This coming Sunday, September 7th, is Grandparents Day, and in honor of the occasion, we’re celebrating Grandma and Grandpa with these stories.

• Did you know…? In 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the legislation enacting National Grandparents Day, recognized each year as the first Sunday after Labor Day.

  Miranda Lambert is happy to see her future self in her mom and her grandmother. (:29)
“I’m becoming more like my mom I think the older I get. Just my demeanor, and even the way I look. Because I always grew up looking just like my dad. But I find that little things I do, even like the way I sit in the car, you know, with my feet on the dash, I’ll just go, ‘Oh my gosh, this is just like my mom sat my whole life.’ And she’s just like her mom now. You know, so it’s really fun to go, ‘Okay, at least I know what my future holds.’ You know, hanging out with my ‘Nonny’ and my mom, I’m like, ‘Well, at least I’ve something to look forward to.’ They both still have a blast in life and love to party, so I’m excited.”

  Brad Paisley says that it was a gift from his grandfather that truly changed his life. (:28)
“Nothing has changed my life like the fact that my grandfather gave me a guitar when I was a kid. For me, it’s my release. It’s this thing that has become such an integral part of my life and who I am. I don’t know who I’d be without it. You know? I’ve been playing the guitar since I was eight, so almost every major decision I’ve ever made that I can remember was influenced by that. It’s an amazing thing how much learning to play music can change your life really.”

  Brad Paisley recalls a bittersweet moment with his grandfather. (:48)
“My grandpa and I had an argument back when I first started playin’ the guitar…well, not first…I guess I’d been playin’ for a couple years. And we were best buddies. And I came up the alley all upset, and I told my dad that he got mad at me. My dad called, and said, ‘What happened? What did you guys have a fight about?’ And he was hemmin’ and hawin’ around a little bit, and we’d been playin’ the guitar, and I guess I had showed him how to do somethin’, and he wasn’t gettin’ it. And I might’ve been a little short with him, and he ended up being a lot short with me. And long story short, he got mad at me because, he said, ‘Well, Doug, truth is, he did it better than I did.’ And he was just kind of mad at himself at the same time that he was really proud of me. And that’s pretty wild, and I remember that, and boy, no one would be prouder now.”

  Brad Paisley reflects on how the world has shifted since his grandparents’ generation. (:30)
“My grandparents lived in a different world, a world of the Great Depression and a World War, and the world becoming what looked like definitely the seeds of our Armageddon to them. I mean, it had to be it: “We’re not gonna survive this…we’re gonna…” He went off to the Philippines and fought there, was stationed there, and fought against a country — basically, Japan, there — that is now the, pretty much, chief, one of the chief allies that we have.” (laughs)

  Brad Paisley says that smash, “River Bank,” was inspired in part by childhood days with his dad and grandfather. (:35)
“I grew up maybe a thousand yards from the Ohio River, if that, and that was where we spent every day when it was nice. My family had a boat; I learned to ski on that river. My favorite memory of all time as a kid are the mornings at our boat with my dad and my grandpa. There’s something about that as being in my opinion the answer to happiness. And this song was sort of my take on what makes for a great time, really any time of year, but I think when you strip it all down, for me, that’s what it would be. As a kid that grew up as a river rat, that was our destination.”

  Chris Young’s grandfather helped shape his love of country music. (:24)
“One of the things that I got my start from was from my grandfather. He used to play 45s and 78s of people like Marty Robbins and Lefty Frizzell. You know, my taste evolved as I got older — still love Marty, but I started to find stuff on my own — started liking Keith Whitley, moved on…Randy Travis, Joe Diffie, in that era…and even new contemporary stuff. I draw my sound from all of that.”