‘Alcohol’ lubricates singer Paisley’s fame

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, September 22, 2005

Country singer Brad Paisley has to be feeling a little like a bartender these days.

His hit single, “Alcohol,” a series of funny observations about imbibing that he wrote from the viewpoint of the booze, has people stopping him in stores and airports to share their drinking stories. In the song he sings, “I get blamed at your wedding reception, for your best man’s embarrassing speech.”

“They’ll just come out of nowhere,” said Paisley, who’s clearly amused by the whole thing and begins recounting a recent episode in which a woman approached him and said, “You’re not going to believe the wedding we went to last week. The best man started his toast with ‘I’ve got a confession to make … ‘”

Paisley, 32, says he’s not condoning or chastising drinking, just observing how many memories – both good and bad – are tied to it.

“I make my living because people drink, when you think about it,” said the singer, who performs Saturday at the Puyallup Fair.

Since his first hit, “He Didn’t Have to Be” in 1999, the native of Glen Dale, W.Va., native has steadily built a following with his fleet guitar picking and fun, clever songs such as “I’m Gonna Miss Her,” “Celebrity” and “Mud On the Tires.”

“Time Well Wasted” has the humor of Paisley’s previous work, but a more somber side too.

Paisley, who wrote or co-wrote nine of the 16 tracks, says the success of last year’s dark hit “Whiskey Lullaby” has a lot to do with it.

The duet with Alison Krauss tells the tale of a woman who breaks a man’s heart, watches him drink himself to death and then is so guilt-stricken that she too – as the songs says – “put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger.”

Brad Paisley

7 p.m. Saturday, Puyallup Fair. $33.5, in person at the Ticketmaster Ticket Center on the fairgrounds, by calling 206-628-0888.