"Ticks" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Brad Paisley. It was released in March 2007 as the first single from his 2007 album 5th Gear. The song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Paisley wrote this song with Kelley Lovelace and Tim Owens. This song was featured as a downloadable track for the video game Guitar Hero: World Tour.

Content

The song's main character is at a bar, attempting to pick up a date. In doing so, he uses several humorous pickup lines, such as "I'd like to check you for ticks." Paisley stated that the song is not about blood-sucking arachnids but rather about a guy flirting with a gal. Paisley was inspired to write the song from experience working on a farm. “Working out here on the farm, I literally have to check for ticks every time I come in from the woods or the fields,” he notes. “Now, if a young guy who lives in the country were to take a girl into the woods for any reason, it would totally cross his mind that she’s going to have to check for ticks when they come back out. So it seems that an enterprising guy would at least consider that he could offer to check for her.”

Critical reception

Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe gave the song a C− grade. While saying that the production was good, he went on to say "[the song] may be the very first mainstream country single to completely skeeze [him] out."

Personnel

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications