Brad Paisley’s Fifth Time Feels Like His First Time
When Brad Paisley stepped on stage at last night’s ACM Awards to accept the Male Vocalist of the Year trophy, it was the fifth time in his celebrated career that he’d received the honor. After so many Male Vocalist trophies from the Academy, Brad genuinely felt like his time was over.
“This one felt almost like that first time. It's sort of like, for me, there was this peak where the first time is this massive amazing experience, you never thought you'd win the award. Second time, a little less so. Third time, a little less so. Fourth time came back up because I thought last year, I thought I wouldn't win it. And this year, well I've lost a lot of money this evening and not at the gambling tables. I really thought that it's, four, and that's amazing to think about and so that was a really emotional thing for me thinking about that and just the fact that you're starting to overcome fatigue with voters. Voters eventually have to be like, whether or not you deserve anything, start to be like come on, he's got too many of those,” he said backstage after the show.
Brad took time to reflect on making it to the point is his career where it was possible to win so many awards, and how at times, he worries that he’ll start to lose momentum.
“You know I feel like there were definitely bumps I mean you have lulls and you have moments where you feel maybe like things aren't firing on all cylinders especially early on with me and then after a while it started to grow,” he said. “And it does, it just feels like it's been steadily been building momentum andI haven't lost a lot. That's an amazing thing for me because I really am such a realist sometime, maybe too much of one, that I can't necessarily accept reality when it is really good. It's sort of like I'm thinking, well you know, I'm going to have to fall off here.”
When Brad looks ahead to where his career his headed next, he’s confident that it all begins with a good song. “As far as where it is going, I've always said this, I think i’ts about songs, I think it's about creativity, what will I do with my show coming up, will it make people want to come back again, will this album be you know, a milestone for me, will it be something new that takes me to a new place that fans appreciate?,” he explained. “More importantly than anything is that. That's the focus, it’s really about creativity and music and making sure songs are what they need to be.”
Staying in the moment and enjoying the night, it was clear that a personal highlight for Brad was being joined by legendary group Alabama to perform their current single, “Old Alabama.” In addition to his Male Vocalist trophy, Brad took home another souvenir given to him by Alabama lead singer Randy Owen. ” There are these perks. I mean I'm wearing this wristband that Randy gave me tonight. We dressed like 80's, the whole band and I, like it was 1983, we have a Delorian out back. We are going to the party in that. This was Randy's, he wore it all through the 80's and he brought it tonight not knowing that we were going to dress 80's, sort of snake skin and Reeboks and my bass player looked like Don Johnson tonight and Randy said ‘I brought these.’ He wore 'em, he wore them tonight and then gave it to me, so it was just cool,” Brad said.
With the ACM Awards now behind him, Brad will hit the road on his “H20 II” tour next month.
