Love and War
by Brad Paisley (featuring John Fogerty)

Album: Love and War (2017)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Brad Paisley teams up with the former Creedence Clearwater Revival lead singer John Fogerty for this song about veterans returning home to an uncertain post-war life. Paisley told Billboard magazine: "Our government blew an opportunity to give our veterans the medical attention and appreciation they deserve. I had the idea to write with John Fogerty, the voice of that generation of Vietnam veterans. He said 'Love and War' was his first co-write. I felt the pressure."
  • Fogerty was the perfect collaborator for the song, since he served in the Army Reserve in the '70s. "I wasn't shipped to Vietnam, but… I had my eye on that all the way through," the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer told ET Online. "We send people off do this great service for us and possibly die, but when they come home, we don't treat them very well. That's what we wanted to express in the song - we need to do something about that."
  • Once they got into the studio, Paisley was surprised to learn that the collaboration would be a first for Fogerty. "[It] blew my mind," he gushed. "We're sitting there and he looks at me and says, 'So, how do we do this?' I said, 'Well, you know.' He goes, 'No, I don't. I've never co-written before.' I said, 'What?! Oh, well, this is great. It's a lot easier because there's two of us and neither one of us has to be 100 percent."
  • The music video was shot in and around San Diego, California including aboard the USS Midway aircraft carrier. Paisley's intention is that the clip will raise awareness about the treatment that veterans receive.
  • A special album edition of Love and War was released via Apple Music on April 28, 2017. The record, containing 16 music videos for Love and War's 16 songs, is country music's first visual album.

    The 16 songs together make one cohesive movie, broken up into five chapters. "I started getting this idea to create an entire feature-length movie around the songs in this album because each of these songs is very important to me," Paisley shared at a private screening of Love and War.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Band Names

Band NamesFact or Fiction

Was "Pearl" Eddie Vedder's grandmother, and did she really make a hallucinogenic jam? Did Journey have a contest to name the group? And what does KISS stand for anyway?

Judas Priest

Judas PriestSongwriter Interviews

Rob Halford, Richie Faulkner and Glenn Tipton talk twin guitar harmonies and explain how they create songs in Judas Priest.

Donald Fagen

Donald FagenSongwriter Interviews

Fagen talks about how the Steely Dan songwriting strategy has changed over the years, and explains why you don't hear many covers of their songs.

Boy Bands

Boy BandsFact or Fiction

From NKOTB to 1D, how well do you know your boy bands?

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien Songs

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien SongsSong Writing

The trail runs from flying saucer songs in the '50s, through Bowie, blink-182 and Katy Perry.

David Gray

David GraySongwriter Interviews

David Gray explains the significance of the word "Babylon," and talks about how songs are a form of active imagination, with lyrics that reveal what's inside us.