Darius Rucker, Brad PaisleyDarius Rucker is hard at work on his second country project, to follow his platinum-selling 'Learn to Live' album. And he's enlisted the help of his old touring buddy on one track.

"I just finished a duet with Brad Paisley. It's a two-guy duet, a very fun song," Darius tells The Boot. "We're just writing right now, but we'll go into the studio in December and see what happens."

Before that happens, Darius would love to see at least one more song from 'Learn to Live' hit country radio. In fact, he's been campaigning to release 'All I Want' as a single.

"I wanted it to be the first single, then the second single, then the third single and the fourth ... " he jokes. [Watch Darius perform 'All I Want' here.]

Darius is nominated for Best New Artist and Top Male Vocalist at Wednesday's CMA Awards. He tells us he was blown away by the nods.

"I was at 'Good Morning America' doing the announcements, and they said that during the rehearsals, they were going to give us fake cards to read," Darius explains. "But then right before we went on, they gave us the real names to read in rehearsal. And I think they did that because if they had read my name for Top Male Vocalist live on the air, I would've done like I did in rehearsal, [saying] 'No! Really?' It's like that 'Sesame Street' song, [singing] 'one of these things is not like the other ... ' That's been in my head!"

Darius is up against his new duet partner for Top Male Vocalist, along with Kenny Chesney, George Strait and Keith Urban. The 43rd Annual CMA Awards air live from Nashville this Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.

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