that opened door stayed open for a while . I ' ve had four of the last five singles for Bonnie Raitt , but that wouldn ' t have happened before . She was sitting on the front row at the Grammy ' s that night . Then within a month or two , we get a message , “ Bonnie Raitt wants to know if you guys will write her a song ?” It ' s just a little pop song , but that got me into some places where I would play and bring some light . It was something that created opportunities .
[ WM ] Garth Brooks starts his 2021 stadium tour in July in Las Vegas , tell us about it ?
[ Gordon ] I basically strap on an electric guitar , try to remember 30 songs and stay out of his way on stage , that ’ s me doing a Garth Brooks show . My favorite part of the show is when he takes an acoustic guitar on stage by himself , and I get to watch him and just sit there and look at the crowd . It ' s a surreal thing when you ' re on stage and these people in the crowd are making the sound of a jet engine for two hours . The reason why I wear in ears is not to have this perfect mix in my head , it ' s to help save my ears from that sound .
[ WM ] What guitars and gear are you taking on tour ?
[ Gordon ] Over the shows that I ' ve done in the stadiums so far , I ' ve used a proto-type Gibson signature model guitar , a 335 and a Les Paul number 210 . I went and got a production model version of the John Sebastian replica they did , which is a ‘ 59 Les Paul I own now that used to be John Sebastian ' s . It ' s used on all the Lovin ' Spoonful records . They did a replica of that guitar called the “ Collector ' s Choice , # 13 , Gordon Kennedy Spoonful Burst .” That ' s the official name of that guitar . I have the prototype . I didn ' t want to take that out on tour because I didn ' t want somebody deciding on stage to baseball bat two guitars together , and I ' m holding that guitar . Then I used a Fender Telecaster , just a new professional series model . Those guitars are awesome and also my first ever guitar was a Tele . I ' m in love with those guitars still all these years later .
[ WM ] Any special amps ?
[ Gordon ] I used Matchless amplifiers for the 2019 tour when I was able to stick two rigs under the stage and blast them out under the stage into the air where the crowd is . The crowd doesn ' t care , because they ' re fighting back and they ' re winning . Now the space under the stage is shrinking . That ’ s Moo TV world under there . We ' re looking at the box of doom , it ' s an ISO box with a single 12-inch speaker , and you change the speakers by pulling the baffle boards out like cards , like your memory card . If you want to try 25 Watts , let ' s put that in there . Let ' s do the green back . You can change speakers to suit whatever amp head you ' re using . My amp heads are going to be on the guitar vault in front of John Kinsch , the tech on my side of the stage , and then that box of doom , ISO cab will be where they can fit it , but there ' s a lid on it , and it won ' t kill anybody .