Brad Paisley's sons had harsh words for dad's upcoming album

The "Riverbank" singer tied with Shelton at $23 million. (Reuters)

Brad Paisley's music is met by a lot of critics, including two who are pretty close to the singer.

Paisley is a proud father to two sons, Huck and Jasper, who are always willing to give their honest opinions on Dad’s music, even if they don’t like it. The boys are apparently fans of "Moonshine in the Trunk" (thanks to its lack of ballads), but they think it’s a new sound for Paisley.

“Huck and Jasper are great critics,” Paisley tells Billboard. “They have a very good perspective and they know what they like. They don't like ballads, so this is the album for them, because theres only about three on here out of 13 songs. They love '4WP.' They love 'Crushin It.' They love 'River Bank.'"

“When I first made the loop for ‘River Bank’ and cut a little vocal and listened to it in the kitchen as a demo, Huck came running in and went, ‘What is that?’” the superstar shares. “I said, ‘Thats something I'm working on.’ And he said, ‘That doesn't sound like you,’ and I said, ‘Actually, I think it does sound like me.’ And he said, ‘No, I mean that in a good way.’ ‘Well, thanks Huck.’”

Adds Paisley, “I knew I was on to something at that point.”

But his two boys don’t just critique his music, they also inspire it. Five-year-old Jasper was the inspiration behind Paisley’s song "American Flag on the Moon." It was a few brilliant words that his son said that started it all.

“He looked up at the sky — after he heard about the moon landing — and squinted and said, ‘I think I can see the flag.’ My wife thought that was the cutest thing ever,” Paisley explains. “What a great thing for the kid to say! It stuck with me for a while and I started thinking about watching the news and all the negatives. The naysayers saying, ‘Were going down the tubes, and all of that as a country and thought to myself, 'Why cant we just be proud to be Americans?'"

“In spite of everything that's wrong, lets be proud of what we've done so far, and maybe thats the trick to figuring out the future is looking back a little bit,” the singer furthers. “The phrase just caught my attention. After all, theres an American flag on the moon. To me, that's mind-blowing to think about that that thing is sitting up there 45 years.”

Paisley is excited about his forthcoming album and knows that it fits in to what’s happening in country right now. He calls it “modern honky tonk music.”

“It'll fit in. It feels like modern honky tonk music to me,” the star shares. “Theres a lot of alcohol and a lot of talking about the weekend and a lot of celebrating what is right in life in spite of whatever is going wrong. That's kind of what honky tonk music always was. That will never die. That's who we are as a format. Its just new ways to say it. You look at 'Crushin It,' that's completely at home on todays airwaves. You've got things like ‘Limes’ and '4WP,' they fit right in. This is my version of what this stuff is, but its still not what you would technically call hip hop.”

Paisley’s "Moonshine in the Trunk" hits Aug. 25. Preorder it here.

Top Country Music Videos Ever

[youtube q7e4sCfgi58]