Brad Paisley on Taylor Swift's Pop Transition

(Photo : Rick Diamond/Getty Images)
When Taylor Swift made her switch from country darling to pop princess with "Shake It Off," she obviously knew that there would be haters (thus her line, "And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate"). When E! News asked Brad Paisley about his thoughts on the switch, he made it clear that he is no hater.

"People are going to love it," he said. "It's going to sell, and it already is [selling]. She has done a great job."

The new sound/style/look is different yes, but at the end of the day, it's still Taylor. Paisley added, "People are going to have to get used to it ’cause it’s not the Taylor Swift obviously that you knew. Because this is somebody — like, she was talking about how she cut her hair, and she is spending time in different cities more and becoming more of a product — and she is a world famous superstar now. She is just not Nashville’s, [and] we just have to kind of get used to that."

It turns out that Brad doesn't just support Taylor's switch, he also admires how she tackles her detractors head on in her songs. He said, "All of us have the urge to do that, and I respect her for doing that. I have that urge to do that as well, because it gets old just taking it when you're in the public eye." He continued, "It gets old to sort of take it, and it's very noble to not say anything, but it's hard. It becomes a lot of fun to really steam now and again and challenge somebody who hates you. Because in the end, it's all very sort of unreal and not always accurate."

Now that Taylor is officially "pop," Gary Allan (who hasn't publicly commented on the change), can say that he was right all along! Last year, he told Larry King that he didn't think Taylor or Carrie Underwood were country. When Larry asked him point blank if thinks they are country, he said, "You know, I would say no. I would say they're pop artists making a living in the country genre."

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Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift
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