Brad Paisley Started a Donkey Rescue During His Time Away From the Road
Brad Paisley has begun rescuing donkeys as part of the farming operations at his Nashville home, the guitar-wielding country star revealed during a Tuesday (Oct. 6) appearance on Ellen.
Social media denizens who follow Paisley and his wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, have been treated to photos and videos of the cute animals. Kimberly especially has shared various snapshots of herself with the donkeys who bear names such as Oliver, and, according to Brad, "Ben Ass-fleck."
Jokey monikers aside, Paisley humbly admits to host Ellen Degeneres that he and his wife are "running a donkey rescue, I think — we've rescued a couple of donkeys." He then quips that he's "been running a donkey rescue ever since I hired a band, but this is kinda a different level of it."
Watch Brad Paisley on The Ellen Degeneres Show
With in-person concerts still mostly sidelined due to the coronavirus pandemic, the musician says it's "been an amazing thing to be home on the farm like this right now with these animals. It's different. I know everybody's finding new ways to do things around the house that they never thought they would."
Interestingly enough, Paisley was likely the performer of one of the last full-scale concerts in North America before the live music industry shut down in mid-March. As he tells Ellen, his 2020 World Tour was able to fire off one last show in Canada after gig promoters had shuttered all other performances.
"We started in [the] middle of March in Canada, and we were up in Saskatchewan the day after they shut down all of America," Paisley explains. "I feel like we got one past the goalie. … Live Nation pulled all the North American tours off the road — except ours. 'Cause we were, like, four hours north of the border."
"It was really, really crazy to play one more show knowing everything else was shut down. And I was able to really soak it in with that audience. And I think we all knew, 'OK, this is it for a long time.'"
Meanwhile, Paisley has been plenty busy with other creative affairs outside of traditional arena concerts. That includes participating in drive-in and livestream gigs, leading an all-star quarantine jam, hitting the Opry with Carrie Underwood and launching a family-based anti-hunger initiative.
See Pictures of Country Singers and Their Dogs: