Brad Paisley Compares CMA Awards Preparation to Training as an ‘Olympic Athlete’

While the country stars make it look like a piece of cake, Paisley admits the gig takes more work than what may appear and it’s a process that’s months in the making.

Written by Kelly Brickey
Brad Paisley Compares CMA Awards Preparation to Training as an ‘Olympic Athlete’
Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood; Photo via Instagram

It’s been a whole decade for Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood to get into the swing of things as co-hosts of the CMA Awards. But even though they’ve gone through dozens of rehearsals and planned numerous monologues, Paisley still nods to the fact that they keep learning tricks and tips along the way.

This year will mark the 10th time that Paisley and Underwood take the stage with one another to deal out some jokes and introduce the biggest names in country music. While the country stars make it look like a piece of cake, Paisley admits the gig takes more work than what may appear and it’s a process that’s months in the making.

“It’s truly one of the highlights of my entire career, getting to be [Underwood’s] co-host, becoming good friends, and working on this to the degree that we work on it. We’ll start in August for November. We start tossing around the ideas of what could be incorporated for this year. It’s always the most rewarding. You can imagine what it’s like to start in August for an eight or 10 minute dialogue, and you’re preying all the way off and on through the beginning of November for [material],” Paisley said to Sounds Like Nashville and other media at a CMA Fest press conference.

The only way Paisley could try to describe the dedication he and his friend Underwood put into their routine was like that of the best sports icons all around the world. Although it requires different training and conditioning than that of athletics, Paisley and Underwood put into the sweat and tears just as any other determined individual in their position.

“It’s the closest I would get to being an Olympic athlete, where we’re training for this few minutes that go by one time,” he explained. “You don’t do that again. We’ll never perform the monologue we do or the things we do when hosting ever again. The reward of that, being able to stand up in front of your peers and goof around with them and make fun of them a little bit, but at the same time try to honor them on an important night, we both relish that opportunity and love doing it.”

The 51st Annual CMA Awards, hosted by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood, will be held on November 8 in Nashville, TN and broadcast live on ABC.