Brad Paisley was born on October 28, 1972 is an American country music singer, and songwriter from Glen Dale, West Virginia.

Paisley has stated that his love of country music stems from his maternal grandfather, who gave Paisley his first guitar at age 8 and taught him how to play.

At age 12, Paisley wrote his first song, and by 13 he was an opening act for country singers such as Ricky Skaggs and George Jones at the Capital Music Hall in Wheeling, West Virginia.

His debut as a singer was with the label Arista Nashville, with the song, "Who Needs Pictures" (released February 22, 1999). In May of that same year, he made his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. Seven months later he had his first #1 hit with, "He Didn't Have to Be", which detailed the story of Lovelace and Lovelace's stepson.

In 2000, Paisley was exposed to his first national non-country music oriented audience when producer, Todd Baker, tapped him to appear on the TLC special, "Route 66: Main Street America".

This show featured Paisley and band doing rare live and acoustic versions of Route 66. The international and home video versions of this program end with a full, un-cut acoustic rendition of the piece, which was performed live on Rainbow Bridge in Riverton, KS.

Later in 2000, Paisley won the Country Music Association's (CMA) Horizon Award and the Academy of Country Music's best new male vocalist trophy.

He received his first Grammy Award nomination a year later. On February 17, 2001, Paisley was inducted into the Opry Hall of Fame.