The Country Collaborations Between Mick Jagger and Brad Paisley That Were Years in the Making

On June 18, 2013, Brad Paisley was first invited to join the Rolling Stones for a show in Philadelphia during the band’s 50 & Counting Tour. Paisley joined the band on their Sticky Fingers track “Dead Flowers” and repeated the gesture two years later when he was invited back to open for the Stones’ stop in Nashville on their Zip Code Tour.

Snce 1999, Mick Jagger was a fan of Paisley, who released his debut that year Who Needs Pictures. Jagger even sent his assistant to pick up Paisley’s album from the record store when it first came out. “He [Jagger] said, ‘You may not know it, but when your first album came out, I wanted to hear what you were doing lyrically, and I had heard a few of the songs and the guitar playing and thought, I need to hear this guy,’” recalled Paisley. “And he had kinda kept up with me.”

After the 2015 concert, Paisley and Jagger kept in touch and even had dinner a few times. When Paisley started working on his twelfth album Love and War, he called on Jagger for a little help. Jagger not only duets on the opening “Drive of Shame,” but also co-wrote the song with his longtime collaborator Matt Clifford, and Paisley.

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[RELATED: 3 Country Collaborations Mick Jagger Worked on in the ’00s Through 2010s]

The Yellow Farmhouse Studio

At dinner one night in Nashville, Paisley invited Jagger to come to his studio and work on something. “I was serious, but I thought he’d never really do it, but I said, ‘You should come back and spend some time so we could write some songs and record out here at the farm,” recalled Paisley. “He said, ‘Yeah, we could come back in September sometime. The next thing you know, we were here recording and writing …. He was goofing around and doing what he does and singing and writing, and we had the best time.”

Paisley continued, “I was struck by his focus.  You would think at this point, with nothing left to prove, that this man would phone it in, but he doesn’t. He really is hyper aware of what music should be, and not only that, but current sort of trends. He’s a student still, and that’s so enlightening to see, because this is also a man who is probably more responsible for the paths that music took. There’s just a handful of people in his league, and here he is hungry to continually to create.”

Together, Jagger and Paisley wound up with a song about a regretful night in Las Vegas.

Okay this is it
My finest moment by a long shot
As I walk through this casino knowin’ there ain’t no one up at 6 O’clock
With my hair messed up and my shirt untucked I hit the parking lot
“I had a real good time”, that’s what she said
As she threw me my shirt and kicked me out of bed

Now as the sun comes up
It’s shining a light
On the big mistake, I made last night
Vegas strip turned to memory lane
Now pullin’ on to the interstate
Excuse me while I take
The drive of shame
The drive of shame

I gave the valet my ticket
Since when is it judgment day?
I guess he wasn’t impressed
The way I was dressed
On my Chevrolet
I don’t remember too clear
I was thinking of beer and a fashion CK
But turn right, turn left
That’s what she said
Then she threw me my shirt and kicked me right out of bed

‘Honk’ and “Dead Flowers”

Along with Jagger, Love and War also features a cast of special guests, including John Fogerty, who wrote the title track, and collaborations with Timbaland, Bill Anderson, and others. The album also features Paisley’s interpretation of a long-lost poem by Johnny Cash from 1967, “Gold All Over the Ground” in song.

When the Rolling Stones released their 2018 compilation Honk, Paisley joined Jagger on a new rendition of the band’s country Sticky Fingers track “Dead Flowers.” In 2019, Lainey Wilson also joined the Stones on stage in Chicago for a rendition of the Sticky Fingers track.

“It’s interesting to be friends with someone that there’s still always going to be that level of you’re starstruck by them,” said Paisley in 2017. “He’s a real guy and I adore him as a friend, but he’s still responsible for an entire art form, in my opinion. He invented the frontman.” 

Photo: Mick Jagger at the Venice Film Festival, September 7, 2019. (Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty)