Paisley Creates Virtual Reality at Stagecoach

‘Pac’s got nothin’ on Paisley. Music fans marveled at the hologram incarnation of late rapper Tupac Shakur who “performed” at the recent Coachella festival, but it turns out Brad Paisley’s been staging a similar trick for years. In 2010 a virtual version of Alison Krauss joined him onstage at Indio, California’s Stagecoach festival to duet on “Whiskey Lullaby.” Then on last Sunday night (4/29)—two years later at the same festival—an image of Carrie Underwood appeared before the crowd of 55,000 to duet on “Remind Me.” Hey, Paisley named it the Virtual Reality Tour for a reason.

Before his set, Paisley shared a few details about his next album with the LA Times. He’s recording the project at a studio on his Franklin, Tenn. farm using only his touring band. [Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean have taken similar approaches in the past, preferring the sound and feel of their live bands.] Paisley also hopes to stay away from over-editing the recording. He told the newspaper that many albums recorded in Nashville “have similar thought processes [behind them] and I wanted to depart from that.”