Fitting drywall behind stone after old paneling

We are remodeling and have wood paneling we are removing. When they built the room they did the paneling first and then built a large Arkansas flat stone fireplace over it. We are replacing the paneling with drywall. Issue is the gap behind the stone is going to be slightly larger than the thickness of the paneling and this too small for the drywall to slide in. How do I get the drywall in there? Do I just scribe the drywall as best I can to the stone? Is there a way to feather or somehow make the drywall thinner on one side and slide it behind? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

They make drywall in 1/4, 3/8, 1/2. Since scribing it would be a pain you might just want to get thinner drywall and put that on your first 16"... and then when you tape that butt joint you will be able to float and fill out that joint, making the difference in thickness disappear with mud.

Double that stud where the two different thicknesses meet just to make it easy on yourself.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I understand it. My only concern is will the 1/4 think drywall still fit behind there. The paneling is still in place since we haven’t removed it yet but man it looks like a thin slot to fit dry wall into. Any idea how the thickness of paneling compares to drywall?

 

A lot of modern day paneling is only 1/8" thick but is supposed to have drywall or some sort of backer behind it. The old paneling was 1/4" thick and could be applied directly to the studs without danger of it bowing.