Chris Stapleton might have cabinets of Grammys and a guitar assortment any music lover would drool over, however one explicit six-string holds a particular place in his coronary heart: a weathered acoustic Fifties Gibson LG-2 metal string he purchased for simply $380.

Throughout a go to to his Nashville rehearsal area – a transformed warehouse now stuffed with devices, memorabilia and music historical past – the nation legend gave a uncommon glimpse into the guitar that began all of it.

“That is the primary guitar I ever purchased after I received to Nashville,” he says [via Billboard], pulling out the well-worn six-string from a sea of instances. “I purchased it for $380.”

Stapleton says he bought the instrument from Chambers, a neighborhood guitar retailer that’s lengthy since shut its doorways.

“There may be nothing about it that’s treasured to anyone else,” says the musician. “It’s received one million crack repairs. There was even mud in it once I first purchased it, I feel.”

And but for Stapleton, it’s irreplaceable.

“If I needed to stroll out of right here with one factor, it might be this,” he provides. “All the opposite stuff – I might be unhappy about it – however no matter I’ve carried out, no matter I’ve made, no matter I’ve changed into has just about been constructed on this factor.”

Different classic gems in his assortment embrace a 1976 bicentennial Gibson Firebird as soon as utilized by Tom Petty throughout his Fillmore reveals within the ’90s, in addition to a shoulder-high Rickenbacker Transonic amp – the very same one Jimmy Web page used when Led Zeppelin toured the US for the primary time in 1969.

Trying again on how far he’s come, Stapleton says, “It’s the thrill I search for. That buzz that begins with me then connects me to the band that connects to the viewers then again round. I’m all the time in search of {that electrical} present.”

“I had no voice earlier than, no guitar expertise,” he continues. “However one thing drove me to it. My uncle had a regional band, so perhaps that. My dad listened to all the nice nation too – Waylon, Willie, Merle Haggard – however he additionally performed R&B: Otis Redding and Ray Charles. He liked all of it. So music was all the time there, however sports activities turned much less prevalent, and the music simply stayed.”