Brad Paisley Finds His Soul on CMA-Nominated Album

Brad Paisley leads the pack of nominees at tonight's CMA Awards with seven nods, including the night's top prize, Entertainer of the Year. He's also leading the festivities with co-host Carrie Underwood.

Another of the coveted trophies Brad vies for tonight is for Album of the Year, and he says 'American Saturday Night' is unquestionably the most personal record of his career -- one he describes as "a week in the life" of the singer/guitar slinger. "I feel like this album is finding my soul ... a little more than the others. I would say that this record is ... as honest as I can be."

Brad also has nods in the Video and Musical Event of the Year categories for his collaboration with Keith Urban on "Start a Band." The song was originally going to be an instrumental with Keith for Brad's album 'Play,' but the pair decided while that might be pretty impressive, it also could be a bit boring to people who don't play guitar.

So they decided to come up with a song for the pair of musicians to play and sing. "Keith said he felt like a vehicle like this was a great way to convey the message of two guitar players havin' a ball. And the theme of the song really does fit with that."

Brad is also up for Male Vocalist, and Single and Song of the Year for 'Then.' And in addition to wondering whether or not he'll take home any awards tonight, Brad has fans wondering -- will he or won't he be tweeting? Brad asked his Twitter followers earlier this week if he should send out live tweets during the show. We'll find out what he decided in just a few hours -- the show starts at 8:00 PM ET live on ABC!