BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
As you watch Brad Paisley’s animated country superhero video for “Crushin’ It” (see it below), you’ll notice plenty of familiar stars painted in a humorous light – Georgia mainstays The Zac Brown Band, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and, most hilariously, Florida Georgia Line, all receive prime real estate.
In an interview last week to promote his weekend performance at Shaky Boots , the clever Paisley talked about assembling the video, which he's been working on for about a month.
“I don’t think people are expecting this. My friends in the industry are going to die. I showed Blake (Shelton) his character and he wrote me and said, ‘What IS this?’” Paisley said with a chuckle.
The singer-guitarist drew and animated the entire clip and wound up spending about $700 for stock footage. That’s a mighty savings from the tens of thousands a typical video would cost.
"It's very easy to do a video for 'Crushin' It,' but I don't feel like it's worth doing a video that's a waste of $100,000. If you see someone in a video standing in the most simple setting – in the rain or in the desert – that's 100 grand. With (this song), there's nothing you can do except show people crushing stuff and that's great for a while, but by the 15th time…So I told the label, I'll just do (the video)."
Paisley has dabbled in amateur animation for almost a decade and said he loves the process because “you can create whatever universe you want.”
For his video, Paisley went with crudely drawn characters – a la “South Park” – and placed them in their natural habitats (the ocean for Kenny Chesney, the backyard with a stack of beer cans for Shelton – and a shotgun-wielding Miranda Lambert) while taking gentle aim at some of their personas (Bryan’s gleaming smile and wiggly hips, Carrie Underwood’s ability to destroy everything in her wake with her voice).
“I’ve thought long and hard about what everyone’s character would be as a super hero and capturing some part of their persona,” Paisley said. “If I can make people laugh, I’ve done my job.”
Take a look and see how well Paisley succeeded (more of my interview with Paisley will be in print and on the blog later this week).
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