GORDON KENNEDY
Aren’ t we all!
Let’ s shift gears into the acoustic category.
Oh, yeah. The first acoustic guitar I ever had access to was my dad’ s 1946 D-18 that he bought from Hank Jr. back in the‘ 70s. I really didn’ t have much need for acoustic guitars until Change the World happened. All of a sudden, we were being invited to come play a cancer benefit, the American Heart Association, the Kroger Employee of the Year banquet … I mean, everyone under the sun wanted us to come and play that song at their event. But at the time, I did not own an acoustic guitar with a pickup.
Then I heard about a guitar maker called Del Langejans in Holland, Michigan from Phil Keaggy and Scott Dente, both of whom loved Del’ s instruments. So, I ended up having him build two guitars for me. The first one turned Peter Frampton on so much that he got one, too. And then I met the guys from Lowden, and they outfitted me with a nice 12-string guitar and a small body guitar with curly maple back and sides— an S35— that I used when I played shows with Garth. And, because we had the song with Clapton, I bought a Martin 000-28EC the year of the Grammys. In 2006 while touring with Frampton, I bought one of his Martin signature D-42 guitars. Martin made only 76 of them.
One of two custom guitars Kennedy commissioned from now-retired luthier Del Langejans. Peter Frampton later ordered one after playing Gordon’ s.
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