Brad Paisley Gives Clint Eastwood a Whistle

Brad Paisley features many special guests on his forthcoming album, 'This Is Country Music,' one of whom is the legendary Clint Eastwood. The film superstar has been shown playing piano in a few of his movies, such as 'In the Line of Fire,' but on Brad's upcoming project, he contributes another of his talents. The tune featuring the actor/director is an instrumental appropriately titled 'Eastwood.'

"We wrote [it] as a Western. It's an epic movie soundtrack-sounding Western," Brad tells The Boot. "I've become friends with Clint and his wife, Dina. So I emailed Dina and said, 'Does he whistle?' And she said, 'Yeah, you want him to whistle on something?' I said, 'I have a thing that sounds like an Ennio Morricone, the guy that did all the spaghetti western music like 'The Good, Bad and the Ugly,' and of course it has to have [he whistles] all that kind of stuff. I asked, 'Can he do that?' She wrote back and said, 'He'd love to.'"

It's sometimes the out of the ordinary things that make Brad so very happy, so when the Oscar-winning director came to the studio to record his part for the song, the country singer was overjoyed. "He whistled to the track, and there he is," declares Brad. "It's just little things like that that keep me going. The fun of thinking, 'If you're gonna have a Western, have the coolest cowboy of all time whistle on the thing.'"

The 'Dirty Harry' star is not the only celebrity cameo on 'This Is Country Music.' Brad's upcoming tourmate, Blake Shelton, pal Carrie Underwood and Alabama also are featured on separate songs on the new disc. "I have Blake on a song called 'Don't Drink the Water,' which I look forward to singing with him all summer," says Brad. "And Carrie Underwood, who is the best singer in any format of music, I'm convinced. Every take! When you hear the song with her, every take that she did sounded exactly as good as what we chose as far as every time she sang it. I'm floored by her, and I'm really proud of that moment."

Brad also tapped the talents of a handful of other artists, as well. "We have Don Henley singing background vocals on something that sounds like the Eagles a little bit (a song titled 'Love Her Like She's Leaving'), and then Sheryl Crow and Marty Stuart and Carl Jackson sing on the gospel song ('Life's Railway to Heaven'). I felt like if you're going to call an album 'This Is Country Music,' you should involve some people that are responsible for both country music in the past, as well as currently."

'This Is Country Music,' featuring the title track and Brad's current single 'Old Alabama,' arrives in stores May 24.

Download Brad Paisley Songs | Pre-order 'This Is Country Music'