Country singer Brad Paisley claimed Russian bots drove a sharp shift in online reaction to his pro-Ukraine song, “Same Here.”
In an interview on Rolling Stone’s “Nashville Now” podcast, Mr. Paisley explained that the response “flipped” from 98% positive to 90% negative, based on what his web team was tracking.
He said the later comments came from “incredibly believable avatars” that were people or bots pretending to be Americans.
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The 2023 track does not mention Ukraine specifically but features a recording of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The song, which Mr. Paisley wrote with Lee Thomas Miller and Taylor Goldsmith, is a three-part narrative about universal similarities despite distance and language.
It ends with Mr. Paisley and Mr. Zelenskyy in conversation, recorded during a video call.
Mr. Paisley performed in Kyiv in 2023 and said he became a United24 ambassador for a charity there and has continued to voice his support for Ukraine.
Despite the change, the singer said the backlash “didn’t bother me at all” and pointed listeners to his new album, “Tacklebox,” released over the summer.
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