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At 10, he performed for the first time in public by singing in his church. He later recalled that, "Pretty soon, I was performing at every Christmas party and Mother's Day event. The neat thing about a small town is that when you want to be an artist, by golly, they'll make you one." Learn 50 facts about Brad Paisley.
1. Brad Paisley is a critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, guitarist and entertainer.
2. His talents have earned him numerous awards, including three GRAMMYs, two American Music Awards.
3. He also earned 14 Academy of Country Music Awards and 14 Country Music Association Awards (including Entertainer of the Year), among many others.
4. He has been a proud member of the Grand Ole Opry since 2001.
5. Paisley has written or co-written 20 of his 23 #1 singles with the first being his 1999 hit "He Didn't Have To Be" and his most recent, "Perfect Storm," from his chart topping 2014 album Moonshine in the Trunk.
6. Paisley has recently partnered with Boot Barn® and developed an exclusive line of jeans, hats, T-shirts, jewelry, belts and woven shirts called Moonshine Spirit by Brad Paisley.
7. His full name is Brad Douglas Paisley.
8. Starting with his 1999 debut album, Who Needs Pictures, he has released 10 studio albums and a Christmas compilation on the Arista Nashville label, with all of his albums certified Gold or higher by the RIAA.
9. He has scored 32 Top 10 singles on the U.S. Billboard Country Airplay chart, 19 of which have reached #1.
10. He set a new record in 2009 for most consecutive singles (ten) reaching the top spot on that chart.
11. Brad Paisley also wrote a few songs for the Pixar Animation Studios Walt Disney Pictures Cars.
12. Paisley was born on October 28, 1972, in Glen Dale, West Virginia, to Douglas Edward "Doug" Paisley, who worked for the West Virginia Department of Transportation, and Sandra Jean "Sandy" (née Jarvis) Paisley, a teacher.
13. He was raised in Glen Dale, West Virginia.
14. He has stated that his love of country music stems from his maternal grandfather, Warren Jarvis, who gave him his first guitar, a Sears Danelectro Silvertone, and taught him how to play at 8 years old.
15. At 10, he performed for the first time in public by singing in his church. He later recalled that, "Pretty soon, I was performing at every Christmas party and Mother's Day event. The neat thing about a small town is that when you want to be an artist, by golly, they'll make you one."
16. At age 13, he wrote his first song, "Born on Christmas Day".
17. He had been taking lessons with local guitarist Clarence "Hank" Goddard.
18. By 13, Goddard and Paisley formed a band called "Brad Paisley and the C-Notes", with the addition of two of Paisley's adult friends.
19. While in junior high, his principal heard him perform "Born On Christmas Day" and invited him to play at the local Rotary Club meeting. In attendance was Tom Miller, the program director of a radio station in Wheeling, West Virginia. Miller asked him if he would like to be a guest on Jamboree USA. After his first performance, he was asked to become a member of the show's weekly lineup.
20. For the next eight years, he opened for country singers such as The Judds, Ricky Skaggs and George Jones.
21. He would become the youngest person inducted into the Jamboree USA Hall of Fame. He also performed at the Jamboree in the Hills.
22. Paisley graduated from John Marshall High School in Glen Dale, West Virginia, in 1991, and then studied for 2 years at West Liberty State College in West Liberty, West Virginia.
23. He was awarded a fully paid ASCAP scholarship to Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he majored in music business and received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Mike Curb School of Music Business in 1995.
24. He interned at ASCAP, Atlantic Records, and the Fitzgerald-Hartley management firm.
25. While in college, he met Frank Rogers, a fellow student who went on to serve as his producer.
26. Paisley also met Kelley Lovelace, who became his songwriting partner.
27. He also met Chris DuBois in college, and he, too, would write songs for him.
28. Within a week after graduating from Belmont, Paisley signed a songwriting contract with EMI Music Publishing; and, he wrote David Kersh's "Top 5" hit, "Another You", as well as David Ball's 1999 single, "Watching My Baby Not Come Back." The latter song was also co-written by Ball.
29. His debut as a singer was with the label Arista Nashville, with the song "Who Needs Pictures" (released February 22, 1999).
30. In May of that same year, he made his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.
31. Seven months later he had his first No. 1 hit with "He Didn't Have to Be," which detailed the story of Paisley's frequent co-writer Kelley Lovelace and Lovelace's stepson, McCain Merren.The album also produced a Top 20 hit with "Me Neither" and his second number 1 hit, "We Danced", both in 2000. By February 2001, the album was certified platinum.
32. He received his first Grammy Award nomination a year later for Best New Artist.
33. PBS did a 75th anniversary concert special, in which Paisley and Chely Wright sang a song that they co-wrote called "Hard to Be a Husband, Hard to Be a Wife". This song later appeared on the compilation album Grand Ole Opry 75th Anniversary, Vol. 2.
34. A sixth, largely instrumental album, titled Play, was released on November 4, 2008. The album also features collaborations with James Burton, Little Jimmy Dickens, Vince Gill, John Jorgenson, B.B. King, Albert Lee, Brent Mason, Buck Owens, Redd Volkaert and Steve Wariner.
35. Paisley and Keith Urban released to country radio their first duet together on September 8, 2008, "Start a Band." It was the first and only single from Play, and it went on to become Paisley's thirteenth number one hit and his ninth in a row.
36. Paisley and Urban both received Entertainer of the Year nominations from the CMA on September 10, 2008.
37. On November 12, 2008, Paisley won Male Vocalist of the Year and Music Video of the Year for "Waitin' on a Woman" during the CMAs.
38. On May 24, 2014, Paisley traveled on Air Force One with President Barack Obama to visit US troops at Bagram Air Base in Bagram, Afghanistan. Paisley played a full concert for the troops stationed there.
39. On June 1, 2014, Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Welcome to the Future" #100 in their list of the 100 greatest country songs.
40. In September 2014, Moonshine in the Trunk became Paisley's eighth number one album on Billboard 's Top Country Albums chart. It also became his ninth Top 10 Pop album and fifth album to reach #2 on the Billboard 200.
41. Paisley released his book Diary of a Player: How My Musical Heroes Made a Guitar Man Out of Me in 2011 under Howard Books Publishing.
42. He co-wrote the book with author David Wild, a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine and an Emmy nominated TV writer and producer.
43. Paisley and Kimberly Williams began dating in 2001.
44. Paisley had first seen Williams in Father of the Bride which he attended with a former girlfriend.
45. Paisley and his former girlfriend ended their relationship prior to the release of Father of the Bride Part II, which Paisley went to see alone.
46. Paisley has stated that he watched Williams' performance and thought "She seems like a great girl - smart and funny and all those things that are so hard to find."
47. In 2002, Williams appeared in a video for the song "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)," the last release from his Part II album.
48. The two married on March 15, 2003, at Stauffer Chapel on the campus of Pepperdine University after a nine-month engagement. They live in Franklin, Tennessee, and had another home in Pacific Palisades that was sold in 2013.
49. Paisley and Williams' first son, William Huckleberry, or "Huck", was born on February 22, 2007, in Nashville.
50. Their second son, Jasper Warren was born on April 17, 2009. Jasper was named after his grandfather, who bought Paisley his first guitar.
Source: bradpaisley.com, Wikipedia.org
