Nashville’s Belmont University can boast quite a number of now-famous alums in the country music world, including Brad Paisley, Josh Turner, LeAnn Womack, Trisha Yearwood, Julie Roberts and Sarah Buxton for starters. And since the university is the place where so many of these artists got a start in music, they don’t often forget to go back and thank their alma mater when that music career finally pays off.

Paisley, who graduated from Belmont in the class of 1995 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, recently set up the Brad Paisley Endowed Scholarship for current and future Belmont University students. The scholarship with go toward the education of a person in the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business who seems worthy of the financial aid.

“I’ve often said that the best course of education for a young person wanting to pursue country music is to go to college at Belmont,” Paisley said in a statement on Belmont’s website. “I speak from experience. I wouldn’t be in any position to offer a scholarship if I had not gone to Belmont — this is the least I can do in appreciation.”

Paisley was recently added to the celebrity lineup for the 47th Annual ACM Awards, set to take place this Sunday night (April 1) during a live telecast from Las Vegas. The reigning award winner is up for four awards this year including Entertainer of the year and Male Vocalist of the Year, an award he’s been nominated for eight times and won five times — in a row — since 2006.

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