Remember Carrie Underwood + Brad Paisley’s Quarantine Song at the CMAs?
In moments like this, we need Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood. Thankfully, the internet provides. In 2014, the pair wrote and performed a song called "Quarantine" that spoofs Dolly Parton's "Jolene," and while it was funny then, the tune — actually, it's still funny.
"Quarantine" is just a little more relevant to all of us in 2020 than it was five-and-a-half-years ago. The video above shares the back story of the song and includes a few clips of their 2014 CMA Awards rendition. Really, they should get the band back together for one more version of the timeless message — it's just sound advice!
Today anyone who possibly made contact with someone showing the coronavirus symptoms is urged to self-quarantine. Back then the song was directed at one woman, a nurse named Kaci Hickox who was ordered to quarantine in October 2014 after returning from a trip to West Africa. Officials (and at least one governor) feared she could have ebola virus, but Hickox never showed symptoms of the disease and passed two blood tests.
Still, she was told to stay in seclusion for 21 days, but defied the order by going on a bike ride shortly after the mandate. In the years to come she'd move out of her home state of Maine (per NPR), sue New Jersey governor Chris Christie (a settlement led to a "quarantine Bill of Rights," per NJ.com) and move to Amsterdam. Paisley and Underwood's message to her came after the dust had mostly settled, but the CMA Awards crowd still showed appreciation.
Earlier this week Paisley and Underwood revisited the past:
Who Has the Best Song of the Decade? Find Brad + Carrie On This List: