Brad Paisley Page 2

Kesha has signed on to serve as a judge on a new ABC singing talent show, Rising Star, as part of a panel of experts alongside rapper Ludacris and singer-songwriter Brad Paisley. The 'Tik Tok' star's appointment on the reality TV show will be her first since her recent rehab stay, which was due prompted by eating disorder.

Kesha Is About To Become A Judge On New Singing Show, 'Rising Star.'

The contest, which is set to premiere on the 22nd June hosted by singer Josh Groban, has a fairly simple premise: prior to the show, viewers enter online through a free app that will allow them to vote in real time when the contestants are performing.

Continue reading: Kesha To Join Ludacris, Brad Paisley To Judge New Singing Talent Contest, 'Rising Star'

The Country Music Association Awards lit up the Nashville nighttime on Wednesday, 6 November, as 'Country Music's Biggest Night' went off with a bang at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Aired live on ABC last night, the hosts for the evening were once again the ever-reliable Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley, who oversaw some memorable moments over the course of the night.

Blake Shelton performs at the CMA Music Festival

Leading the nominations pack for the 47th annual awards was rising star Kacey Musgraves, who led with six nominations in total. Right behind, with five nominations, was Miranda Lambert, but it was her husband Blake Shelton who finished the night as the biggest winner, taking home two gongs during the ceremony. Officially, it was Taylor Swift who went home with the most awards, although her wins for the Music Event of the Year (shared with Tim Mcgraw and Keith Urban) and the sought-after Pinnacle Award had already being revealed prior to the awards show. She also won (again, sharing with McGraw and Urban) for Music Video of the Year for 'Highway Don't Care.'

Continue reading: The Country Music Awards Toasts Country's Top Entertainers: Full Winners List & Highlights

Carrie Underwood is a talented, rich and beautiful country singer, but she became instantly more relatable to clumsy regular folk everywhere, when she took a rather ungraceful tumble onstage during her Corpus Christi concert on Thursday. To her credit however, Underwood took the fall and subsequent injury, even tweeting a picture of her foot (expertly pedicured, of course) in a walking brace.

Good news, it's not broken...AND I got some new footwear! pic.twitter.com/chJ2zBLDyX

— Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood) September 6, 2013

Continue reading: Stage Tumble Leads To Some Hilarious Tweeting From Carrie Underwood

Country star Randy Travis is recovering from his emergency brain surgery, while scores of fans and fellow country musicians banded together to urge on the prayers for him. It was a terrifying chain of events that led to the operation. Travis had been recovering from heart failure, brought on by a viral infection, when he had the stroke, which necessitated the surgery to relieve pressure on his brain, according to publicist Kirt Webster’s account. Webster urged Travis’s friends and fans to pray for the singer’s speedy recovery.

Travis suffered a string of complications, following a viral infection.

Some of the first people to join his call were Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum and Martina McBride and the Grand Ole Opry, the AP reports. An army of Randy fans joined in, using the hashtag #PrayforRandy. Drs. William Gray and Michael Mack of the Baylor Health Care System in Texas described Travis’ condition and hospitalization in a video statement on Wednesday.

Continue reading: Country Stars Urge Fans To Pray For Randy Travis's Recovery

When Brad Paisley and LL Cool J made waves recently with their eyebrow raising “Accidental Racist”, you can bet the parodies weren’t far behind. And what’s public embarrassment without Stephen Colbert? For one thing, it’s not as fun.

On Wednesday’s The Colbert Report, the comedian performed a spoof of the track, aptly titled “Oopsie Daisie Homophobe." Alan Cumming guests on the track as the LL to Colbert’s Paisley and does one heck of a job of it. The parody’s simplistic lyrics highlight the original insipid ideas about race and class separation and, as with any Colbert production, they make you laugh at the same time. And let’s not forget that little bit of social commentary sprinkled in for good measure – since homophobia is another pressing issue in America today, Colbert managed to kill too birds with one stone, turning Paisley’s head-scratchingly poor judgement into a funny bit of entertainment trivia. Sadly, if you missed it, that’s it. Unlike a lot of videos from The Colbert report, the video isn’t available for streaming on Comedy Central – at least not yet.

Hopefully, that’s enough closure for everybody, who heard the original track and now we can all move on to the next celebrity blunder. Maybe one with fewer tinges of bigotry this time.

It may have just been poor judgement from Paisley, but Colbert turned it into some good entertainment.

