Brad Paisley Shows Up During Teachers’ Zoom Meeting in Mississippi With Inspiring Message [Watch]
Brad Paisley brought some much-needed good cheer to a group of teachers in Mississippi on Thursday (April 16). The country superstar popped up unexpectedly during the educators' scheduled Zoom call, much to their astonished delight.
Ashlyn Williamson teaches third grade at Oak Grove Elementary School in Hattiesburg, Miss., and Nashville's Tennessean newspaper reports that she decided to invite Paisley to the Teachers Night In call after she saw online that he had turned up during another group's meeting. Paisley recently posted a phone number for fans to text him to invite him to their online events.
Williamson says she sent an invitation "on a whim," adding, "never in a million years did I think Brad Paisley would actually jump on."
Williamson noticed that Paisley was online about 15 minutes into the call, which consisted of about 20 teachers. When she patched him into the call, the humorous singer was wearing a Star Wars Mandalorian helmet that concealed his identity. She reports that several of the teachers screamed when he removed the helmet to reveal his identity, and he chatted with the educators for a while, telling them that he appreciated their efforts to keep teaching online during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Paisley also had words of encouragement for the seniors who are seeing their senior year get disrupted, saying, "If you don't like this, then go be somebody that can fix this kind of thing someday. Go figure out what needs done and channel this. Become what you want to be. It's not fair, I hate it, go out there and make a difference."
Paisley has been trying to make a difference himself during his period of social isolation. He and his wife Kimberly have arranged for free delivery from their free grocery store in Nashville for seniors in the area who are particularly at risk by going out during the pandemic, and Paisley entertained fans with an all-star livestream, as well as a couple of at-home appearances on the ACM Presents: Our Country special on April 5.
They also recently shared a humorous video in which Kimberly revealed to fans how she's dealing with being in isolation with her prankster husband — by tying him up in the corner and taping his mouth.
Paisley has also just released a new single titled "No I in Beer."
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