that I’ d like to apply for a job. She kind of laughed and said,“ I don’ t think we have anything for you!” Reluctantly, she brought human resources up and they interviewed me and said,“ Can you start tomorrow?” I said,“ No actually, I have to go to the Bob Dylan concert. I can start on Wednesday.” I was really lucky, because getting a job at Martin is all about being at the right place at the right time with the right set of skills. I got my foot in the door into a position that was just perfect for me, and I’ ve been here ever since October of 1976! I just completed my 40 th year!
[ CG ] How did the Martin Artists Relation Department develop?
[ Dick ] During my tenure as Advertising Manager, Gene Autry had the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. Chris Martin saw Autry’ s D-45, which was the very first D-45 ever made, with Gene’ s name in it. He said,“ Well that’ s really cool,” and he asked Gene if he could replicate it as a limited edition. Gene said,“ Yes, you can, as long as you pay a royalty in support of the museum, which is a non-profit.” Chris really liked that idea, because this whole thing of endorsements of paying people a million dollars to wear your sneakers doesn’ t ring very true to us. It started with Gene Autry and as“ artist in residence,” I was given the task of doing the artwork for the inlays and overseeing the project. During this time, I kept receiving phone calls from people wanting to buy a guitar similar to what Eric Clapton played for his MTV Unplugged performance. I went to Chris Martin and I said,“ People are interested in Eric’ s guitar. May I contact his management and propose a project?” He said,“ Only if there’ s a charitable royalty involved.” I contacted Clapton and we started work on the first Eric Clapton signature model, which was the 000-42EC, a limited edition of 461. I chose that number because“ 461 Ocean Boulevard”( one of Clapton’ s most popular albums) seemed like a good hook for the story. It was so popular that the entire edition sold out at the NAMM Show to our
Chris Martin & Dick( c. 1980)
dealers in about an hour, so I left the Advertising Department and was asked to start the Artist Relations Department. Early on, I got a call from Marty Stuart who wanted to do a Hank Williams guitar. Working with Hank Williams’ estate was complicated, so I suggested we do the Marty Stuart signature model instead. Our friendship resulted and one day Marty called up and said,“ Dick, I want you to write down a phone number and I’ m not telling you who it is. I called the number and heard( mimics very low voice),“ Hello this is John,” and I said,“ John who?” and he said,“ John Cash.” I said,“ This is Dick Boak from Martin guitars,” and he said,“ I’ ve been waitin’ my whole life for this phone call.” I said,“ Mr. Cash – I’ ve been waiting my whole life to make it!” Early in Johnny’ s career he needed a black guitar to coincide with his man in black image. He placed an order with a local Nashville dealer and the order came
in. One of the sales people came in to Mr. Martin’ s office and said,“ We have an order for a black guitar.” Mr. Martin said,“ We don’ t make black guitars. We spend all of our time picking out beautiful, flawless woods, and we’ re not painting them black!” So dejectedly, he left his office went back into production and had the guitar built secretly. Eventually it was delivered to Johnny, and within in a year he appeared on the Columbo television show. The black guitar played a key role in the murder mystery. Mr. Martin happened to be watching the show that night. We think that he appreciated the publicity that we got out of it, and we make black guitars now!
Marty Stuart gave me another phone number to call, and on the other end of the line,“ Hello this is Willie,” and it was Willie Nelson. Willie’ s guitar, Trigger, is arguably one of the most famous guitars, up there with Lucille. Willie and I replicated what his guitar would have been at the beginning of its career back in 1969 when he first got his Martin N-20.
[ CG ] How many guitars do you own, and what is your favorite?
[ Dick ] Employees at Martin are allowed to buy a Martin guitar every year, so I got to the
Johnny Cash
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