brothers feeling . Nick felt safe being surrounded by older brothers that were looking out for him both personally and musically . Man , we had so much fun on that tour ! We went all over Europe , Japan , Mexico as well as the U . S . and Canada . As far as being a believer in those settings I ’ ve always found that people respect your beliefs when they respect you . Nick had professed faith in his early teens and was excited to be surrounded by believers who were married and could be real around him . It was refreshing for him in contrast to all the fame and craziness he was experiencing at the time .
[ WM ] Back to the 2000 decade for a minute , then you were having so much success on the Christian side of making music , next I know , you are the guitarist for the huge mainstream sensation Kelly Clarkson . How did the whole American Idol relationship happen ?
[ Dwayne ] Like most things in the music business and well , life in general it came out of relationships . Jason Halbert ( Sonicflood ) had been her music director / band leader for a couple years during which he had approached me a couple times about touring with her but it never worked with my schedule up until that point . I was going to quit touring as my wife and I had just had our first child and I was wanting to get off the road but I decided to go out for a promotional tour on Asia and the first leg of the U . S . tour . The album Breakaway came out and literally exploded and it was the biggest thing out there . I had decided I didn ’ t want to tour anymore as I could see that it was going to turn into a couple years straight on the road and I didn ’ t want to miss all that time with my daughter as a baby . That ’ s when I went back into the studio full-time producing and doing session work again .
[ WM ] Let ’ s talk about your guitars . You have relationships with a few different Christian boutique builders and that is special in itself .
First , James Tyler Guitars . Tell us about your Tyler black strat style guitar that you use and also about your friendship with the company ?
[ Dwayne ] The first time I played a Tyler was back in 1993 or 94 . My friend Glenn Pearce who was a session player in Los Angeles had two of them , a red Classic and a Mike Landau Burning Water model . Those absolutely blew my mind ! Glenn used to liken the feeling of playing a vintage Marshall or a guitar like that for the first time to the first time you sit on a Harley and rev it for real . You never forget that feeling , and I didn ’ t ! ( laughing )
I had always wanted to own one but I had heard there was a long wait etc and it never worked out . Then one of my dearest friends Rich Renken , who worked with Tyler in the photo by Garret Lobaugh
80 ’ s ended up going back and becoming the general manager of Tyler Guitars back in 2020 . I was playing shows in L . A . with Lauren and Rich came to hang and mentioned that he wanted to connect Jim Tyler and myself . Jim and I ended up having a great conversation and talked about a specific guitar I had always wanted and he went to work building it . I was absolutely floored when it arrived a few months later ! I have always been a huge David Gilmour ( Pink Floyd ) fan and always loved his main black Strat that he played most of his career so that is what we based it on . It ’ s an Alder body with a maple neck . Black pick guard with white knobs and pick up covers . I explained