If standards, practices and equal time laws hadn't gotten in the way, Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood's 2015 CMA Awards monologue would have included Donald Trump. Paisley says he taped a skit with the businessman and Republican candidate for president, but 24 hours before the show, lawyers scrapped it.

So they called Shatner.

At the Billboard Touring Conference, Paisley explained how he flew to New York City to record a parody of the Judds song "Love Can Build a Bridge" called "Trump Can Build a Bridge." Trump played Oz, "the great and powerful" according to Paisley (quote via Billboard). The plan was for Underwood to unplug the projector playing the clip, but on Nov. 3 (one day before the show), lawyers told the pair they couldn't do it. Enter William Shatner in a stormtrooper costume, the gag that closed the monologue. At the time it seemed like a strange segue back to a skit that occurred 20 minutes earlier, but the "Country Nation" singer explains they were under a time crunch.

"To have written the last two minutes the monologue Tuesday at midnight ... it was stressful."

Yep, there's video! Paisley has it and one figures it will surface one day, although maybe not until after the 2016 presidential election, just in case those same lawyers are watching.

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