0:57
well hello friends and welcome to ask
0:59
Zack today I'm going to tell the story
1:02
of how I ended up playing on the 50th
1:06
Anniversary American Music Awards
1:09
television show on
1:11
CBS and uh yeah the tale of how I got
1:15
invited to do that by Brad Paisley of
1:17
course I played with him and uh just the
1:20
prep that I did beforehand and the
1:22
experience of it the kind of hurry up
1:24
and weight of doing uh television and uh
1:28
yeah and I'll show a little bit of the
1:29
parts I'll talk a little bit about the
1:30
gear that I used and all that stuff so
1:33
it'll be
1:35
fun so first off I need to thank my uh
1:38
patreon members because they are really
1:40
what keeps this channel going and I
1:42
really appreciate them if you'd like to
1:44
support the show patreon's the best way
1:47
uh check out the link in the description
1:49
there's also tip jar information and
1:51
merch which I of course also appreciate
1:54
let's dive in so let's see just a little
1:59
short
2:00
uh synopsis on my friendship with Brad
2:02
Paisley we've known each other for 30
2:04
plus years we met in college uh 20 years
2:08
ago I was his uh guitar tech uh for
2:11
about a 2 and a half year period and you
2:14
know of course since then we've been uh
2:15
continued our friendship and uh you know
2:18
we work on guitars together and do
2:20
things like that however I don't really
2:23
play with him very often now when I was
2:25
his guitar tech 20 years ago I would
2:28
sometimes play the Opry with them or
2:29
some times an award show here and there
2:32
but since then um I don't normally do
2:35
that and it's not something that I ask
2:39
or have any expectation you know I went
2:41
on a whole European tour and you know I
2:44
had you know it's it's Brad show and
2:47
it's a great show and uh you know I'm
2:50
I'm not needed I mean they have a he has
2:52
a great
2:53
band however uh they were doing his new
2:57
single called truck still works and Brad
3:00
called me up and he said hey there's a
3:02
bunch of guitar parts on here and
3:05
between Gary and I Gary hooker Brad's
3:07
guitar player uh feel we feel like uh
3:10
there needs to be another guitar player
3:12
to help fill things out I said okay he
3:15
said we're going to do the American
3:16
Music Awards this 50th Anniversary show
3:18
we're going to fly out to Los
3:20
Angeles uh you know here you know here's
3:23
the tune you know yada yada yada so I
3:28
you know immediately you had to think
3:30
about uh yeah learning the song and such
3:32
and also little Side Story uh
3:36
which I'm going to have to do a whole
3:38
separate episode on this but uh this is
3:42
a late
3:44
80s uh Glazer Bender
3:47
guitar that uh was put together from
3:50
parts that were up in Joe Glazer's attic
3:54
and I'm going to tell the whole story on
3:56
this later but Brad Paisley was very
3:58
involved in this and actually did all
4:00
the finish work on this and so part of
4:03
this was that I had just gotten this
4:05
guitar we just got it finished because
4:08
of course it needed dots in the neck and
4:10
you know all sorts of things and so Brad
4:14
was also kind of excited because he
4:15
thought it'd be fun for me to play this
4:18
guitar on TV also so so there you have
4:23
it so you know New Guitar let's uh let's
4:25
have fun and let's go play on an award
4:29
show this is my world so uh anyway so
4:34
getting back to to prepping for doing
4:36
the show so the first thing I do is I
4:40
start listening to the song over and
4:42
over again and I listen to it in
4:44
different places so because depending on
4:48
what type of speaker and the way things
4:50
are you know again the way something
4:52
sounds on your iPhone compared to the
4:55
way things sound in a good stereo like
4:57
in your car or in your home versus
4:59
headphones and things like that it
5:01
sounds different and you kind of pick up
5:03
different
5:04
things so I started really listening to
5:06
the song then the best way I found to
5:10
learn a song is to make a chart of it
5:12
because when you make a chart you know
5:14
you have to really sit down and figure
5:16
out you know make sure that you know the
5:17
chords and the form so I made a little
5:21
you know simple Nashville number chart
5:23
and so then you know you've got intro
5:25
Verse Chorus Verse Chorus solo Bridge
5:28
chorus and out
5:30
