A Little Bit Rock & Roll

You and your wife [the actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley] just had your first child, and some people might expect you to suddenly start doing less fun stuff and more serious, sensitive ballads as a result of that kind of domesticity.
If it colored this album at all, it was in some of the nostalgia that goes through some of the songs, whether it's ''All I Wanted Was a Car'' or ''Letter to Me'' — I don't know that the son thing had as much to do with this album as it may later. I think the best thing that can happen from it is the depth of emotion that I've begun to feel, having a kid. Maybe my songs become a little more heartfelt, I don't know. I'm sure it can have a positive effect. You've got to have these emotions to really write things, and hopefully I can learn the best way to harness them so that every song doesn't wind up being ''The Cat's in the Cradle.'' [Laughs] You know what I mean? There's nothing worse than ''the feel good family album of the year!''

One of your favorite themes seems to be gender differences.
Yeah, I guess you're right.

One of the songs on this new album, ''I'm Still a Guy,'' kind of has an anti- or non-metrosexual theme. I think the part where you define your masculinity by saying ''I've still got a pair'' is already one of the most quoted lyrics of the year.
Who would have thought?

Venus and Mars differences have appeal to you as subject matter, then.
I guess it does. Is there anything more interesting than that ongoing struggle between men and women to understand each other?

Your attitude toward women is kind of romantic and even courtly, for the most part — except when you sing about preferring fishing to maintaining a relationship in ''I'm Gonna Miss Her.''
Yeah. Even in ''Still a Guy,'' I'm not saying ''I'm leaving you.'' It's more like, ''Enough is enough. I'm not going anywhere — but I am not wearing that, I'm sorry.'' [Laughs]

Sometimes I wonder how your songs would go over with some of my non-country-loving, city-folk friends. And it occurs to me when I try to imagine it through their eyes that they could listen to a song like ''Waiting on a Woman'' [from Time Well Wasted], which does have that courtly thing going on, and think it's sexist or chauvinist.
I hope not, because we still have plans for that song. It's gonna wind up on the next record. Because it's one of those songs that should have had a chance at radio. I almost put it on this record, again [so it could be released as a new single], but it didn't feel right yet. You know what, the curse of being very lyrically specific in these songs is that I open myself up for critique. And with [the new single] ''Online,'' somebody had critiqued and said that was an unfair picking-on-the-dork song — they're not getting it. The guy in that song is a superhero — you know what I mean? In real life, yeah, okay, he does pizza delivery, he lives with his mom and dad in the basement. But online... It's meant to sort of glorify him. It's not meant to be creepy. And the same with ''Waiting on a Woman'': Yeah, you could pick on that and say that's a little bit chauvinistic; the woman is not always late. But you've got to draw a few generalizations every now and then if you're going to write a song. The stereotype of a woman being the last one ready to go out to dinner — that isn't meant to be mean or anything. But you're married — does that happen in your house?

In all fairness, my wife doesn't always take longer than I do. I'm late probably more than she is. But the song is meant to be sentimental, and they use the examples to lead you to the point where the man is in heaven willing to wait one more time for her: ''Take your time.'' And if those friends you're talking about outside of middle America would look deeper into what the themes of country music are these days, I think they would find it very relatable.

You've done a few cameos or supporting roles on your wife's sitcom, According to Jim. Do you have the acting bug, at all?
I'm the least interested in acting of any artist I know of. I hate it every time we have to do a music video. As much as I love the end result, I hate the process. I hate standing there having to act like something I'm not most of the time. And anytime I've done anything like a TV show, it's a lot of hours for comparatively very little pay, and more than that, very little result. I mean, you can do four hours of shooing for 30 seconds. And then it's just stand around, and they tell you what to wear, what to say, where to stand, how to look, stand up straight, now you're on your mark — as opposed to ''Ladies and gentlemen, Brad Paisley,'' and it's my show, with my clothes, and I'm gonna stand [where I want to], and here's what I'm gonna say next. I like that kind of control. I'd have to give up all of that to do any acting. No thanks.

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