Brad Paisley’s New Song Addresses Opioid Crisis

Brad Paisley will premiere two music videos from songs from his upcoming album Son of The Mountains on Friday (9/29) on YouTube. The songs show a bit of a different side of Brad and his music. The songs "Son Of The Mountains" and "The Medicine Will" are quite serious and heavy. The latter one addressed the opioid crisis in his home state.

We talked with Brad in June, and he told us about his forthcoming album's new direction. He said, "It's a heavier time right now. It feels wrong for me personally to do a song that's just positive right now. Most of the songs on this record have a real anchor of bittersweet. There's no just sweet on here."

Paisley continued, "The first song I wrote for this record was 'Son of the Mountains,' which kind of started out as a fun thing, but then I say some things in that. The song is really about freedom. Freedom at all costs is a thing, and that's kind of that song."

Brad says the song's co-writer, Lee Miller, had an uncle who ran moonshine. He explained, "It's a true story: his uncle hauled moonshine across the state line into Tennessee and spent years in the federal prison. So that's that song. Prohibition didn't work in that part of the world. It was a disorganized crime there (West Virginia)."

The second song and video that will premiere are called "The Medicine Will," about the opioid crisis in his home state of West Virginia. He told us, "I spent a couple days in West Virginia interviewing survivors and first responders and people who have been working on this, and I've never seen anything like it. I come from a town that's changed since I left it from ideal to an underbelly of things that are scary."

Paisley said, "That is really near and dear to my heart this cause of holding the companies responsible that targeted that area and they did. They targeted them. They knew that these people that power our country dig in coal; they need painkillers to do what they do."

The videos will premiere before the launch with an exclusive YouTube Live stream event set for Friday, September 29, at 12 Noon CT.