Celebrity (Brad Paisley song)

"Celebrity" is a song written and recorded by American country music singer Brad Paisley. It was released in March 2003 as the first single from his album, Mud on the Tires. The song reached the top five of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, peaking at number three. It also peaked at number 31 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

"Celebrity"
Single by Brad Paisley
from the album Mud on the Tires
Released	March 17, 2003
Recorded	2003
Genre	Country
Length	3:45
Label	Arista Nashville
Songwriter(s)	Brad Paisley
Producer(s)	Frank Rogers
Brad Paisley singles chronology
"I Wish You'd Stay" (2002) "Celebrity" (2003) "Little Moments" (2003)

Content

The song tells the story of a humorous perspective on show business, with many problems that current entertainers endure, and with the notion that anyone can be famous as a result of reality television programs.

Music video

The song's music video begins with a parody of the TV series American Idol, which aired on Fox from 2002 to 2016 in seasons 1-15, before the show moved to ABC starting in season 16, and the parody was titled "Celebrity Icon". In the video, William Shatner plays a judge in the style of Simon Cowell, who becomes very critical of Paisley during his performance. In between the scenes, the video also features various parodies that are based on reality TV shows, including a parody of Fear Factor, which was titled "Scare Tactic", in which Paisley is eating a plate of earthworms; a parody of The Bachelor, where Trista Rehn chooses Little Jimmy Dickens over Paisley as her match; and a parody of According to Jim which was titled The Brad Paisley Show, in which Jim Belushi makes a cameo appearance. Scenes also feature Paisley wearing sunglasses and driving in his car that belongs to Shatner, a Ferrari.

The video also features parodies that are based on specific tabloid _targets, such as Michael Jackson. In one instance, Paisley is wearing a surgical mask as Jackson was known to do walking down the street with two masked children, played by Taylor Atelian along with co-star Billi Bruno from According to Jim, similar to the scene in the Martin Bashir documentary Living with Michael Jackson. The video also has an appearance by Jason Alexander, who plays George Costanza on the long-running NBC sitcom Seinfeld, in which he appears as himself at a Starbucks, which was actually filmed at The Coffee Fix in Studio City, who makes a scene with the coffee shop manager and employee over a mocha soy latte. The last scene of the video shows Paisley parking his car, where Shatner tells Paisley to hurry up because it's time for him to get out of the car; a record scratch sound is heard, and Shatner asks Paisley what he was doing in his car, and he asks Paisley about a valuable car by getting into the second gear to put 200 miles, and Alexander was arrested for the mocha soy latte scene. After the song, Shatner tells Paisley that his performance was horrible. The music video was directed by Peter Zavadil, and premiered on April 10, 2003 on CMT during CMT's "Most Wanted Live". It was filmed over a period of 5 days in Los Angeles and Studio City, California.

Personnel

• Randle Currie - steel guitar
• Eric Darken - percussion
• Kevin "Swine" Grantt - bass guitar
• Wes Hightower - background vocals
• Brad Paisley - lead vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, 12 string guitar, Tic tac bass, mandolin
• Ben Sesar - drums
• Justin Williamson - fiddle

Chart performance

"Celebrity" debuted at number 56 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of March 22, 2003. "Celebrity" spent twenty-nine weeks on the Billboard country singles charts, reaching a peak of number 3 in the middle of the year and holding that position for four weeks.

Chart (2003)	Peak position
US Billboard Hot 100	31
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)	3

Year-end charts

Chart (2003)	Position
US Country Songs (Billboard)	10

In popular culture

The song appears on the game Karaoke Revolution Country.

The song was performed by Blake Shelton and The Swon Brothers on the finale of NBC's The Voice in 2013.

Parodies

American parody artist Cledus T. Judd released 3 parodies of "Celebrity" titled "Martie, Emily & Natalie", "Natalie", and "Toby vs. Natalie" on his 2003 album The Original Dixie Hick.