Albums of Note... Bonobo, aka Simon Green, may not have found instant stardom in his career but his work is characterised by a steady progress that is reflected in his tracks. North Borders is the fifth studio album from Bonobo and he calls on a range of influences, from hip-hop, soul, jazz and dubstep, to create a sound that has gradually developed into his own distinctive sound. Bonobo calls on a few friends for this album, notably Erykah Badu, who sings on ‘Heaven for the Sinner,’ a twinkling take on modern soul.

“What sets Bonobo apart in an overly crowded marketplace… is an expert ability to channel myriad influences from outside of his sphere into something that works perfectly inside it, not just within a single track but start-to-finish across an album.”

Continue reading: A Week In Music - Bonobo Builds On Steady Career, Little Comets Supply Astronomical Memories, Palma Violets Return With Raucous Video

It’s been a week of explaining for Brad Paisly, whose ‘Accidental Racist’ song has, accidently (sweet irony noted) caused loads of controversy. Most recently, he’s been explaining to Jay Leno what it’s all about.

“What we're trying to do is explore what happens when two people have a dialogue," Paisley said. "The entire album Wheelhouse is meant to touch on some themes that I think aren't normally touched on in music, and in the context of the album, the song makes a little more sense." See, some people have a problem with the song’s content, other people are dismayed by just how bad it is, and others think his brand of country hip hop is just awful. And although he sees people have misinterpreted the song, he said he hopes that "something good can come of this,” adding” "We don't expect to get the answers in this song," Paisley said. "It's not perfect, but it is honest, and it comes from a good place." It would appears as though last year’s Oscars winners were the influence for this song. "Racism has been on my mind," he says. "Last year, we had some really powerful movies deal with it really well. We had Django [Unchained] and Lincoln, and the media deals with it all the time, and I thought maybe it would be an interesting conversation between country music and rap music to deal with this subject between two individuals in a loving and understanding way."

Paisley wearing a bad suit and a bad hat, holding a guitar. A bad guitar.

Continue reading: Brad Paisley Talks ‘Accidental Racist’ On Jay Leno: "Something Good Can Come Of This"

Can the circle be unbroken? Who knows? Is the Accidental Racist racist? Who knows? We’ve listened to that song more times than we care to talk about now and frankly, it’s been reduced to little more than a terrible country song with some MOR rapping laid on top; one of the worst musical unions we have heard in a very long time, there, from Brad Paisley and LL Cool J. They were an unlikely studio pairing and we’re going to go so far as to say that it was probably an ‘unwanted’ one, too, for the most part.

If you think about Accidental Racist too hard, it will blow your mind. It’s a song about racism, it’s a song that is criticising racism, dissecting the cultural context that leads people to accidentally be a bit racist, without really realising it. Yet, somehow, Accidental Racist is… accidentally racist. It’s literally The Most Ironic Song EVER. Hands Down. It’s such a mind-blowing concept that you’d be better off trying to understand what happened before the big bang.

Thankfully, the world’s celebrities and comedians were on hand to provide a little light relief from the intense pressures of thinking too hard about Accidental Racist. Al Yankovic posted a tweet which, somewhat hilariously read “I WOULD do ‘Accidental Nazi’ but I'm not sure I could get Mel Brooks to do the rapping part” (Brooks has bad form in the world of anti-Semitism, in case you weren’t aware). Meanwhile, Patton Oswalt tweeted “I can't wait for Brad Paisley & LL Cool J's next single: ‘Whoopsy Daisy, Holocaust, My Bad.’ That song was a tragedy. We’re just grateful that others have been able to get a few laughs out of it, because we’re still weeping over here. 

Continue reading: Is Brad Paisley And LL Cool J's 'Accidental Racist' Accidentally The Most Racist Song Ever?

Don't Mess With The Lohan: Though David Letterman probed and probed, Lindsay Lohan gave an assured performance on the Late Show this week, following her sentencing to three months in locked down rehabilitation. A healthy looking Lindsay spoke about what she's looking to get out of the experience and even had room for a few quips.

Accidental Racist: LL Cool J and Brad Paisley have joined forces on a country-hip-hop hybrid. Now, whether that appeals or sounds like you're worst nightmare, you've probably heard that it's caused quite a stir for its treatment of race relations in the lyrics. LL is standing by the "bold statement."

Continue reading: A Week In Celebrity News: Lohan Gives As Good As She Gets, Tom Hanks Wows Onstage, LL Cool J Defends 'Accidental Racist' And Much More!

LL Cool J will no doubt be aware of the controversy caused by his collaboration with country singer Brad Paisley but the rapper is standing by the song and has even said that he’s proud of it.

