Brad Paisley surprised the 754 graduating seniors at Barrington High School, Barrington, IL Friday night when he spoke to the class and performed during their graduation ceremony. The surprise appearance was the culmination of a contest for seniors to submit posts on INSTAGRAM or TWITTER answering the question: What “Last Time” are you going to miss most about school?  The Barrington High School TV class went above and beyond by creating a fun video that includes mattress surfing down a flight of stairs, pushing their dean into the swimming pool, hitting golf balls on the football field and more. You can view the fun video HERE.

Part way through the graduation program Principal Stephen McWilliams greeted the class and guests and then showed the video on the big screen. After showing the video Principal McWilliams said, “As I watched this video I wondered what would Brad Paisley say if he was giving this speech?” At that time Brad walked on stage with guitar in hand and the crowd responded with loud applause.

“I’m thrilled to announce the winner of the BP Graduation contest we had. No body beat that – that video you guys made was amazing. I’m going to play a couple songs for you before you go out and make the world a better place,” said Brad. He continued addressing the students with humor and also serious advice in between performing “Letter To Me,” “Today” and “Last Time For Everything.”

Brad intro’ed his song “Last Time For Everything” by telling the students “My advice to you, as you go through life, is to enjoy the moments. Make memories, enjoy them and don’t take yourself too seriously.” When Paisley finished the song he told the class “Go change the world, you all!”

You can watch a portion of Paisley’s appearance HERE.

  Before Brad Paisley commented on the video submission that won the Class of 2017 Last Time for Everything Contest, he asked for what ever graduate wants. (:20)
“Can I have a tassel for my hat? (crowd laughs). Nobody beat that, that video that you guys made is amazing…and I’m jealous, we had a VCR at my school. (crowd laughs) You don’t even know what that is, that was the extent of our video department.”

  Brad Paisley leaves some words of wisdom for the graduates, but then double guesses his thought thanks to his worst subject from school. (:50)
“Time passes really fast, and it’s about the highlights in your life that are what you strive for, that you have to sort of both, enjoy the ride as you go to that, and also really live in the moment when you’re there. There’s a quote that’s been attributed to me, rightfully so or wrongfully so, which is at New Years, I like to say ‘Today is the first page of a 365 page book, write a good one.’ If you’re gonna 80 years, you’re going to be a roughly 30 thousand page book. It’s a…or no…is it 30 thou…yeah, that’d be 30 thousand pages, that’s a lot of pages…I’m standing here trying to do math, which was my worst subject (crowd laughs)”

  Brad Paisley continues with his words of wisdom to the students before playing his song “Today.” (:45)
“Let’s just take the chunk of time between now and the 10 year reunion…are you guys going to go…in 10 years, or are you gone? Probably go, most of you, some of you will go. Some of you will be bald by then (crowd laughs) But that’s a 3 thousand page book right there, every page its own little sort of  something worth roughly worth a couple of sentence(s), some pages though, are the pages that really matter. Some of those are the highlights in your life, and the highlights…if I’ve learned anything, they make up for the low points and the blase, mundane parts of life.”

  Coming out of singing “Today” Brad Paisley comments about the crowd, and passes on a life lesson. (:19)
“I don’t know if it’s ever meant as much singing that before for me. Looking out at these bright red robes that you (crowd laughs)…did you have to buy those? (crowd laughs)…Really? That’s a scam. (crowd laughs) That’s the first…there’s a lot of scams, that’s one of them right there, there’s a lot of scams in life.”

  Brad Paisley talks to the graduating students while going into his song “Last Time For Everything.” (:39)
“Go through life, enjoy the moments because they pass so fast, you don’t know when it’s the last time you’re going to see some of these people. You may not see some of these people ever again. You may not see them until the 10 year reunion…when some of them are bald. (crowd laughs) But, make memories, and enjoy them. Don’t take yourself too seriously…” (starts singing “Last Time For Everything”)

  Brad Paisley personalizes the end of “Last Time For Everything” for the graduating crowd. (:25)
(Singing) “Sitting here in red robes as the class of 2017, Last time for Everything…Last time for Everything…go change the world y’all. (crowd cheers) god bless you. do good things. (crowd cheers)”

  Longer version of Brad Paisley personalizing the end of “Last Time For Everything” for the graduating crowd. (:60)