Story Behind the Song: Brad Paisley Feat. John Fogerty, ‘Love and War’
Brad Paisley turned his 2017 studio album Love and War into country music's very first visual album, but the 16-track record also made history in another way: It includes the first song that music icon John Fogerty ever co-wrote. Together, Paisley and Fogerty penned "Love and War," the record's title track; it's a politically minded, important tune about soldiers and the battles they face long after the wartime conflict ends.
During a screening of Love and War, Paisley shared how he and Fogerty wrote the album's title track.
I had the title, and I’ve seen the news; I’ve seen what happens to these veterans. We’re all pretty aware. I don’t know that we’re fixing it yet, but we’re all aware of it.
And then, John Fogerty and I became really good friends, and I said, "Would you ever want to write?" and he said, "I think that would be a lot of fun," so he came to Nashville to do just that. And then he informed me, as he sat down, that he had never written with anyone before. I said, "What? You’re 72." And he said, "I just always write my own songs."
The pressure was really on. As you can imagine, I was pretty nervous, and it took until the second day to tell him what I was really wanting to write. I told him the title and the idea, and I said, "I know you’ve been there before." He’s one of the voices of the Vietnam area, and a conscience, musically, for us. I said, "I know it takes a lot to go there again," and he said, "No, I’m ready to go there again. I want to do that."
And so we wrote that as best as we could. And he made that work. When I say it, it’s one thing. When he says it, maybe they’ll fix the VA.
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