Entertainment, Music - Air Force Times

Brad Paisley brings concert special to GAC network

In large chunks of America’s midsection, Brad Paisley is way too famous.

He’s had five No. 1 country songs. His concert special Sunday is the biggest thing to happen to the GAC (Great American Country) cable channel.

Then again, there are still a couple coasts where he can sometimes escape notice.

Paisley has seen New Yorkers brush him aside to see his wife, actress Kimberly Williams. In Los Angeles, he finds more such obscurity.

There was the recent time he went to a music store and bought a stand. “The guy asks me, ‘Are you starting a band?’ ”

Even the name “Brad Paisley” on his credit-card receipt didn’t ring a bell.

“He said, ‘Maybe I should keep this, in case you get famous,’ ” Paisley says.

“I said, ‘Maybe you should.’ And then I went off to do the ‘Tonight’ show.”

Juggling opposite worlds has long been part of his life. There’s Hollywood and Nashville, Tenn.; there’s the quiet of their 85-acre farm and the commotion of his concert tour.

“There’s that question of what else are you going to give them that they can’t get on the record,” Paisley says.

He can add howling guitar solos. Paisley, 34, has played the guitar since he was 8.

And he can add spectacle. “We’re building the kind of sets where the best seat in the house is back on the lawn,” Paisley says. “[For a duet], Alison Krauss appears on a high-resolution screen.”

This is a big concert. GAC taped it last month and is airing it early in Paisley’s tour. “We have been working for two-and-a-half years to get to this point,” says Sarah Trahern, the channel’s programming chief.

Not long ago, GAC was still an obscure channel, showing videos. It reached 25 million homes, compared with 90-million-plus for the big guys.

Then came key changes. It added the Grand Ole Opry in 2003 and went on DirecTV in 2004; at the same time, the country leader, CMT, was spreading out, trying reality shows and Miss America and “Dukes of Hazzard” reruns.

In a typical month, says GAC President Ed Hardy, his channel has 62 percent more music than CMT.

It has done specials with Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney and now Paisley. “These are tremendous artists,” Hardy says. “It’s sort of a sign that we are recognized.”

Now comes the concert special, taped in an amphitheater in St. Louis.

Paisley isn’t taking sides, but he says he’s glad GAC exists. “They play a lot of music ... I think it’s important to have two networks. ... It’s healthy.”

This special is on Father’s Day, which works well for Paisley. He talks fondly of his son (4-months-old) and of his father, who retired from West Virginia’s highway department.

“My dad is the hardest worker in the world,” he says. “He’s retired now, but whenever you call and ask, ‘What are you doing,’ he’ll say, ‘I’m working.’ ”

Paisley went to Belmont College, the Nashville school known for its music program. That’s where he met his friend and writer Kelley Lovelace. From Lovelace’s own experiences came the first Paisley hit, an ode to stepfathers called “He Didn’t Have to Be.”

Then again, Lovelace also co-wrote Paisley’s current hit, the whimsical “Ticks.”

That defines the opposites of Paisley songs. One moment is emotional; the next, has the whimsy of “Ticks” or “Alcohol” or “I’m Gonna Miss Her.”

His life also hits opposite extremes. For now, his wife and son are based in the Nashville farm, where life is easier; they also have her home in Los Angeles but that didn’t seem like an ideal spot for childbirth.

“Los Angeles is strange,” Paisley says. “Something is either 15 minutes away or two-and-a-half hours away, depending on what time it is.”

Logistics are cumbersome. Still, he doesn’t have to worry that he’ll be recognized by the music-store guys.

On the tube:

— What: “Brad Paisley 5th Gear.”

— 8 p.m. Sunday, June 17

— GAC

— Repeats at midnight; also, 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. June 18; 10 p.m. June 20; 1 a.m., 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. June 21