Brad Paisley Talks Phish, Appreciation Of Jam Scene Audiences & More With Cory Wong

The season finale of Cory Wong’s Wong Notes podcast for Premier Guitar features a conversation with country star Brad Paisley. Cory and Brad discuss Phish and the latter’s appreciation for the jam scene, among other topics.

“In many ways, my band and I are a lot more like a jam band than a country standard thing,” Paisley told Wong. “We have instrumentals that we do. We have areas of the show where I don’t know who’s gonna play what, and we take it.”

Wong also praised Paisley and his band’s live prowess.

“When I listened to your live record, it really showed a certain amount of depth that was like, oh, my gosh, I knew this cat could play,” Cory said. “The live interplay that you have with your band is so great, too.”

Paisley went on to talk about how he’s had the same players in his band for decades, leading into a conversation about band chemistry and audience expectations.

“That’s the only negative about a country audience to me, is they do expect certain things out of you that the jam band audience is a lot more forgiving. I’ve heard about a Phish concert, this moment, I forget what they call it… it’s what Phish fans live for… this point where Trey and the guys are in this meditative state, and they are all acting as one. They achieve that almost nightly.”

“We would love to be able to do that,” Paisley added. “They would leave, though. My crowd would leave. They would literally be like, ‘well, to hell with this. I don’t know what’s wrong with him tonight.’”

Cory pointed out how John Mayer began playing with Dead & Company and mentions finding a band Brad can jam with. Paisley then spoke about his collaboration with jam-adjacent band Dawes. Elsewhere in the conversation, the guitarists naturally talked guitars, including Paisley’s new signature Telecaster, fishing and more.

Listen to the full Wong Notes episode with Brad Paisley below: