Darius Rucker Finds a Good Friend in Brad Paisley

Daruis Rucker is opening for Brad Paisley on his H20 Frozen Over Tour, but their friendship started before this tour. Paisley duets on beer-drinking tribute 'I Don’t Care' on Rucker's album 'Charleston, SC 1966,' which was released in October.

Rucker says the two plan to start doing the beer-drinking song together at shows, and he tells the Green Bay Press Gazette about his pal Paisley, saying, "Brad’s a good guy -- just a really good guy. He has treated me awesome. I’m honored to call him friend. I had this great shirt made after he won the Entertainer of the Year. I like to pull it out every now and then. It says, 'I’m with the Entertainer of the Year.'"

Rucker says when he recorded his first record, he told his producer that he not only wanted Vince Gill on one of the songs, but he wanted Paisley, too. He got his wish.

The country star and former Hootie and the Blowfish frontman says that in the pop world, that would be almost impossible to do -- but Nashville is the opposite. They ran into Gill at the gym and asked him there, and they simply got Paisley on the phone and asked, "Will you play on this record?" to which he replied, "When do you want me to be there?"

Rucker marvels at the camaraderie amongst country artists and the openness in Nashville, saying it's a "refreshing" change. He adds, "You can talk to anybody. You can get anybody on the phone, and people will listen. Pop music, where I came from, it was so hard to get people to work with ... It’s a different animal."

The only thing yet to happen in this friendship is the tour prank Paisley has yet to pull on Rucker, but Rucker's  ready, convinced his "hazing" is still to come. The guys' next tour dates are:

2/10 - Duluth, Ga. | The Arena at Gwinnett Center
2/11 - Birmingham, Ala. | BJCC Arena
2/12 - Lafayette, La. | Cajundome
2/17 - Hershey, Pa. | GIANT Center
2/18 - Roanoke, Va. | Roanoke Civic Center
2/19 - Louisville, Ky. | KFC Yum! Center
2/24 - Orlando, Fla. | Amway Center
2/25 - Columbus, Ga. | Columbus Civic Center
2/26 - Nashville, Tenn. | Bridgestone Arena