Despite his West Virginia roots, country music star Brad Paisley is a hardcore Los Angeles Dodgers fan. Given the opportunity to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” for Game 1 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium, Paisley wasn’t about to pass that up, or settle for a conventional arrangement of the U.S. national anthem.
Showing off some legendary guitar skills and his trademark stellar pipes, the three-time Grammy winner delivered a cool, collected, and assured performance.
Dodgers superfan and country music star Brad Paisley performs the National Anthem before #WorldSeries Game 1 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/b01EA8SDQ0
— MLB (@MLB) October 26, 2024
To get to sing the national anthem for your favorite team in any sport on a World Series type of stage would be nothing short of living the dream. Like whatever staggering fame Paisley has achieved or all the massive stadiums he’s played to on traditional tours, getting the shot to do this must be a whole other different type of awesome satisfaction.
It seems like most of the reaction online was fairly kind to Mr. Paisley:
Brad Paisley nailed it ! pic.twitter.com/W2tLg79pKC
— primalkey (@primalkey) October 26, 2024
The way it should be performed!
— CigarLector (@CigarLector) October 26, 2024
That’s a great way to kick off the World Series! Brad Paisley’s performance will surely add to the excitement of the game.
— Veda⛹🏻♀️ (@vedaaarya) October 26, 2024
I always love Brad Paisley performs
— Gee (@Gee_wind) October 26, 2024
West Virginia native, Brad Paisley. Well done!
— Jonathan Martin (@JonathanKMartin) October 26, 2024
@timcates sealed of approval 👍
— Miguel (@mikethereal) October 26, 2024
C h i l l s 🇺🇸 https://t.co/d14I4Cy9RA
— Linda Enwald (@ellelleeeee) October 26, 2024
Simply beautiful! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 https://t.co/GwfkCURmU4
— Annie Banannie (@Anne37565648) October 26, 2024
But of course, there were some who weren’t fans of the liberties that he took with his performance:
I hope the Dodgers come out and play as flat as half the notes Brad Paisley sang in the anthem.
— Craig Mahoney (@CraigMahoney) October 25, 2024
West Virginias own Brad Paisley is a die-hard Dodgers fan????
No wonder his National Anthem was dogshit!
— Devine Sports Gospel (@DevineGospel) October 25, 2024
Brad Paisley with a terrible national anthem shout out LA
— Niccy Coins (@Nic_Johnson28) October 25, 2024
Not Brad Paisley’s best work
— Matty B (@mattthew_jordan) October 25, 2024
Can’t please everybody I guess.
When I think of Brad Paisley’s ties to sports, what immediately comes to mind before any Dodgers affiliation are his commercials with Peyton Manning and his Cleveland Browns fandom.
Regarding the former, those Nationwide Insurance commercials absolutely slap. Regarding the latter, isn’t it shocking that Paisley hasn’t bailed on the Brownies yet? Granted, being a fan of a sports team in Ohio being from West Virginia feels a lot more geographically logical than being a diehard Dodgers guy.
Paisley started going to Dodgers games in the earlier aughts, which is when he really started to get into them. And you know what? I don’t even care if Brad Paisley was driven to love the Dodgers via fair-weather fandom. All the ridiculous dysfunction in the Browns organization should allow their supporters some leeway when it comes to finding joy in other sports. Browns headquarters is, after all, nicknamed the Factory of Sadness for a reason.
