A Look Back At Taylor Swift's Early Career With Brad Paisley

Over a decade before Taylor Swift was selling out stadiums worldwide, she was a starry-eyed opening act for country star Brad Paisley. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2007, the "Whiskey Lullaby" hitmaker confessed that Swift's self-titled 2006 debut album absolutely floored him. While Paisley initially believed that her record was a phenomenal effort for a 16-year-old, he later acknowledged that it was impressive for a singer of any age. Unsurprisingly, the country star invited her out on his 2007 tour as a result. While Swift similarly admired Paisley, she still joined forces with other opening acts on the tour to prank him. The "Cruel Summer" songstress disclosed to EW that she and "American Idol" contestant Kellie Pickler once walked out on stage wearing "giant sumo-wrestler-looking tick costumes" as an ode to Paisley's track "Ticks." 

Of course, they couldn't have ticks wreak havoc on their show, so fellow opening act Jack Ingram dressed up as an exterminator, armed with a fake bug sprayer, and quickly got rid of the pesky ticks. Paisley ultimately immortalized Swift's time on tour with him by having her cameo in his 2009 music video for "Online." The country star continued to support Swift as she grew increasingly popular too. Speaking on "Country Countdown U.S.A." in 2010, he gushed, "I think she is the voice of her generation." Paisley continued, "In her age group when normally they don't have that sort of thing — a true lyrical songwriter person who puts into song the feelings of her age group, a teenager who's able to write perfectly about those years of life," (via The Boot). 

Brad Paisley remained supportive of Taylor Swift throughout her stunning transformation and even as the singer-songwriter left her country roots behind to pursue pop music. In 2014, the "Mud on the Tires" singer shared with E! News that he admired Swift for "say(ing) in a risky way, 'I am going to evolve beyond what you know me for already.'" But despite the high praise, Paisley couldn't help but miss the "Shake It Off" songstress when she skipped out on the 2015 Country Music Association Awards. So, he got up on stage with Carrie Underwood to give her a shoutout, singing, "Who's going to fill her shoes? Who's going to stand that tall? Who's going to be country and poppy and sing a song called 'Tim McGraw?" as HuffPost reported at the time. 

It's worth noting that although it's widely believed that Swift rose to mainstream fame after she became a pop star, the "Mean" hitmaker was actually doing just fine in country. During an interview, Swift's former manager Rick Barker confirmed that she and Kellie Pickler desperately wanted to watch Paisley perform, but fans would recognize them, so they had to wear ridiculous disguises to keep a low profile (via Facebook). However, no amount of dressing up could conceal the singer-songwriter's iconic voice, and an employee at a local In-N-Out instantly recognized her. Still, it's safe to say that Swift has changed a lot since her early days performing at the ACM Awards.