Brad Paisley criticizes data center planned next to Nashville Zoo

Artificial intelligenceBrad Paisley urges followers to sign petition against proposed data center next to Nashville ZooThe petition, created by the Zoo’s communications team, currently has 331,824 signatures and 126,599 shares. Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Brad Paisley performs before game three of the 2025 World Series at Dodger Stadium on October 27, 2025.Patrick Smith / Getty Images FileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJune 8, 2026, 6:17 PM EDTBy Samantha ElkinsBrad Paisley, a Grammy award-winning American country music singer and songwriter, urged his followers to sign a petition to stop the construction of a 69,000 square-foot data center that would lie 50 yards from the Nashville Zoo, which he called “an absolute nightmare scenario,” in an Instagram reel. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.“First of all, they don’t have the power to build this, they don’t have the water. It doesn’t belong there, it would be an enormous monstrosity, an absolute eyesore and detract in every way from not only that zoo, but that area,” Paisley said in his video, which he posted collaboratively with the zoo on Saturday. The Nashville Zoo had 1.4 million visitors last year, has over 3,700 animals, and represents over 350 species. It is “one of the top zoos in the world,” Paisley said in his post. The video comes days after the zoo created a petition and promoted it on social media, which brought national attention to the dispute, and has amassed 331,824 signatures and over 126,599 shares as of Monday afternoon. In an interview with NBC News on Friday, the zoo’s president and CEO Rick Schwartz, said he was particularly concerned about its impact on rare and vulnerable species at the facility, such as the clouded leopard, whose population the zoo is working to conserve.Paisley, a Nashville resident, is so far the most widely recognized voice to push back against the project.“No one has shared studies or...