Vince Gill Plays Historic Guitar at Little Jimmy Dickens’ Memorial Service

This video has been removed at the request of the Grand Ole Opry.

Vince Gill performed his song 'Go Rest High on That Mountain' with Carrie Underwood at the Grand Ole Opry's Jan. 8 memorial service for Little Jimmy Dickens. While the moment was already poignant, the song was made even more meaningful by the instrument that Gill played to accompany himself.

"Jimmy had so many great musicians who played with him," Gill recalls. "In the earliest band, when he first got here, he played with two great guitar players, Grady Martin and a fellow named Jabbo Arrington."

Arrington, Dickens and Martin, together with Bob Moore and Thumbs Carllile, made up the Country Boys band.

"Jabbo unfortunately passed away as a young man, and [that] crushed Jimmy," Gill continues. "Sixty years later, I get a phone call from a family that I don't know, and they said, 'We're the Arrington family, and one of our family members, Jabbo, played with Jimmy, back in the day, when he first came to the Opry ... and we have his old guitar and wondered if you would be interested in it.'"

The question was a no-brainer for Gill, and Arrington's family had just one request: They asked Gill to make sure the guitar was played at the Opry one more time. As it turns out, both Dickens and Gill were set to play the Opry the same evening that Gill received the guitar.

"I went to Jimmy and said, 'I don't know if you recognize this, but this was Jabbo's guitar that he used to play with you. Could I come out and play one song with you tonight?'" Gill says. "So the last time I got to play on the stage with Jimmy, I played this guitar."

Photos From Little Jimmy Dickens' Grand Ole Opry Memorial Service