TREY HENSLEY
“ THE FIRST TAYLOR I EVER HAD WAS A 510, A FALL LIMITED EDITION MODEL WITH THIS REALLY LIGHT BROWN SUNBURST THAT JUST LOOKED KIND OF AGED.”
knew that there was something about him— there’ s something deeper going on. I loved that he played guitar and he had a music video where he was playing Lester Flatt’ s guitar. I’ d only been playing three months, and we found out that Marty was gonna be playing at this local fair in East Tennessee. My dad somehow got us backstage passes, and I just wanted Marty to sign my case. My dad put my guitar in the case, and we got there, and my dad just said,“ Hey, Marty, my son wants to play a song.” Marty was very gracious and very nice and said I could play him a song while he signed autographs. I played Jimmy Brown the Newsboy, and he stopped immediately signing autographs as soon as I started playing. Marty had me play my three other songs. Then he said,“ Why don’ t you come up and play the next set with me?” After the show, he said,“ I’ ve gotta have you come play on the Opry.” Marty called a few months later, and it was the very last show at the Ryman before they moved back to the new Opry. Unbeknownst to me, he invited Earl Scruggs to play with us. And up until the day that we were doing soundcheck, I did not know Earl was coming. If it wasn’ t for Earl Scruggs, there would not be bluegrass. I remember he had his suit and tie on when he came in at four o’ clock for soundcheck, and this was 2001 or 2002. I became pretty good friends with Earl and his wife Louise. I’ ve met and worked with all of these people like Rob Ickes, Stuart Duncan, and Jerry Douglas through Earl Scruggs. A lot of unforgettable moments, like literally two and a half hours of getting to hang with Earl backstage at the Opry. I have a specific memory of my dad. We’ re from East Tennessee— my dad has never met a stranger— and he goes up to Porter Wagoner and asks him,“ Where do you like to eat around here?” Porter’ s like,“ Follow me,” and takes off walking fast to the back alley of the Ryman and takes him to Demos right up the hill.
You also played and won a number of competitions over the years but at one point you stopped … It made me really nervous, and it took away the thing that I really liked about playing music, which is the improvisational part. I felt like I had to have a routine that I played and it honestly was just not for me. I would meet all these people and go pick with these musicians and then an hour later I’ d be competing against
54 | SPRING 2026