Exclusive: Brad Paisley Talks “Truck Still Works,” Modern Sequel to “Mud On The Tires”

Brad Paisley debuted his new song “Truck Still Works” on NBC’s People’s Choice Country Awards Thursday night—and parts of it might have sounded familiar to country music fans.

Paisley and his co-writers Chris Dubois, Will Bundy, Hunter Phelps, and Rodney Clawson turned to Paisley’s signature hit “Mud on the Tires” for inspiration.

“It’s the thing where everything old is new again,” Paisley told American Songwriter. “It’s so much fun to go, ‘Okay, how do we do something that’s both reminiscent and brand new?’ That’s always the challenge.”

Paisley said the dilemma became how much to lean into the original.

“There was a lot of, ‘Do you moonlight in a duck blind, catfish on a trot line?’ Which ones do you not put in? What’s too much? What’s enough? Not enough?’” he said. “Trust me, we tried each of those. We tried doing too much. We tried not enough.  And it really got fun.”

Paisley credited Dubois for ending the first verse with the line, “How about a little test drive down by the lake?”

Lyrics include:

You still got that short bed Chevy, we put the memory miles on| I’m sure you sold that thing, I smiled and said “you’re wrong”| It’s in the barn out back and if I can get that thing to crank| How ‘bout a little test drive down by the lake

“That’s the first real thing that’s like, ‘Whoa, that’s exactly the same,’” Paisley said. “There are other things that we do that aren’t quite the same, but they’re close.”

Brad Paisley Describes “Truck Still Works” as “Very Country But Very Modern”

The singer said it was “a lot of fun” to simultaneously figure out what makes a song old and new. What he’s sure about is the groove.

“It’s all very modern feeling,” Paisley said. “Very country, but very modern.”

He recorded “Truck Still Works” while his sons were at camp. Paisley then picked up Jasper and played it for his teenager in the car.

“He flips out and goes, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Paisley said. “I’m looking in the rear-view mirror to see if that’s a good thing. At the end, he goes, ‘So, while I was at camp, you’re telling me you cut the sequel to ‘Mud On The Tires?’ Dad, that’s just awesome.’”

Jasper’s reaction was priceless to Paisley because Paisley said, “I’m not that cool to them.”

He said the concept behind his upcoming album is “this big Easter-egg-filled project.”

“What’s so fun about this as the first release is it teases what we’re working on, which is the idea that it’s also a metaphor,” he said. “All of those lines that we were really subtle about making sure that there’s the little references — the sunset is about 9 type thing. The idea of, “Let’s see if they pave that old dirt road that used to run out.”

“Truck Still Works” Will Be On Country Radio Sept. 30

Paisley joked the subsequent singles might be called “Lice” instead of “Ticks” or “Offline” instead of “Online.” But he wouldn’t say for sure what fans could expect. He will admit he’s having fun dreaming it up.

“For an artist with a double-digit number of albums recorded over the years, it gets harder to say, ‘Here’s my new album,’” Paisley said. “In my case, what’s really fun is the thought of what we’re doing now from an artistic standpoint. It not only creates excitement for me of something new, but it scratches the itch for that fan who wants to hear their favorite songs. We’ve really thought this out as far as what would be a blast for anybody who’s a fan of stuff I used to do or doesn’t even know it or what works both ways.”

“Truck Still Works” impacts country radio on Monday, September 30.

(Photo by Mickey Bernal/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)