Paisley: Working with Griffith was a highlight

Paisley: Working with Griffith was a highlight

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Brad Paisley says he got to mark a biggie off his wish list when Andy Griffith agreed to be in the video for his new single, “Waitin’ On a Woman.”

“He has influenced my life more than most people that I grew up with — more than most people that I actually knew my whole life,” Paisley said recently. “I wrote Andy a letter telling him what he has meant to me over the years and asked him to be in the video.”

In the video, which began airing this week, the 82-year-old star of the long-running TV series “Matlock” and “The Andy Griffith Show” plays a kindly gentleman who advises Paisley’s character to be patient when waiting for a woman.

“Andy heard the song and wanted to commit to working the long hours necessary to get the video right, and he really adopted this music video as if it was his own,” said Paisley, whose past videos have featured Jason Alexander, William Shatner, Maureen McCormick, Jerry Springer and others.

Music industry is ‘a mess’ but it works, Priestley says

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Jason Priestley says he got a crash course on the Nashville music industry while directing a reality series about the Canadian band the Road Hammers.

Priestley, 38, followed the group as they sought a record deal.

“I got there as an outsider following this band who had a lot of autonomy in Canada and were basically left alone by their record label and did things how they wanted to do them and were successful,” the former “Beverly Hills, 90210” star told The Associated Press recently. “And here I am following them around in Nashville and they get greeted a lot with ‘That’s not the way we do it here’ or ‘Let me tell you how we do it in Nashville.’ It was very interesting.”

The series, “The Road Hammers,” premiered last month on the Great American Country channel, where it’s airing in eight half-hour weekly episodes (Thursday nights at 8:30 Eastern).

Priestley, who’s Canadian, filmed the series last summer. He did a similar project a decade ago with the Canadian rock group Barenaked Ladies, following them on their U.S. tour.

“I’m just fascinated by that industry,” Priestley said. “It’s just amazing that it works at all. It’s a mess, but it works.”

Today’s birthdays

Actor William Schallert (“The Patty Duke Show”) is 86. Actress-singer Della Reese is 77. Singer Gene Chandler is 71. Actor Ned Beatty is 71. Country singer Jeannie Seely is 68. Actor Burt Ward (“Batman”) is 63. Actor Fred Dryer is 62. Actor Sylvester Stallone is 62. Actor Geoffrey Rush is 57. Actress Allyce Beasley (“Moonlighting”) is 54. Rapper Inspectah Deck of Wu-Tang Clan is 38. Rapper 50 Cent is 32. Actresses Tia and Tamera Mowry (“Sister, Sister”) are 30. Actor Jeremy Suarez (“Bernie Mac”) is 18.