and I've got you know the title of the
5:31
song the key and then I've got little
5:34
notes on where certain licks are because
5:37
of course you know this is a Brad
5:39
Paisley um song so I'm not going to be
5:42
playing any solos and uh so but I'm
5:45
going to be playing like some fills and
5:47
things like that and some Unison lines
5:49
with the petal steel so I made all these
5:52
notes also I saw that there was uh a lot
5:56
of uh you know mandolin stuff and so
6:00
after I made the chart and listen to it
6:02
a bunch then I called Brad so that I can
6:05
have an intelligent conversation because
6:07
now I know the format of the song I know
6:10
the different things that are going on
6:11
that are not being covered by the band
6:14
uh I know all these you know these extra
6:16
parts I'm kind of aware of them so then
6:17
it's like okay what do you want me to
6:20
play and he said well there's a baritone
6:22
guitar part at the beginning of the song
6:25
and he said you don't need a baritone
6:27
because I start on a d note so just
6:29
lower your E string to D and so uh this
6:33
is the line that's at uh kind of the top
6:35
of the song he plays a lick on the Telly
6:38
and then there's this baritone part that
6:40
comes
6:41
[Music]
6:43
in and you know that's that's it for a
6:46
little bit then there are these little
6:48
harmonic uh
6:50
[Music]
6:52
thing uh that come in then there's this
6:56
uh mandolin stuff going on and so anyway
7:00
so in talking to Brad he said play the
7:01
little baritone thing cover some of the
7:03
mandolin stuff then uh play the the
7:06
licks with the steel guitar in the uh in
7:10
in the choruses so then I knew exactly
7:13
what to work on so then of course I just
7:15
showed you the baritone part I showed
7:16
you the little harmonic thing uh that
7:19
kind of goes in in the intro of the song
7:22
where you have the harmonic thing over
7:24
the G chord you have the harmonic thing
7:25
over
7:27
the over the D chord then you have the
7:29
this mandolin part that comes
7:31
in and mandolins tuned differently than
7:34
a guitar so youit tuned in fifths
7:37
instead of fourths so you end up with
7:39
Note Stacks that you wouldn't normally
7:41
play on the guitar necessarily again it
7:44
it sounds good but it's not you know
7:47
most of the time you don't think about
7:48
covering a a d chord doing something
7:51
like
7:53
this but yet that's that's kind of the
7:56
you know a very normal thing on the
7:57
mandolin then going to the A chord did
8:02
this and then going to the B minor let's
8:05
see
8:08
uh and then back down to the
8:12
G so you end up with some very different
8:16
kind of uh note Stacks but by playing
8:19
that it sounds like a mandolin so even
8:22
though you're not even though you're
8:23
playing a you know this uh Glazer Bender
8:27
thing uh yeah it sounds much more like a
8:31
mandolin when you play a mandolin is
8:34
part so then uh I guess the next thing
8:38
that comes along is you have this lick
8:40
that goes that goes from the verse into
8:43
the
8:44
chorus and and it's kind of like there's
8:46
this big kind of diamond and then the
8:48
guitar you know so I play this
8:51
look and then it goes you know straight
8:53
into the chorus and then it's me kind of
8:56
chunking some some chords
9:00
[Music]
9:19
and those lines that I were playing were
9:20
you know in in unison you know with this
9:23
with the steel guitar player with Randle
9:25
Curry uh then kind of the next kind of
9:27
interesting thing that comes along is is
9:29
there's a
9:30
[Music]
9:32
u there's a uh a lick on the uh on the
9:37
last chorus that uh again that the
9:40
fiddle of Steel and and and I all play
9:42
together it
9:49
say and that's you know of course you
9:52
know fun to play uh yeah so you know
9:56
figured out you know all those lines one
9:58
of the things I did was that was real
10:01
helpful was sometimes I'd play through
10:02
my amp with like a little Bluetooth
10:05
speaker and kind of play along with the
10:06
recording uh what was even better was uh
10:09
I have this mustang micro thing that uh
10:13
Fender was kind enough to give me a
10:14
couple years ago and it's such a great
10:17
learning tool because it's it's really
10:19
easy to use and it's small and so you
10:21
just plug your headphones in and you you
10:23
you know connect your phone via
10:25
