ENTERTAINMENT

Brad Paisley turns concert into Packers pep rally

Kendra Meinert
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Country artist Brad Paisley during his concert at the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015. Evan Siegle/Press-Gazette Media

Brad Paisley made good on his promise to turn his concert Thursday at the Resch Center into an early 2015 pep rally for the Green Bay Packers – right down to a Jordy Nelson catch in the final minutes.

The pass was a bottle of Bud Light Paisley used to play guitar on a potent "Alcohol" to close a nearly two-hour party, with Nelson among the football team-sized gang onstage for the joyous nightcap. Top that, Super Bowl XLIX.

To the delight of a crowd of 6,049, the Packers wide receiver had made a surprise appearance earlier in the show, walking out unceremoniously to hand Paisley a guitar during "I'm Still a Guy" and then taking a selfie together.

"I don't know who that was," Paisley joked after Nelson left the stage. "In the off season, he's my guitar tech."

A noted Packers fan, Paisley pulled off a similar surprise during his last stop at the Resch Center in 2011 when quarterback Aaron Rodgers strolled out during the same song.

His return visit, a stop on the Country Nation World Tour, could just as easily have been called the Packers Nation World Tour. The country star with a clever streak to match his No. 1 hits talked often about his love for the "greatest NFL city in the world."

"I was here when you beat the Lions ... I was here when you beat the Cowboys this year. I like to think I'm good luck. I just need to make every game next year," he said.

When he went on record declaring next season to be "the season of vengeance" for the Packers, fans roared and broke into "Go Pack Go!"

"We'll do that on and off through the night,'' he told them.

Cheeseheads were passed around numerous times, beginning with one on The Swon Brothers, who along with fellow openers Parmalee, joined Paisley with full lights up for the pickin'-and-grinnin' classic "Good Old Mountain Dew" to open the night. The Swon Brothers showed up later, too, wearing giant rubber fish heads and waving Packers foam fingers on "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)."

During "This Is Country Music," Paisley grabbed an acoustic guitar, drew a Packers "G" on it, signed it and then scanned the crowd, finally handing it over to a little girl. At one point, someone near the stage passed him up a bag of cheese curds. Footage of Lambeau Field and the Packers made the video for Paisley's new single, "Crushin' It" — a grin-inducing montage of everyday folks crushing beer cans.

"If there's two things this town is good at," Paisley said, "one is football and the other is making a party out of everything,''

You could say the same about the host.

— kmeinert@pressgazettemedia.com and follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert.