Brad Paisley: ‘God Bless The Ashley Madison Website Hack’

“It’s a great year to host an awards show, because there is just a lot of funny stuff. Last year was tough, wasn’t it?” he said, with Underwood by his side. “Last year was like Ebola and ISIS – it was like there was just not funny things. Somehow we found a funny monologue in the middle of all of that, but it took surgery to do it.

“This year, there’s a lot you can laugh at. This election has been just amazing. They give us soundbites – we can’t keep up. God bless,” he said. “I guess it’s the wrong thing to say. … but God bless the Ashley Madison website hack, for many reasons.”

Hackers revealed the names of people using Ashley Madison, a cheating website, a few weeks ago.

When Underwood clarified that Paisley was referring to the hack, not the website, he agreed, but joked: “I’m glad it exists at this point as hosts of that show, because if anybody has a right to deal with a cheating website, it’s us. Don’t you think? Country music.”

Emmylou Harris, who was also alongside Paisley, chimed in: “We built our careers on cheating songs. Just the songs.”

The trio and several other top performers, including Vince Gill and Paul Simon, came together on Monday night to perform at a benefit concert for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

“He’s one of the great American songwriters and to be able to sit next to him and hear ‘The Boxer’ and maybe hear ‘Sounds of Silence’ or whatever – that’s pretty high cotton over there,” he said with a smile.

Underwood said she was just glad to be a part of the festivities.

“I’m honored to get to do what I love, get to be on stage and make music. All I ever wanted to do was sing, so I’m blessed in a ridiculous amount of ways, and I’m still honored that my name pops up here and there on award shows and things like that,” she said. “I’m honored to get to host the CMAs with Brad. OK. Like I said, just blessed.”

The CMA Awards are Nov. 4 in Nashville.