Bluetooth and then you can just sit
10:27
there quietly you know learning the song
10:30
playing it over and over again because
10:32
my family was was kind of getting tired
10:33
of hearing uh you know Brad sing truck
10:36
still works over and over again while I
10:38
uh you know learned the different parts
10:40
and frankly I
10:43
uh I played it and played it and
10:46
practiced it until I didn't have to look
10:50
at the guitar neck at all and I would
10:52
just stare you know like at my
10:54
bookshelves and things like that as I I
10:56
was playing the song you know cuz I
10:57
needed to know it so well that I could
11:01
actually be uh interacting with the
11:04
other guys in the band or or looking out
11:06
at the audience and things like that and
11:09
uh you know cuz the last thing you'd
11:10
want to do when playing a TV show is
11:12
have to look at a chart yeah so I mean
11:16
that's that's really unprofessional so
11:19
when you're doing TV you've got to
11:20
memorize the song memorize your parts
11:23
and you've got to know them well enough
11:24
that you're not staring at the uh the
11:27
neck of the guitar the whole time
11:29
[Music]
11:30
so a little bit about you know the
11:32
experience of going and doing the show
11:33
so of course we flew from Nashville to
11:35
La the runner takes us to the uh CBS
11:39
Studios they in Los
11:41
Angeles and we uh you know were checked
11:44
in we're given these you know snazzy
11:48
laminates and then they have a Handler
11:50
with us I don't know what if you know
11:52
what a Handler is or not but it's kind
11:53
of like a Hall Monitor and so they take
11:56
you straight to your dressing room so of
11:58
course you know they took Brad and his
11:59
manager to a dressing room and then in
12:01
another part of the building they took
12:03
the band which of course I was part of
12:05
for that night and uh so they take us to
12:08
a dressing room and then the Handler
12:10
sits in a chair right next to the door
12:12
to the dressing room to basically keep
12:15
an eye on us and make sure we don't
12:16
wander around and if we want to leave it
12:19
all we have to tell him where we're
12:20
going and he's either going to take us
12:23
there or you know you have to be back in
12:24
a certain amount of time it was really
12:27
interesting you know because of course
12:29
the trying to keep uh you know a TV show
12:31
on schedule and here's where I need to
12:33
say this was pre-taped so the show was
12:36
not done live so you know if you saw it
12:39
you know it was it was on the other
12:41
night it was on Sunday night on
12:43
CBS um everything was pre-taped so
12:47
nothing was nothing was done live so but
12:50
yeah we're all you know they're trying
12:51
to keep everything on schedule because
12:53
they're having to film all these
12:54
different acts doing the songs and of
12:56
course they're also pre-taping so that
12:59
we can get a really good uh you know a
13:03
good version of the song down so
13:05
everyone you know can do the song two or
13:07
three times now of course you know you
13:09
start doing more than that then
13:10
everyone's going to get uh you know kind
13:12
of like hey you know you should have
13:14
your act together but uh anywh who back
13:17
to uh you know sitting there in the in
13:18
the dressing room and it's kind of the
13:20
thing of hurry up and wait and you're
13:22
just kind of waiting around and uh you
13:25
know I've changed clothes and uh so I
13:28
had on this you know black shirt and
13:31
some black jeans and black pants and and
13:33
part of that was because I was going to
13:34
have this guitar and I was like okay
13:36
I've got enough color going on that I
13:38
don't need to have uh something that
13:40
that clashes with it um so we're we're
13:44
waiting we're waiting and then all of a
13:46
sudden it's like okay they want you up
13:47
on the stage right now and you go out
13:50
there and you know you plug in and
13:55
immediately they're you know they're
13:56
wanting you know they're they're they're
13:58
kind of doing a line check uh and so you
14:01
know they're wanting you to play so they
14:03
make sure they have signal from you and
14:05
then they want you to play some more so
14:06
they can make sure they've got
14:07
everything dialed in you know tone wise
14:09
volume wise and such and then we start
14:12
