GORDON KENNEDY
Yes. After Jerry passed away, his wife called me and said,“ Well, come get these guitars, Jerry wanted you to have them.” So, I’ ve got three of his gut strings, including one of his Badwins— the one he played with Chet Atkins in concert at the Bottom Line in June, 1992.
Peter Frampton called me before we did an acoustic tour together. I think we did around 60 shows over a couple of years, and he wanted a good gut string because we were going to do a song of his called Oh for Another Day. I initially suggested something like Takamine, but then suddenly, it hit me. I had this guitar in my closet that Jerry Reed gave me. And man, what Peter would do with that guitar on that one song, every show, was just so beautiful. It was heavenly.
Let’ s talk about your studio work. What’ s going on now?
Well, right now, a lot of my work is with Garth Brooks. He’ s doing five more Chris Gaines albums.
Five more?!
Yeah. Back in 1999, he released In the Life of Chris Gaines, which was supposed to be a“ Greatest Hits” package. But the media really beat him up for doing that. People were telling him to“ get back in the box.” He didn’ t even mention the name Chris Gaines for 20 years. Then in 2019, he says to me,“ You know that Chris Gaines greatest hits album? Well, what albums did those hits come from? We need to do those albums!” So, we are doing five, maybe six more Chris Gaines albums.
We cracked it open about a month ago and did the first three days of tracking. For those dates, I knew I’ d be there mainly for guide tracks so Tom-
Gordon Kennedy on Writing Influences Coming Full Circle
With respect to the craft of songwriting, writing with Wayne Kirkpatrick has been highly influential. I describe it as not unlike reaching over and flicking on a switch. I had written songs for several years, but once I started working with Wayne, I magically got better. As far as the songwriters who influenced me the most, in no particular order, I’ d say Roger Miller, Paul
McCartney, Mark Knopfler, Sting, and Tom Petty. Those are the catalogs I’ m taking with me!
And then there’ s Don McLean. When I was young and my mom would drive me to basketball practice, chances were pretty good that American Pie would come on the radio. And it was so long the song would practically last the entire drive. Fast forward to 2022 and the Musicians Hall of Fame ceremony when Don was inducted. I was in the house band, and instead of hearing him through the car speakers behind me, I was sitting there playing behind him while he performed American Pie. Talk about nostalgic! It’ s just one of the many reasons the autopsy report on me will probably say,“ Cause of death: pinch marks.”
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