The track, ‘Accidental Racist,’ hit the internet on Monday (April 8, 2013) and many reacted strongly to the song’s lyrics, in which Paisley explains the “red flag” on his chest and describes himself as a “proud rebel son with an old can of worms, looking like I got a lot to learn, but I’m just a white man, coming to you from a South land… I’m proud of where I’m from but I’m not proud of everything we’ve done.”

In the song, LL Cool J responds to Paisley’s assertion that he’s caught between “Southern pride and Southern blame” by saying “dear Mr White Man, I wish you understood, what is like, living in the ‘hood… just because my pants are sagging doesn’t mean I’m up to no good.” Of course, it’s hard to condense the complexities of America’s race relations into a 6-minute country rap song. Perhaps we should applaud them for trying. But some things should just stay in the recording studio, you know? 

Continue reading: "I'm Really Proud Of It" - LL Cool J Defends Brad Paisley Collaboration 'Accidental Racist'

“Video removed by user” doesn’t bode well for Brad Paisley and LL Cool J’s new song, ‘Accidental Racist.’ The tune has been received pretty (and when we say pretty, we mean really) badly by pretty much everyone.

Not surprising, especially considering Paisley wears a shirt bearing the Confederate flag and claiming that he is "caught between Southern pride and Southern blame." And then there are the lyrics. "I’m just a white man comin’ to you from the Southland / Tryin’ to understand what it’s like not to be / I’m proud of where I’m from but not everything we’ve done / And it ain’t like you and me can rewrite history," Paisley sings. "Our generation didn’t start this nation / We’re still pickin’ up the pieces, walkin’ on eggshells, fightin’ over yesterday." Of course, Paisley is claiming that he’s not racist in this song, and considers his heart to be in the right place. "This isn't a stunt. This isn't something that I just came up with just to be sort of shocking or anything like that," he told Entertainment Weekly today. "I knew it would be, but I'm sort of doing it in spite of that, really."

Brad Paisley performs in Sweden

Continue reading: Brad Paisley & LL Cool J Song Accidental Racist Causes Controversy, Video Removed

Luke Bryan scooped a whopping nine awards at the American Country Awards on Monday (December 10th 2012) missing out on only two other possible titles.

The artist won nine out of 24 awards which, considering fifteen of those were reserved for females, groups, collaborations and new artists, isn't bad at all as he only lost out on two other possible accolades for 'Touring Artist of the Year' which went to Jason Aldean and Song of the Year which went to Eric Church and his song 'Springsteen' featuring Jeff Hyde and Ryan Tyndell. Luke's awards included Artist of the Year (general and male category), Album of the Year for his Tailgates & Tanlines, Single of the Year (both general and male) for 'I Don't Want This Night To End' - a song which also earned him Music Video of the Year (general and male, again) and Most Played Radio Track (once more, for the general and male categories).

Miranda Lambert was the highest female earner of ACA accolades, winning three for her song 'Over You': Single of the Year (Female), Music Video of the Year (Female) and Most Played Radio Track (Female). Lady Antebellum won the most awards for a group including Artist of the Year (Group) and Single of the Year (Group) for their song 'We Owned The Night'. 

Continue reading: Luke Bryan Smashes American Country Awards With Nine Accolades

Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley performed a surprise duet in Nashville on Sunday night (September 23, 2012). Carrie was so overwhelmed when her fellow country music star Brad appeared onstage alongside that she could be seen wiping a tear from her eye, as they sang their hit duet ‘Remind Me’ in front of the huge crowd at the Bridgestone Arena. The former American Idol singer was watched in the crowd by former contestants David Cook and Lauren Alaina, as well as Kix Brooks and Vince Gill.

The Nashville Arena is fast becoming a familiar haunt for Carrie Underwood. Not only has she headlined the venue three times since 2008 but her husband, Mike Fisher, now plays for Nashville Predators NHL team, making the Bridgestone Arena his team’s home ground. When they walked around the venue earlier on in the day, Mike said to Carrie “you’re on my turf now.” It didn’t take Carrie long to come up with a response and she quickly shot back “I was here first.” She’s got a point, as Mike only joined the Predators last year.

According to a report from the country music radio station WWGP AM1050, during her headline show Sunday night, Underwood was also joined by Hunter Hayes, who had also served as her opening act. Carrie and Hunter performed a duet of ‘Leave Love Alone.’ During his own opening set, Hunter was surprised onstage by staff from his record label, who presented him with a platinum plaque for his hit song ‘Wanted.’