"It was really a weird 24 hours for me," he told the station. "Ironically, right before we found out that Robin died I had tweeted Josh Groban. He and I are on Rising Star and we're good buddies. We worked together with Robin the first time we worked together."

Paisley had previously worked with Williams on his television show The Crazy Ones and had only fond memories of the actor. "It's surreal. I don't understand. He couldn't have been a nicer guy. There's footage somewhere of me playing guitar and him making up a song in between takes," he said.