OFFSTAGE: Brad Paisley Tells Jon Stewart Why He Wrote His Book
(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that's happening with country music artists behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.)
This is how Jon Stewart described Brad Paisley on Thursday night's (Nov. 3) The Daily Show: "He has written a book, an ode, a love letter if you will, to the guitar. Which, as you know, in New York is legal." Paisley was promoting his new book, Diary of a Player. Two funny guys, together late at night -- interviews don't get much better than this. When Stewart asks him why he wrote the book, Paisley says it's because, "We have done such a great job of teaching kids how not to play the guitar with Guitar Hero." Then he admits to Stewart how he was never a superhero but was more of a nerd. "I'm here in spite of the odds, much like you," he pointed out. Then they talked about his grandfather and how he taught Paisley that his guitar would be his ticket to happiness. But that not all his advice worked. "He sort of handicapped me. He said, 'You need to learn how to play Chet Atkins and Buck Owens,'" Paisley recalled, adding how it didn't go over too well with the girls in high school. "In the '60s you could have gotten any woman you wanted with 'Tiger by the Tail,'" he said. "But I don't think it worked in 1990."