It was a year ago July 3rd when the world lost an entertainment legend with the passing of Andy Griffith — and for Brad Paisley, who grew up watching Andy on TV and later had the privilege of meeting and working with him in Brad’s “Waitin’ on a Woman” video, one of the enduring testaments to Andy’s talents and the value of The Andy Griffith Show is that Brad and his sons enjoy the show to this day. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• Brad has two sons with his wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley: four-year-old Jasper and six-year-old Huck.
• Brad says that Andy Griffith is one of the stars from his childhood who he never would have imagined he’d ever get to meet, let alone collaborate in his career. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• You can revisit our remembrance of Andy from last year, right here: http://prep.hearsomethingcountry.com/2012/07/03/brad-paisley-remembering-andy-griffith/.
• Congratulations to Brad, who this week earned his 22nd number-one single with “Beat This Summer,” the second number-one hit from his new Wheelhouse album!

  Brad Paisley says that his sons share and enjoy the classic, The Andy Griffith Show, along with him. (:14)
“Huck and I and Jasper have done that on many occasions, and he’s always fascinated by the episodes with Opie. And there’s nothin’ like seein’ his reaction when Opie does the wrong or the right thing, you know? And you can teach a kid a lot from that.”

  Although he’s met a lot of celebrities, Brad Paisley says that Andy Griffith was someone who, as a kid, he never would have dreamed he’d ever get to meet. (:47)
“The two that would have freaked me out the most in knowing would have been Bill Shatner and Andy Griffith. I mean, I wouldn’t have believed that, as a kid, ’cause I grew up watching both. I got through pneumonia in fourth grade, two weeks off school, with Star Trek II (2) on VHS. And I just watched that movie every day and watched Spock die and Kirk yell, ‘Khan!’ and, you know, never dreamin’ I’d even meet him, you know? And then Andy Griffith got me through life, as well, especially even when I moved to Tennessee. I appreciated Andy Griffith as a kid and thought it was funny, and then, as an adult, I really, really appreciated it, ’cause I had at that point left a 1200-person small town to live in the big city. You know, that was how I went home was to watch that show.”