Brad Paisley’s New Guitar Has a Family Connection

During the floods that devastated Nashville in May of this year, many entertainers lost valuable instruments, stage equipment and other memorabilia when waters rose over the banks of the Cumberland River. Brad Paisley was among those who lost most of his guitars and had to replace a lot of the stage sets for his H2O World Tour 2010.

While in the process of replacing guitars, Brad visited several of the better known used instrument stores to check out what they had in stock. At Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, one guitar in particular caught his eye. He bought the 1938 Herringbone Martin D28 the day before he joined Little Jimmy Dickens and a host of Nashville dignitaries to reset the huge round oak piece in the stage of the Grand Ole Opry house. The piece, which has seen numerous Opry greats walk across it including Hank Williams, Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff, had been displaced when waters rose 46 inches above the Opry stage.

"I believe in the soul of things, like a piece of wood flooring, there's something about that," Brad tells The Boot. "I think that comes from being a guitar player, I felt that after the flood with the deaths of those guitars of mine, as well as when I was acquiring new ones."

Brad's "new" guitar became even more special to him after he found out its unique story from the folks at Gruhn Guitars. "I didn't know it before I bought it, but this guitar was purchased from an old man from Colfax, West Virginia, whose father worked on the D&L Railroad right alongside my grandfather. I didn't know that until after I was looking at the guitar."

Brad also believes in fate. "It found its way to me, that's why I brought it here [0to the Opry] today," Brad explains. "I thought to myself, 'It has to be there today. This guitar was played on the radio in Fairmont, W. Va., but it's probably never been on this stage so I took it with me out there today. The journey of a guitar and the journey of this stage, this circle, it has seen so much. I think there is a living, breathing element of stuff like this."

Brad will join a group of his friends including Trace Adkins, Dierks Bentley, Charlie Daniels and Montgomery Gentry as they celebrate the return of the Opry to the Grand Ole Opry house on September 28.