TREY HENSLEY ing acoustics and not being able to hear myself. I’ ll go back to that Stone Temple Pilots thing because that’ s the last opportunity I’ ve had to play onstage at that volume. I was using Dean’ s rig— a Vox AC30 dimed, and of course that’ s a beautiful sound. Unless you’ re playing for 20,000 people, which they were, your chances of needing a Vox AC30 dimed are pretty slim. Rob and I would play the Station Inn in Nashville about once a month— it was our local hotspot before COVID. We would always do half acoustic and half electric. And with that first song when I would go to electric, it feels like I’ m gonna rip the neck off of the Tele! So, I would have to go, okay, let’ s calm down a little bit [ laughs ].
Let’ s back up a bit. There must be something in your DNA that had you taking to the guitar the way you did at such a young age. How did that affect your childhood? I’ m guessing that while your classmates were playing ball in the street after school, you were home practicing guitar … I knew that I liked music, but I also liked playing baseball and hanging with my friends. So, it just started. I got a guitar when I was nine, and I took a few lessons and learned the fundamentals. I didn’ t have enough time to play baseball and practice and hang out. Then I guess when I was 10, I went to a bluegrass festival and got to see Jimmy Martin and Charlie Waller and a lot of people jamming in the parking lot. When I saw them, something clicked. Everything else kind of went away those first few months. And then once I started going, nobody ever had to tell me to practice again. When I started being able to pick out notes on my own and improvise, that was it. That was the moment where it was like, this is all I’ m going to do forever, you know? So, I would come home from school and get my work done, and I would just sit and play along with records. That was it for me, and that’ s still it. I keep a guitar out at all times. And I’ ve always thought that that’ s the constant, no matter whatever happens in life. When I get home from the road, I might be worn out or burned out from the road or burned out from travel, but I’ ll still play the guitar. And honestly, I quit baseball and I still had a lot of friends and hung out with them.
Do you have a story from backstage at the Grand Ole Opry when you played it at just 11 years old? Yeah, I mean, there was a lot that happened. I met Marty [ Stuart ] kind of by happenstance. I grew up in the’ 90s, and I would watch CMT and loved watching the music videos. With mainstream country music, you can hear and see the money changing hands. You can kind of smell through that. Then there are people like Marty where you just
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