Brad Paisley will headline the upcoming Live From the Drive-In Concert Series in three separate cities next month, and he hints he suspects there will be more of that type of show in his future. The 47-year-old says that the new format, put in place due to COVID-19, might be the way concerts look moving forward — and that may not be a bad thing.

“I think it’s one of the best ways to do it,” Brad told the Associated Press. “This reminds me so much of high school of what we would do. We would drive out into a field, literally in high school. Our way of entertaining ourselves was to drive out into a field, a bunch of high school kids, in their vehicles, in the middle of nowhere, out this creek where we lived, blast music and light a little bonfire and just crank up songs. This feels … so organic in some way that I do think it’s a great way to do it.”

Brad also cites safety, and not just because of coronavirus, as a reason to keep the drive-in shows in place.

“(It’s) literally a better situation than at my concerts,” Brad acknowledged. “I look at that blasted lawn, they are so hammered. I’m like, ‘I don’t know who drove the 10,000 of you in the back that I see, but I hope they’re not back there because there’s nobody that needs to be driving.’ In some ways this is a safer setup in that sense, too. It’s like you can be sure they came in a vehicle and they didn’t leave their vehicle. They’re beside it.”

Brad’s freshman Who Needs Pictures album was released in 1999, and he has weathered plenty of storms since then, but never imagined a time when his concerts would be taken away from him.

“Even as recorded music went through transitions where it was less lucrative and people were (dealing with) illegal piracy, or streaming was taking revenue away from record companies, I’m like, ‘Well at least we’ve got the live music. They can’t ever take that away,'” Brad reflected, adding, “COVID-19 was like, ‘Watch me.’”

Brad is also praising Live Nation, who came up with the idea to host the shows, which also include Jon Pardi, Darius Rucker and Nelly, for their innovative way to keep live music happening, in spite of the global pandemic.

“I’m just glad they didn’t just throw in the towel and say, ‘This year’s a wash,” Brad noted. “It’s really not about making money with any of these at all. This is more about, ‘Look, we’ve got music to play, there are fans that want to be there in some form, in some fashion. We need to figure out how to do that.’ I think that’s the best way to kind of stay sane right now — to sort of have some things like this that are safe and a release from everything. It’s mind-numbing.”

More information on the shows can be found by visiting the event’s website.