write well together.’ It’s always awkward. It’s like a first date. You don’t know exactly how that person works. In this case, when you collaborate with someone that you have spent your life looking up to, it’s ultra-uncomfortable. But it’s also conversely twice as exciting as anything you can do. It’s similar to the feeling you get playing the Opry the first time. You know how important this is, you’ve spent your life hoping you’d get to this stage. You want to soak in every minute of it and you also don’t want to blow it. You also want to make sure that you do something well. That you represent yourself well. So I was really prepared when a couple of these guys showed up.”