Brad Paisley performs at the St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview in Syracuse on Saturday , June 30, 2018. Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.comDennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com
Rochester, N.Y. — Brad Paisley is raising a toast again in Upstate New York, but this time he’s providing the drinks.
WYRK reports the country superstar bought out all the beer at AJ’s Beer Warehouse in Henrietta, N.Y. and sent it to two best friends who went viral with a message of peace and community amid racial tensions.
The moment came days after Benjamin Smith and Marcus Ellis posted a sign in a Rochester-area driveway that said: “Black or white, relax and have a beer.”
According to RochesterFirst.com, a photo showing the pair — a white man and a black man — spread like wildfire on social media, eventually getting Paisley’s attention. Paisley bought hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of beer and had it sent to their house, hours before he surprised them with a Zoom call.
“Man, I am so thrilled to meet you, face to face like this,” Paisley said. “I’m so inspired by you, and we thought we should deliver more beer than you could possibly drink… This is going to be a popular destination on this street.”
“Love and alcohol, those two things just go together.”
Paisley also performed his new song called “No I in Beer,” which he recently updated to praise first responders, nurses, farmers, truck drivers and other people working in essential businesses, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, during the coronavirus shutdown. Paisley partnered with Bud Light to release a limited edition beer with “Bud Lght” on the label and has been surprising people on video conference calls to celebrate “the people who are keeping this country going,” including at Wegmans in DeWitt back in April.
As Covid-19 concerns continue, the nation’s discourse has largely shifted to police brutality with protests in all 50 states after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died Memorial Day when a white police officer kneeled on his neck.
“I’m trying to hear out my friends in the black community, that’s what you guys are doing; together, the same thing,” Paisley told Smith and Ellis. “I’m all ears, always have been, I’ve had big ears my whole life,” he joked.
“Through the rioting and protests, I felt like I was being torn apart, and it was rough,” Smith told RochesterFirst. “And this is what builds it back up.”
Paisley is a three-time Grammy winner and 14-time CMA Award winner behind No. 1 country hits like “She’s Everything,” “Then” and “Anything Like Me.” He performed at the St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview in Syracuse in 2018 and 2019.
Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