going through the song and so we go
14:14
through the song you know kind of once
14:16
where Brad's backstage and kind of
14:18
fiddling around on the guitar and uh
14:21
he's listening to all of us and then uh
14:25
then we run through the song two or
14:27
three times with Brad up up front and of
14:29
course he also did the other uh the
14:32
other parts that you if you watched the
14:34
uh the show then of course you saw the
14:36
part where he talked about Charlie Pride
14:38
and uh and kind of intro the song that
14:40
was all kind of filmed all together and
14:44
yeah we did the song you know two or
14:45
three times they were happy and then it
14:47
was get the hell out of there I mean
14:49
they were you know they were uh pushing
14:51
us off the stage and so I you know grab
14:53
my guitar and uh I'll talk gear in a bit
14:57
in a minute but also you know
14:59
um I think I yeah no I couldn't grab my
15:02
pedal board so but the the Brad's uh
15:05
text you know they they grabbed my my
15:07
pedal board but uh anyway yeah they they
15:10
threw us off the stage you know we ran
15:12
to the dressing room I changed clothes
15:15
real quick because uh you know we were
15:17
having to go back to the airport and we
15:19
had to fly onto the next place we were
15:22
going and uh I barely had enough time to
15:24
change clothes and and they were you
15:27
know like they were running us out of
15:28
the uh the uh the dressing rooms too but
15:31
anyway we got out of there and uh I went
15:34
and uh got my pedal board from uh Brad's
15:38
you know
15:39
Tex and we took off and uh and that was
15:42
it it was you know it was one of those
15:44
things where it was like an afternoon
15:45
was probably 2 or three hours total you
15:48
know of of sitting around and then all
15:50
of a sudden hurry up and play and then
15:53
get out of here so but it was it was a
15:55
lot of fun so let's uh let's talk a
15:58
little bit about gear
16:01
so one of the things that Brad's people
16:03
contacted me his production manager
16:06
contacted me and said what kind of amp
16:08
do you want because of course the show's
16:09
going to be back lined except for Brad
16:11
Brad of course brought his own amps but
16:14
the rest of us you know had to be back
16:16
lined because they're they're having to
16:17
pay Freight and everything so you know
16:19
it's fine for us to use backline and
16:22
Brad have his you know Dr Z amps which
16:25
you know that's part of his deal and and
16:26
he's a uh you know he's a big Dr Z guy
16:30
and uh but uh for me I had to think
16:33
about what I was going to use and so
16:35
they said you know what do you want and
16:38
I thought about a deluxe Reverb but then
16:39
I thought well I'm aping you know I'm
16:42
copying you know Brad's Parts which were
16:46
all done with Dr Z's or maybe uh you
16:49
know he he could have used you know one
16:51
of a rocket or or uh you know all sorts
16:54
of different things so or an old ac30
16:57
and to me it sounded like voxy a you
17:00
know Dr Z stuff and I knew you know the
17:02
rental place wasn't going to have Dr Z
17:04
stuff so I just said an ac30 so they had
17:07
an ac30 for me it was one of the uh the
17:10
British made reissues like from the
17:12
early 2000s and it had green backs which
17:14
normally I don't love the green backs
17:16
but as soon as I plugged into it it
17:17
sounded really big and fat and nice and
17:20
so it was great um of course I had to
17:24
take this guitar you know this is the uh
17:28
you know laser uh Bender guitar that
17:31
like I said it was you know made from
17:34
parts that were up in the attic and I'm
17:36
going to do a whole episode about this
17:37
guitar so I'm not going to do a deep
17:39
dive on this at this point I will say
17:41
that the pickups are all Seymour Duncan
17:44
this is the 53 tapped set which you know
17:47
has like a a 6K output and it has a 9k
17:50
output and so I was using the 6K output
17:53
which is the switch in the up position
17:55
if I hit that down uh it's 9k and I
17:58
didn't need that thick of a sound this
18:01
has the of course it has a Glazer you
18:03
know bender on it it has uh the Glazer
18:06
wiring thing so I've got the push the uh
18:10
yeah the push pull that uh makes it
18:12
where you can have the outside two
18:14
pickups uh this is a blend control which
18:17
I can blend in the uh the middle Strat
