Story Behind the Song: Brad Paisley's 'The World'

Brad Paisley can write a hit country song in his sleep? He can help finish one, at least. Kelley Lovelace and Lee Thomas Miller witnessed this during a very late night at Paisley’s home studio, as they put the finishing touches on “The World,” which they’d spent some six months fine-tuning.

Released in 2006 as a single, the track from Paisley’s fourth studio album topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Lovelace and Miller recalled the Story Behind the Song in a conversation with Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Bart Herbison: Lee, take us back. Do you remember the origin of the song?

Lee Thomas Miller: I do. I had known Brad in the late ‘90s. He had his record deal, but it was early. Nobody knew who he was, and he didn't have anything out yet. The first time I ever wrote with him, that really didn't end up going anywhere. Whereas Kelley had known him really well since school. And Kelley and I had started writing (together) in the late ‘90s, early 2000s. We we had written the title (“The World”). We had written the whole thing: "You may be just another girl, but to me, you're the world," or some version of it….Kelley was writing with Brad, and apparently, Brad kind of had the same idea. And he says, "How about something like this?" And Kelley, being an upstanding human being, said, "Yeah, we can do it. But we need to let Lee in, because we've already written the idea."

Kelley Lovelace: He said "Is it any good?" Of course, Lee and I thought it was good. But when somebody asks you that, all of a sudden you get insecure. And you say, "I think so." And then we started to play it for him, and he's like, "No."

LTM: Which is what he does! It’s not like, “I think that could have been better.” Or “You know, what if…” He just goes, “No.”

BH: Well, how did that get turned around back to a “Yes?”

KL: It didn't, right at first. As writers, sometimes we think we're brilliant when we come up with ideas. But we all think of the same things. It's just who thinks of it first, and who puts it out first. Ideas are just out there, and (you) just grab it. When he pitched that almost exact same chorus – it's almost word for word...we worked on that (song) relentlessly.

LTM: Well, I sometimes say, “I don't know how many words there are in the English language. But Brad's very patient, and he likes to try all of them in a song before he figures out exactly which ones work.” We wrote it and rewrote it, (for) six months or something.

… It was towards the end of the record. He calls us and we go over. This was before he had kids. Back then, he would start work at 10 at night, and would just go all night. It’s funny, he has this amazing superhero ability to never get tired and never get hungry. So me and Kelly are hallucinating, you know? We’re working on the bridge, which was two lines and I remember he said, “Here’s the deal. I hate the bridge. It's terrible. Come over tonight, and if we can get something better, I'll cut it tomorrow. And if we don't, then I won't.”

We’re sitting in his kitchen at his farmhouse, which is kind of this studio house that he has, and it's two or three in the morning. And we've tried every combination of words for this bridge. Kelly and I had kids, we'd been up since 5 a.m….We look over, and I just remember Kelley going, “Is he asleep?” (Brad) was like sitting in this window seat. And he dozed off. And we just kind of kept trying. I remember Kelly saying something, and Brad goes, “That's it, we're done.” And the next day they cut it. That’s even to this day, one of my absolute favorite records I've ever had recorded. I mean, they took the song and made an absolute masterpiece out of the record.

BH: And I just want to say how much I appreciate the lesson for all of the writers. It would have been easy for you to jump in (and write with Brad by yourself). But you credited Lee…It's the kind of guy you are, Kelley, and we all love you for that. You're a good man. And I want to acknowledge Paisley. For the past 20 years or so, he's sort of been the unappointed ambassador of our industry. And he's conducted himself with such integrity.

LTM: He really is solid. It’s funny. There's a lot of thoughts about what goes on out on the road and backstage and all that kind of stuff. And I don't know, with maybe some of the younger artists, there are a lot of shenanigans that goes on. But we’ll travel with Brad a lot, doing the rock star thing with planes and trains and automobiles and stuff. My wife, she’s not a jealous person. But she knows there's a lot of stuff that goes on (on the road), except with him. She says, “Now y'all aren’t gonna get in any trouble with him. Brad Paisley is the ‘No Girls Allowed’ club from ‘The Little Rascals.’”

KL: He has no bad habits. He’s the guy that makes us all look bad. But anyway, going back to integrity, to when Brad pitched that idea. The reason you (include the songwriter you previously wrote the idea with) without even thinking about it, it's not even a question. It wouldn't be a question for Lee either. We would lose our minds if another co-writer especially as close of friends (as Lee and I) did that.

BH: This is a lesson for young up and coming songwriters. It is a great story behind a great song.

About the series

In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, the "Story Behind the Song" video interview series features Nashville-connected songwriters discussing one of their compositions. For full video interviews with all of our subjects, visit www.tennessean.com/music.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Story Behind the Song: Brad Paisley's 'The World'