Country guitar icon Brad Paisley has named his new favorite guitar player, whom he gifted a relic’d Fender Telecaster with a secret message hidden beneath its pickguard.
Paisley, who has won three Grammys, was bestowed with his new signature six-string earlier this year, reviving a cult 1960s finish in the process.
In a recent appearance on The Zak Kuhn Show, Paisley looked to the future, highlighting Hayden Baker as the “great new” kid on the block of the country scene, in part for how closely his style draws from his own.
The pair had met when Baker invited Paisley to provide a guest solo on his track Don’t Meet Your Heroes. Now Baker, who has now featured on Kuhn’s show as a result of that praise, has opened up on their burgeoning friendship.
“This piece of junk is a 1953 refin that our buddy Brad gave to me a couple of years ago, and she's number one, man,” he says of the Telecaster Paisley gave him. “Just look at it. It’s an amazing instrument.
“Under the pickguard, he wrote a note that says to stop ripping him off. He's made it clear that he could he could have sued me by now, but he chose to just play along,” Baker laughs. “He’s been wonderful, and this is an incredible gift.”
Though the electric guitar’s relic’d finish was done by Paisley before it became Baker’s main squeeze, he says he’s “played it enough where it should look like this. I can’t put it down.”
Quizzed on how he came to embody Paisley’s spirit so well, Baker credits YouTube and tab books, saying he became “determined” to master his “captivating style” after getting hooked on his music.
So what are Paisley’s standout quirks?
“It’s a combination of attitude, really digging into the strings, and putting open strings where you normally wouldn’t,” Baker believes. “It can sound so weird slow, but once you get it up to speed, it sounds really cool.
He’s since had the sizable task of learning Paisley’s Dont Meet Your Heroes solo, and it’s left both guitarists perplexed.
“There's this great new kid named Hayden Baker, and I played on a song with him, I played the middle solo,” Paisley had explained to Kuhn. “I saw him yesterday and he said, ‘I'm having to learn your part, what did you do?’ and I said, ‘I have no idea. I just hit record…’ I have to learn it just the same way; it may take me longer than Hayden.”
Responding to those comments in an Instagram reel, Baker quipped, “I tell you this much, buddy, I ain't got it figured out. So when I play it [live], I'm gonna make up my own stuff.”
Even for a pro Paisley-esque shredder, Baker is stumped. That says a lot about the technicality of the solo. But Paisley’s praise also says a lot about Baker’s abilities.
Paisley's new signature guitar, he says, is based on an instrument so rare that Fender couldn't believe he had one.
