They had to evacuate.
The next morning, Paisley recalls, he said, Everythings gone.
And then it snowballed, Paisley says.
Dawes, with Brittany Howard, Sheryl Crow, St. Vincent, John Legend, and Brad Paisley, opened the 2025 Grammys with “I Love L.A.“Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
Ultimately,Sheryl Crow(bass), Annie Clark a.k.a.St.
Vincent(synthesizer), andBrittany Howard(guitar) all came aboard.
(Taylor Goldsmiths house remains but he lost his home studio and gear; Griffins was destroyed entirely.)
I played it three times in a row.
As soon as she said it, I was like, Thats it.'
Taylor Goldsmith says he was taken aback when the Grammys called with the opportunity.
Weve never been nominated or acknowledged, he says.
Im not blaming the guys at the top.
Weve just never been part of that world.
Weve put out nine records, but its fair to say were by no means a buzz band.
But we have our fan base and its an awesome existence.
To Goldsmiths additional surprise, Winston said the Grammy producers would help put together a band behind them.
They said, Who do you want?
Were just going to go for it, and I was like, Sure!
We felt like kids in the candy store getting to run up whatever bill we wanted.
That led first to Legend, then to Clark, and then Howard.
Paisley, in turn, directly asked his friend Crow, who immediately signed on.
(The proceeds from that singles sales also toward the Academy aid.)
As Goldsmith says, How do we double-check were honoring this moment?
And frankly, to give them credit, the Grammys were on that page, even before me.
The phrase We were born to ride became We will take in stride.
Goldsmith calls the edits very, very minor adjustments that would only work in this kind of one-time-only capacity.
(Goldsmith says he and Newman didnt meet but that Newman gave his blessing to the rewrites.)
I grew up here and could never have imagined anything like this disaster.
I was glad that my song could help with the Grammys fundraiser.
Dawes and the musicians did a great job.
It means a great deal to me that I Love L.A. means so much to this city.
The day after FireAid, the all-star band of seven musicians met in a rehearsal space in Burbank.
Then the challenging work began.
When I finally started to learn it, I said to Taylor, Whatisthis?
All hell breaks loose when you play something the first time.
You say, Well,thatpart needs some work!
Theres a reason you dont walk down Broadway in Nashville and hear a cover of that song.
Since a synth was needed, Clark, normally associated with guitar, switched instruments.
Legend looked over the jazzy piano intro but told Goldsmith, Cool, I got this.
Everyone asked how many times they had to shout, We love it!
They also had to ensure that Legends piano intro would be in sync with host Trevor Noahs lead-in.
Trust me when I say, this could have been a nightmare, Paisley says.
If youd picked any other people, it could not have gone well.
But these were really collaborative people.
We thought, This is their moment, Paisley says.
Bit by bit, a seamless cover of I Love L.A. came together.
Theres a lot happening in that song, Goldsmith says.
It was really hard, but it gave us all focus.
We had to really lock in.
We all erupted in cheers when we got it right.
Finally, after a dress rehearsal on Saturday, the band assembled onstage for the live broadcast.
The audience knew the performers, but not what song they were about to play.
It was pretty hard, Goldsmith says of keeping the secret, which somehow didnt leak.
I was so tempted to tell some of my best friends.
That text chain with Taylor started out as, Are you guys okay?
and ended with Taylor texting, Can you believe we did that together?