18:20
and I did blend in a little bit just to
18:22
kind of soften things cuz this doesn't
18:24
have a tone control anymore of course uh
18:27
normal volume control five-way switch
18:29
which does kind of like what you would
18:31
think except of course when you pull
18:33
that you get the outside
18:35
ones uh yeah and uh yeah then just uh
18:41
yeah had a lot of fun this is a great
18:43
sounding and fun guitar and uh yeah then
18:48
uh pedal board wise I used my standard
18:50
pedal board that I use you know when
18:52
doing this show or doing live stuff and
18:55
uh I'll show a picture of that and uh B
18:58
basically what I used on it was I used
19:01
the line six Echo Park for a longer
19:03
delay time and I used the uh the boss
19:06
dm3 uh set to a slapback so I used both
19:09
of them and I used the sawdust which is
19:12
like a mosor type Distortion just to
19:14
give me a little bit of grit you cuz I
19:16
didn't want to be too clean uh cuz you
19:19
know Brad stuff is Gainer than than what
19:22
I do and I wasn't going to try to rely
19:25
completely on the Vox itself you know
19:27
cuz it this doesn't have master volume
19:29
on it so I wanted to try to get a little
19:31
bit of a dirty sound without uh having
19:33
to crank the amp up a lot especially for
19:35
television and then I had the Mirage
19:37
compressor on and that was uh that was
19:39
all I used and of course you know the uh
19:41
my pedal board has a true tone CS6 power
19:44
supply and thanks to Bob at true tone
19:48
and uh yeah and that was that was kind
19:49
of the rig and I had a Dunlop volume
19:52
pedal that uh you know my my that board
19:55
has an insert on it it has a breakout
19:57
box that exact tone made so that um so
20:00
that I can go U so I can put the the
20:03
volume pedal so I can insert it after
20:05
the gain pedals but before the delay
20:08
pedals also of course that big board has
20:11
a uh um it has the UA uh you Deluxe
20:15
Reverb you know the dream 65 pedal on
20:18
there and it has a canvas di on there
20:21
and I wasn't using either one of those
20:23
for the show that's just my backup
20:25
that's in case my amp blows up so if
20:27
something happened with the AC 30 uh I
20:29
guess we could have pulled another amp
20:31
up or we could have uh just gone direct
20:33
but uh yeah so that was the gear uh I
20:36
did use heavier
20:38
strings uh I I normally use the 9 and2
20:42
uh Dario nyxl's but I I put tins on uh
20:47
because I wasn't really needing to do
20:49
any uh you know I didn't need to really
20:51
solo and then there was this baritone
20:54
part at the beginning and I wanted to
20:55
make sure that when I played
21:01
you know it was as boingy as you know
21:04
possible and so yeah having a a 46
21:07
versus a 44 when you're turning this
21:09
down to D it helped out a little bit and
21:11
again that's something you can
21:13
specifically do when you're going to uh
21:16
do a show like that and you know exactly
21:18
what you're needed to do but yeah so I
21:21
had this this guitar my pedal board and
21:23
the the rental ac30 and uh yeah it was
21:27
just a ton of fun uh yeah it was an
21:30
honor to get to play on on another award
21:33
show to get to play with Brad it's fun
21:35
to do a a song uh truck still works
21:38
which hearkens back to a song that uh
21:41
Brad recorded when I was working with
21:43
him mud on the tires it's kind of like a
21:45
sequel to the song and it uh it has
21:48
little fun elements and you ought to
21:50
check out the song truck still works
21:52
because it's uh it's got these little
21:54
elements you know there's a few guitar
21:56
licks here and there that are you know
21:58
lifted from uh you know mud on the tires
22:01
but again it's just kind of a a nod and
22:03
a wink and such to to that song and uh
22:07
yeah it was just a lot of fun and it was
22:08
a lot of fun to play play with my
22:10
friends and you know all those guys in
22:12
Brad's band I've known for 20 plus years
22:14
and they're great guys and they're
22:15
they're you know super pro and it was
22:18
just a lot of fun all right guys well I
22:20
hope you've enjoyed today's episode and
22:23
yes there will be a deep dive on this
22:26
Glazer Bender guitar where I talk about
22:29
the the whole story of how this came
22:30
together soon all right guys see you
22:33
next time bye-bye