Brad Paisley quotes:

Alison Krauss is definitely my favorite singer that's ever lived. I've never heard anyone like her.

My father's a firefighter. He was my whole life. And my brother-in-law and several family members are firefighters.

That there's no more important decision in life than who you marry.

Even on the most serious ballads, I'll throw in a tongue-in-cheek remark.

I take his talent and his passion with me - to the stage of the Opry, to the podium at the CMA Awards, to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, into my own living room. I am the realization of my grandfather's dream. I am a player.

No one dislikes LL Cool J. If you meet LL Cool J, you fall in love with LL Cool J. LL and I had mutual friends, and he and I had always talked about doing something. My fans know LL's music. And I love him - we're blood brothers at this point. We've been through the fire together. I know no finer person.

When you're a creative person, there are just times when you're not listening. You know, I could be looking right at you and thinking about something else.

It's a very smart, progressive bunch, these people that make country music. They're not country hicks sitting behind a desk with a big cigar giving out record deals and driving round in Cadillacs with cattle horns on the front grille: it's a bunch of really wonderful, open-minded, great people down on Music Row that make this music.

Country music has become the music that best represents the reality of American life.

Date night is important, even if it's going to Schlotzsky's.

It comes down to building your own world out here on the road. It's who you surround yourself with. My band and crew are really positive guys.

When I made 'Who Needs Pictures,' my first album, I had been west of the Mississippi River one time in my life, and that was in fourth grade. We traveled to California for vacation and stayed with some friends of my parents. It was culture shock, and it was different.

I don't have, you know, an 'overcoming addiction' story, other than the guitar itself, and I haven't overcome that. I don't have a jail time, you know, story, or any arrests.

No one can make the album they made 10 years ago with a straight face. There are two reasons: one is you change as a person. To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way. And the second thing is these are different times.

I love being an enigma. Every time I'm tempted to respond to someone who tries to put me in a box, politically - you know, someone who gets on the Internet and says, you're pro-gun, or you're anti-gun - I stop and say to myself, 'This is great; this is what I wanted. I wanted to be the guy you can't figure out.'

I love any and all situations where you celebrate creativity.

I changed my mindset and figured, Why not try to be really entertaining instrumentally?

I'm sure there are a few things in my CD collection that might surprise people. I like classical music, the blues, and I'm a big fan of alternative rock.

I have a very down-to-earth father. My wife is an actress and famous herself is more down-to-earth than anyone I know.

Even in your darkest moments, you'll think of something that'll crack you up.

I've been on the road I think probably three years.

When you're old-fashioned like I am, you know marriage is forever. Those vows are a promise.

I really worked to try and be creative enough on the guitar parts so those who aren't real educated would know that there was some difficulty in doing it.

My dad was president of the volunteer fire department, which was within walking distance to our house. I spent several days of each week there with him - any time the whistle blew, he went. It was truly inspiring to watch him lead that way.

I jetset around and play these songs and get to hang with some pretty amazing people, then I go home to a really great farm, though actually it's a disaster area of a farm at the moment. But it's certainly a blast. I wouldn't trade lives with anyone right now.

I'm a huge, huge fan of almost everything British. I love 'The Office' - I was a faithful follower of that show before the American version.

It comes down to building your own world out here on the road. It's who you surround yourself with. My band and crew are really positive guys."

There may be people in my audience who may not agree with me on some particular issue - you know, say, as a gun owner, they may not agree with me, or, you know, someone may not agree with me on a gay marriage topic. Any of those things. But those shouldn't be the reasons you listen to my music.

I go to eat dinner with my folks when I'm home. I think that's the trick.

With my guys and with the way that we live out there, we work out a lot and try to eat right, but we try to basically keep it our own rhythm and our own world.

When they say you're the best, I always remember that the majority of the audience probably thinks someone else should have gotten the award.

I get to cry to Barbara Walters, when things don't go my way. I'll get community service no matter which laws I break.

Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one.

I'm sure there are a few things in my CD collection that might surprise people. I like classical music, the blues, and I'm a big fan of alternative rock

I imagine there's a market for total depression. I grew up on George Jones and that really dark stuff.

As a guitar player, it's harder for me to impress somebody than it is to write a song that they like.

Deep down, I'm just a West Virginia hillbilly.

Pilgrims travel to Jerusalem to see the Holy Land, and the foundations of their faith. People go to Washington, D.C. to see the workings of government, and the foundation of our country. And fans flock to Nashville to see the foundation of country music, the Grand Ole Opry.

Today she met me at the door, said I would have to choose, if I picked up that fishing rod today, she'd be packing all her things and she'd be gone by noon....well I'm gonna miss her when I get home tonight.

I don't stare at a sheet of paper and try to think of a good word to use. I try to see where the story should go.

To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way.

I'm aware of the fact that a lot of talented people out there will never get this chance.

My life would be very puzzling to most people if they had to follow me around for a day or two.

I have a to-do list and I have a farm I care for, and things I like to do for fun - going to movies and all that stuff. It's a painfully normal life!

If you fall in love with somebody, then you're not even worried about your bills. Love can take your mind off of anything.

You look out there and there's people that, their day is changed because of your contribution to it.

I tended to lean towards the guys who both sang and played, such as Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Steve Wariner... And at the other end of the spectrum, I had Eric Clapton in a rock and blues sense, jazz guys such as Tal Farlow and Les Paul... Then Chet Atkins-type stuff.

