Music Friday: Brad Paisley Pops the Question After Chance Encounter in 'We Danced'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you chart-topping songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, a chance after-hours encounter between a bar owner and a patron results in a marriage proposal in Brad Paisley’s country hit “We Danced.”

In the song written by Paisley and Charles Dubois, the protagonist is cleaning up after closing time when a woman, who had been at the bar earlier that evening, returns to retrieve a misplaced purse. The two get lost in conversation, and the bar owner insists that the only way he’ll return the purse is if she agrees to dance with him.

With the chairs up and the lights turned down, the coupled danced — and instantly fell in love.

Paisley sings, “And from that moment, there was never any doubt / I had found the one that I had always dreamed about / And then one evenin’, when she stopped by after work / I pulled a diamond ring out of the pocket of my shirt.”

In a fun twist, the woman says she’ll accept his proposal under one condition — that he agrees to dance with her.

“We Danced” was the fourth and final single from the 50-year-old singer-songwriter’s wildly successful 1999 debut album Who Needs Pictures. The song went to #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and was nominated for Song of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards.

That album helped launch a long and successful career that yielded 35 Top-10 singles on the US Billboard Country Airplay chart, 20 of which have reached #1. Paisley has sold more than 11 million albums, won three Grammy Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, 14 Country Music Association Awards and two American Music Awards. At the age of 28, he became the youngest artist ever to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.

A West Virginia native, Bradley Douglas “Brad” Paisley was introduced to country music by his grandfather, Warren Jarvis, who gave the youngster his first guitar, a Sears Danelectro Silvertone, when he was just eight years old. Jarvis taught his grandson to play, and by the age of 10 Paisley was performing regularly at his church.

While in junior high, Paisley was doing a show at a local Rotary Club, when he was discovered by a program director for a Wheeling, WV, radio station. He was invited to be a guest on the popular radio show “Wheeling Jamboree” and the rest is history.

Paisley currently has tour dates scheduled in Niagara Falls, NY; Redondo Beach, CA; Hartford, CT; and Tampa, FL.

Please check out the audio track of Paisley’s “We Danced.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“We Danced”
Written by Brad Paisley and Charles Dubois. Performed by Brad Paisley.

The bar was empty, I was sweeping up the floor
That’s when she walked in, I said, “I’m sorry but we’re closed”
And she said, “I know but I’m afraid I left my purse”
I said, “I put one back behind the bar, I bet it’s probably yours”

And the next thing that I knew
There we were, lost in conversation
Before I handed her her purse
I said, “You’ll only get this back on one condition”

And we danced
Out there on that empty hardwood floor
The chairs up and the lights turned way down low
The music played, we held each other close
And we danced

And from that moment, there was never any doubt
I had found the one that I had always dreamed about
And then one evenin’, when she stopped by after work
I pulled a diamond ring out of the pocket of my shirt

And as her eyes filled up with tears
She said, “This is the last thing I expected”
And then she took me by the hand
And said, “I’ll only marry you on one condition”

And we danced
Out there on that empty hardwood floor
The chairs up and the lights turned way down low
The music played, we held each other close

And we danced
Like no one else had ever danced before
I can’t explain what happened on that floor
But the music played, we held each other close
And we danced, yeah, we danced

Credit: Photo by Crisco 1492, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Actress Zooey Deschanel Shows Off Colorful Floral-Motif Engagement Ring

"Forever starts now!!!" exclaimed actress Zooey Deschanel and TV personality Jonathan Scott in a jubilant joint Instagram post seen by their combined 10 million-plus followers on Monday.

The New Girl star and Property Brothers twin announced their engagement while showing off a unique engagement ring featuring a series of floret-style gem clusters set on a white metal band.

Their post was punctuated with an infinity sign bookended by a pair of "Smiling Face with Hearts" emojis.

Deschanel's unorthodox engagement ring seems to have no primary center stone. Instead, the central element looks like five purple stones (possibly amethysts or sapphires) in a petal arrangement.

The florets to the left and right seem to be set with all diamonds, except for a single pink stone perched symmetrically on the upper left of one and the lower right of the other. The pink accent stones might be sapphires, as well.

(Some outlets are reporting that the white gems to the left and right of the purple grouping are actually large, single diamonds. Take a look at the closeup view and give it your best guess.)

While most of the Instagram comments regarding her ring choice were upbeat and positive, one user comically warned, "That ring is gonna unravel many a sweater!"

People magazine reported that Scott's proposal took place this past Sunday during a trip to Scotland, where Deschanel's kids participated in the celebration. The actress shares a daughter, Elsie, 8, and son, Charlie, 6, with her ex-husband and film producer Jacob Pechenik.

Deschanel, 43, and Scott, 45, had met during an August 2019 filming of James Corden's Carpool Karaoke — an appearance that included the couple's famous siblings, actress Emily Deschanel and Property Brother Drew.

According to published reports, the newly engaged couple started dating shortly after her separation from Pechenik in 2019 and then the couple spent two years renovating a 1938 Georgian-style dream home in Los Angeles.

Credits: Images via Instagram / zooeydeschanel.

Lucara Unearths Another 1,000-Carat-Plus Diamond at Its Karowe Mine in Botswana

Lucara has done it again. For the fourth time in eight years, the mining company has unearthed a 1,000-carat-plus diamond at its Karowe Mine in Botswana.

Described as a Type IIa top white gem of high quality, the 1,080-carat oblong gem was recovered by Lucara’s MDR (Mega Diamond Recovery) XRT circuit, a system that uses advanced technology to identify 100-carat-plus diamonds.

By monitoring the rocky material for X-ray luminescence, atomic density and transparency, the new technology can identify and isolate large diamonds before they go through the destructive crushing process.

The newest find measures 82.2mm (3.24 in) by 42.8mm (1.69 in) by 34.2mm (1.34 in).

"Lucara is extremely pleased to be reporting the recovery of another large, high-quality gem diamond in excess of 1,000 carats in size," noted Lucara CEO Eira Thomas. "As we progress mining deeper in the open pit and transition to underground mining, exclusively in the South Lobe, the preponderance of large, high value stones is increasing, consistent with the resource model and underpins the strong economic rationale for investing in the underground expansion that will extend the mine-life out to at least 2040."

Of the top seven diamonds ever discovered, six were sourced in Botswana and five of those came from the Karowe Mine. Other notable Karowe finds include the 1,758-carat Sewelô (2019), 1,174-carat unnamed (2021), 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona (2015) and the 998-carat unnamed (2020). In 2021, Debswana’s Jwaneng mine in Botswana produced a 1,098-carat gem.

At the top of the list is the 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond, which was discovered in South Africa in 1905.

Interestingly, after the Cullinan was unearthed, it took the world’s mining companies 110 years to discover another rough diamond weighing more than 1,000 carats. From 2015 to 2023, that feat has been accomplished five times due to the new technology aimed at protecting extremely large diamonds.

It's too early to tell what will become of Lucara's 1,080-carat high-quality gem, but it's fun to imagine the size of the finished diamonds that may emerge from the rough.

British jeweler Graff purchased the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona for $53 million in 2017 and eventually transformed it into one principle square emerald-cut stunner that's believed to be the largest D-flawless gem ever certified by the Gemological Institute of America. The rough gem also yielded 66 “satellite” stones ranging in size from 22 carats to just under 1 carat.

Gems cut from the Cullinan Diamond included the Cullinan I (530.20 carats), Cullinan II (317.4 carats) and seven others ranging from 94.4 carats to 4.39 carats.

Lucara owns 100% of the Karowe mine, which has been in production since 2012.

Credit: Image courtesy of Lucara Diamond Corp.