2011 CMT Artist of the Year Brad Paisley Honored By ‘Friend and Mentor’ William Shatner

Brad Paisley made it clear that he really, really loves his job while accepting his CMT Artist of the Year award on Thursday night. The 'Camouflage' singer gushed about Nashville and the music industry community that supports artists like him. "I love that country music is all about entertaining people," he said after William Shatner gave a short -- but strange -- introduction.

It's been another huge year for Paisley. In addition to a No. 1 album, he headlined one of the biggest tours of the summer, and hosted the CMA Awards with Carrie Underwood, again. Throughout his career, he's proven to be a more than capable collaborator. He said that performances with artists like Dolly Parton, Underwood and most recently Brian Setzer and Alabama are amongst his greatest career achievements.

"I feel like it makes me cool to hang out with people like that," Paisley said. Shatner had the crowd in stitches after the recorded segment. The actor and friend to Paisley chose a page from the singer's new book 'Diary of a Player' to narrate. It happened to be the page in which Paisley talked about being a big 'Star Wars' fan. That's 'Star Wars,' not 'Star Trek.' Shatner called him a number of Trekkie names and then demanded he come get his trophy.

In accepting the award, Paisley once again reminded people how lucky he was, saying that being a country music celebrity is the best kind of celebrity, "Because everybody is always kind."