Country music star Brad Paisley was inspired by The Andy Griffith Show

Brad Paisley watches The Andy Griffith Show, and now you can watch Andy Griffith in one of Paisley's music videos.

Image credit: The Everett Collection

Brad Paisley is a hit country music star with three Grammy Awards under his belt. From the outside, Paisley has seemingly nothing to do with classic TV. However, he and Andy Griffith, star of The Andy Griffith Show, have a much deeper history than you may realize. 

Paisley grew up in West Virginia. He loved music, obviously, and he learned to play guitar at the age of eight. Music wasn't the only thing the young country star found inspiration in; he also found it through re-runs of The Andy Griffith Show.

In 2008, Paisley got the opportunity to put his love for music and The Andy Griffith Show together in one memorable music video.

"Waitin' on a Woman" was a re-recorded song from a previous 2005 album titled Time Well Wasted. The 2008 version became the 12th number-one single of his career.

Andy Griffith was featured in both the song and the music video. In Paisley's music video for "Waiting on a Woman," Griffith can be seen sitting on a bench giving advice to Paisley.  

The main piece of advice given: "you will always be waiting on a woman, so get used to it."

In a 2008 interview with Fort Collins Coloradoan, Paisley said he wrote Andy Griffith a letter and told him how much he meant to him, and asked him to be in the music video.

"He has influenced my life more than most people that I actually knew my whole life," Paisley said of Griffith. "Andy heard the song and wanted to commit to working the long hours necessary to get the video right, and he really adopted this music video as if it was his own."

Griffith was 82 at the time.

The video was shot in North Carolina, where Paisley took his band to meet Griffith. In a 2015 interview with Tallahassee Democrat, Paisley said being at Griffith's house was a dream that he never expected to happen.

"I took my whole band over to Andy's home in North Carolina and we just sat around and played blue grass in his living room," Paisley said. "He pulled out his guitar and played a few songs and was smiling the whole time. It was nice to give him a little pleasure after all that he had given us over the years."

"Waitin' on a Woman" was one of Paisley's most important songs. He had learned from watching Andy Griffith onscreen for most of his life, so it makes sense that Griffith gave Paisley advice in the music video.

"I wrote him a letter telling him that he had basically raised me, thanks to re-runs of The Andy Griffith Show," Paisley said. "I know every one of those by heart. The ones that were shot in black and white, that is. Not the color ones. I just wanted to tell him thank you... I didn't have any hope that he would actually do it."

You can watch the music video here

Watch The Andy Griffith Show on MeTV!

Weeknights at 8 & 8:30, Sundays at 12 & 6 PM

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10 Comments

AlanRockman 5 months ago
He was inspired by the Desert Rose Band too (Brad Paisley).
Runeshaper 18 months ago
Such a GREAT story! Thanks for sharing, MeTV! (-:
Bapa1 18 months ago
The B&W episodes are better, because Don Knotts is in them. Have seen Brad paisley in concert twice, he puts on a great show.
Mblack Bapa1 18 months ago
When the show was on, everything was in black and white. Except at friends houses, I never saw color tv till 1979 or so.
Maverick66 18 months ago
Great story. Brad Paisley in the majority of fans who prefer the B&W episodes.
FrankensteinLover 18 months ago
This was such a Wonderful Story and so awesome to hear the behind the story fact. I grew up on the Andy Griffith Show and forever have lived off the Reruns.
Pacificsun 18 months ago
This is such a nice story! And an example of the kind of people who share their ability to make others happy! Thank you MeTV for making this available. Including the music link!!
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