Brad Paisley recently made an unannounced virtual visit to interracial friends Benjamin Smith and Marcus Ellis, catching them by surprise.

According to News 8 WROC, Paisley bought beer worth several hundreds of dollars at AJ’s Beer Warehouse in Henrietta, New York, and sent it to Smith and Ellis, and then called them on Zoom, terming the meet-up a “beer summit.”

The two friends had posted a sign reading, “Black or white, relax and have a beer,” in a Rochester-area driveway a few days earlier, following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and subsequent protests over racial injustice,

According to News 8 WROC, the photo of Smith, a white man, and Ellis, who is black, went viral and caught Paisley’s attention.

“Man, I am so thrilled to meet you, face to face like this,” the country music star said. “I’m so inspired by you, and we thought we should deliver more beer than you could possibly drink… This is going to be a popular destination on this street.”

“Love and alcohol, those two things just go together,” he added.

“I’m trying to hear out my friends in the black community, that’s what you guys are doing; together, the same thing,” Paisley told Smith and Ellis. “I’m all ears, always have been, I’ve had big ears my whole life,” he joked.

Paisley also performed “No I In Beer,” a song he recently updated to praise first responders, nurses, farmers, truck drivers and other people working in essential businesses, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, during the coronavirus shutdown.

“Through the rioting and protests, I felt like I was being torn apart, and it was rough,” Smith told WROC’s Dan Gross. “And this is what builds it back up.”

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