I've always known from the time I was eight years old what I wanted to do. I would have been fairly content to be someone's lead guitar player.

I try to write like the writers I admire - I rip them off in form. It comes from George Strait and Merle Haggard records, and country music in general is really good at that, the twisted phrase... So I'm always looking for that angle in my own work.

Guitar playing isn't really for everybody.

If you're really on top, you probably didn't do that great, 'cause you have to water it down a bit for it to get that mass appeal.

The nice thing about the world that I've been able to inhabit for the last couple of years is that I'm given a lot of freedom. Not all artists really get that.

You can't kill it with goodbye; It always finds a place to hide inside your heart for your whole life. Love is never-ending.

I hope I'm at least half the dad that he didn't have to be.

.. Playing live is about going for it .. it's about bringing it ... you should see a bunch of people trying out stuff, actually performing, instead of learning the record and recreating it note for note. I can't play the show the same way every night .. I really need to be in a creative environment, every night or I'll go nuts ... my manager accuses me of singing just long enough to get me to my next guitar solo - which is true...

Anytime you do something from the heart, people just know it.

When a single mom goes out on a date with somebody new. It always winds up feeling more like a job interview.

I like to look at the songs like they're little movies.

Rock Band never got anybody a date. Never.

Yea there ain't nothing not affected when two hearts get connected. All that is will be or ever was; every single choice we make; every breath we get to take is all because two people fell in love.

Someday I'm gonna be famous. Do I have talent, well, no. These days you really don't need it.

She's a yellow pair of running shoes, a holey pair of jeans. She looks great in cheap sunglasses, she looks great in anything. She's, "I want a piece of chocolate cake; take me to a movie." She's a, "I can't find a thing to wear." Now and then she's moody. She's a Saturn with a sunroof with her brown hair blowing. She's a warm conversation I wouldn't miss for nothing. She's a fighter when she's mad and she's a lover when she's lovin'.

...you think back to Tele players, and James Burton was the one who started it all. He inspired Roy Nichols (guitar for Merle Haggard & the Strangers), Don Rich (guitar for Buck Owens & the Buckaroos), and guys like that to push the envelope and expand on that sound... I really identify with that kind of thinking ... those guys to me are the reason why any of us do this..

... Albert Lee and I have become real close friends, and he comes out anytime I'm in the L.A. area, and he'll sit in for the whole show ! ... we've got a habit of doing that ... in Austin Redd Volkaert does the same thing ... it's fun ... I love to make it a guitar thing and the audience doesn't know any different - they think he's some new band member they don't know. They don't realize Albert's the reason we all play Teles ! ...

She's not perfect, but she tries so hard for me. And I thank God, that she isn't, cause how boring that would be.

I really worked to try and be creative enough on the guitar parts so those who aren't real educated would know that there was some difficulty in doing it

Can't wait to date a supermodel, can't wait to sue my Dad. Can't wait to wreck a Ferrari, on the way to rehab.

I can fall in and out of love, have marriages that barely last a month. When they go down the drain, I'll blame it on the fame.

If you're really on top, you probably didn't do that great, 'cause you have to water it down a bit for it to get that mass appeal

If I get an idea for a song, I have a melody for it. I'm a musician first. I'm not limited by the fretboard

Willie Nelson, out there 200 days a year, calls his band family. And it is.

If there's a song where there's a possibility of guitar stuff that would be fun to listen to, go for it. Don't worry about what anybody thinks.

Unless you're a true prodigy, you're going to have to practice for a while being bad before you get any good. And it will seem like a waste of time. I remember that feeling well. But don't worry about wasting time, because it'll be so worth it. It's my experience that in the end, life lessons and guitar lessons begin to blur in all sorts of interesting ways.

Well one thing's for sure.. all you really need is love.

In the past, I tried to be more of a typical session guitarist. I wasn't so concerned with impressing anybody.

There ain't a woman in the world that wants to hear the word yes when she asks if you think that she looks chubby in that dress. And if she cooks all day you better eat it with a smile; it doesn't matter if it tastes just like bad gravy on a Goodyear tire.

When every memory has been made and the pages start to fade. And every prayer you ever prayed is heaven bound. When you think the ride is over, you're back at the beginning. Love is never-ending.

I'm a last-minute shopper. I end up at the mall or somewhere on Christmas Eve. It's a shame.

I try to write like the writers I admire - I rip them off in form. It comes from George Strait and Merle Haggard records, and country music in general is really good at that, the twisted phrase... So Im always looking for that angle in my own work.

... when Ray Flacke came out, it was like 'What in the heck is this?' ... there's a guy who had that Tele players attitude, and he plugged straight into that amp with a delay, and it was unbelievable the way he would bend those big strings ... he was really unique...

... there are a lot of shredders in country music - Redd Volkaert, Brent Mason, Dan Huff .. and guys like that

... We're all about trying to play better every night, not just singing hit songs ... we ad lib, and every night there's jamming .. it's almost like the Grateful Dead meets Buck Owens some nights, because we'll go off on little adventures and sometimes we do crash the bus! ...

I can't see this world unless I go/ outside my southern comfort zone.

This is real, this is your life in a song...this is country music.

Jackass millionaires, hey, hey, Hollywood, here we come.