Brad
Douglas Paisley (born
October 28, 1972) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Starting with his 1999 debut album Who Needs Pictures, he
has released eleven studio albums and a Christmas compilation on the Arista Nashville label, with all of his albums
certified Gold or higher by
the RIAA.
He has scored 32 Top 10 singles on the US Billboard Country Airplay chart, 19 of which have reached number 1.
He set a new record in 2009 for the most consecutive singles (10) reaching the
top spot on that chart. Paisley has sold over 11 million albums and has won
three Grammy Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards,
14 Country Music Association Awards, and two American Music Awards. He
has also earned country music's crowning achievement, becoming a member of
the Grand Ole Opry. Paisley
also wrote songs for Pixar's Cars franchise ("Behind the
Clouds", "Find Yourself", "Collision of Worlds"
with Robbie Williams,
"Nobody's Fool", etc.). Paisley was born and raised in Glen Dale, West Virginia.
He is the only child of Douglas Edward "Doug" Paisley, who worked for
the West Virginia
Department of Transportation, and Sandra Jean "Sandy" (née
Jarvis) Paisley, a teacher. 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 eight years old.
In third grade, he performed for the first time in public by singing in his
church. Initially, they were just going to have him play the song on the guitar
instead of a piano. But then the adults heard him sing the tune and said,
"forget the choir, let's just have Brad do the whole thing." After
that, he never had to ask for a gig until he left Glen Dale. 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." At age 13, he wrote his first
song, "Born on Christmas Day", which later appeared on his album Brad Paisley Christmas.
He had been taking lessons with local guitarist Clarence "Hank"
Goddard. 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. 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. For the next eight years, he
opened for country singers such as The Judds, Ricky Skaggs and George Jones. He would become the youngest person inducted
into the Jamboree USA Hall of Fame. He also performed at the Jamboree in the Hills.
Paisley graduated from John Marshall
High School in Glen Dale, West Virginia,
in 1991, and then studied for two years at West Liberty State College in West Liberty, West Virginia.
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.[7] He interned at ASCAP, Atlantic Records, and the Fitzgerald-Hartley management firm.
While in college, he met Frank Rogers, a
fellow student who went on to serve as his producer. Paisley also met Kelley
Lovelace, who became his songwriting partner. He also met Chris DuBois in college, and he, too, would write songs
for him. 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.