Brad Paisley is the latest country star to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” in front of a national audience as he sang before Game 1 of the World Series.
The 2024 World Series kicked off Friday night (October 25) with a game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. Brad Paisley, a lifelong Dodgers fan, had the honor of singing the national anthem ahead of the first pitch at Dodger Stadium.
Paisley stood mid-field and sang the beloved anthem, accompanied only by his own electric guitar. The singer delivered a flawless, beautiful rendition that didn’t stray far from the original arrangement, a fact that fans appreciated.
Ahead of his anthem performance, Brad admitted to Fox News Digital that he wasn’t nervous but knew that national anthem performances often go viral, and not always for good reason.
“You totally think about the viral possibility, but anything viral on the national anthem is not usually good,” he said. “The best you can hope for is this is like relegated to the back page of YouTube quickly and that there are five home runs tonight.”
Several country renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” went viral in recent years.
Chris Stapleton’s performance of the song ahead of Super Bowl LVII in 2023 was called one of the best of all time, rivaled only by Whitney Houston’s take on the song in 1991.
.@ChrisStapleton‘s National Anthem at #SBLVII was one we’ll always remember. 🫡 pic.twitter.com/KLHJ5nRmcQ
— NFL (@NFL) July 4, 2024
Country singer Ingrid Andress’s performance went viral for a different reason. The Grammy-nominated artist performed before the MLB Home Run Derby in July and received quite the opposite reaction from Chris Stapleton.
RELATED: INGRID ANDRESS FACES BACKLASH AFTER “INTERESTING” RENDITION OF NATIONAL ANTHEM
But Brad Paisley had nothing to worry about. Fan reaction was overwhelmingly positive, with many praising him for staying true to the song and delivering a smooth performance.
Paisley, who has now sung the national anthem for four World Series games during his career, he didn’t want his performance to be a distraction from what he called “a Titanic sort of clash” between Major League baseball’s best teams.
“This is the kind of thing where everybody wants a good national anthem and a good game. I’m not alone out there in that sense,” he said.
Paisley added that being asked to sing at the event is “the honor of a lifetime.”
Watch Brad Paisley sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the opening game of the 2024 World Series in the video below.