Brad Paisley’s first new release of 2022 is here, and it’s… a very short, very silly, very catchy song about eating lunch in the nude, “Theme for Naked Lunch.”
Like pretty much everyone else, Paisley is pivoting to podcasts, but only briefly in his case. His new song is the theme for the new pod Naked Lunch, in which David Wild, the longtime Rolling Stone feature writer who now writes for television — including the annual Grammys ceremony — teams up with Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal for a weekly interview series… over lunch.
“Many years ago, when we were working on a project together and I thought he owed me a big favor, I booked Brad to play my funeral someday,” Wild says. “But earlier this year, I told Brad that if he would write our theme song, then I would allow him not to perform at my funeral, but rather just sit back and enjoy the festivities.”
“I just wanted to do my part to calm a world rattled by the very notion that David Wild and Phil Rosenthal might be doing anything unclothed,” Paisley says. “Once I realized the title was a metaphor, I felt relieved and honored to write the theme song for their podcast… These two love to talk and love to eat, and it’s the perfect setting.”
The first two episodes, which drop May 12, feature interviews with Paisley himself (“I really had a blast,” he says), and Raymond stars Ray Romano and Brad Garrett. “It’s a double serving that sort of defines the origins of the show,” Wild says. “Brad‘s a friend of mine who’s become a friend of Phil’s. I’ve become friends with Ray because of Phil — although I’m still slightly intimidated by Brad because of the height differential.”
Other upcoming episodes include interviews with Jimmy Jam, Allison Janney, Everything Everywhere All at Once stars Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, Sheryl Crow, Elaine May, Susanna Hoffs, and Jay Roach.
