Brad Paisley and His ‘Band of Brothers’ Stronger After Flood

Brad Paisley and his band have been through plenty of adventures on the road together, but none has bonded the crew like the recent flood that took most of Brad's equipment and staging for his upcoming H20 tour. Brad says that although they had to start rehearsals 10 days late, and scrounge to find new equipment to make the tour happen, he feels the experience has changed them all and bonded his band in a way they will never, ever forget, and he's proud of the way Nashville has banded together and handled this adversity.

"In a strange way, I know someday this is going to be one of my fondest memories of touring," Brad tells Billboard.com. "That seems strange, I know. But we learned about ourselves this week. I mean, my crew stood in knee-deep water lifting every last piece of equipment they could save. Then they lined up for tetanus shots. Bo O'Brien lost his Jeep trying to haul off video gear, Mike Garibedian single-handedly saved our monitor rig, lifting one piece at a time. And now we're all scrambling to pull off the miracle of making it still work. We've always been a close group, but now we're World War II close."

It's a closeness Brad knows they will all feel very strongly when the H2O tour kicks off Friday night, May 21 in Virginia Beach, Va. "When I finally walk out onstage -- no need to point out the irony, thank you," says the superstar, "It will mean so much more to all of us than any other tour we've ever done. I will stand up there more thankful than I've ever been for the people in the audience, the band at my back, the crew that makes it happen and the town I've never been prouder to represent."

Brad recently took 'NBC Nightly News' on a tour of the Grand Ole Opry House as work begins to restore the historic venue back to its former glory.

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