Vince Gill is in the middle of a summer tour with a string of sold out shows and never, ever an opening act.
But while the country legend refuses to have an opening act on his headlining tour, he’s certainly been an opening act more than once.
In fact, when Vince Gill recently sat in on the “Dadville” podcast with hosts, fellow musicians Dave Barnes and Jon McLaughlin, he dropped the bombshell that he once opened for heavy metal band KISS!
Vince told the story. He said his bluegrass band “Mountain Smoke” got a last minute call to come be an opening act. “They called and our band was fairly popular at the time in Oklahoma City. Kind of a jug band, blue grass band. So they called and said, ‘hey we need somebody to come down here tonight and play.’ They didn’t tell us we were opening for KISS. Just said, you know, we’re gonna pay a nice paycheck. “
He continued, “So we all went running down there, put a band together of enough blue grass pickers to make a band and good God, I drove up to the civic center there in Oklahoma City and I saw the marquee. It said ‘appearing tonight KISS.’ I went, ‘no way’ I said ‘there’s no way we’re going to be opening for them. That doesn’t make any sense. Maybe we’re playing down in the basement for a Shriner’s Convention or something.’ No, we went in there and sure enough, the opening act had canceled last minute, so we went out there and tried to play. We only lasted two or three songs,” he laughed.
Vince Gill Is Celebrating 50 Years as a Performer With Tour
While the KISS experience may’ve have been among his worst as an opening act, Vince Gill says even his best experiences as an opener always left him longing for more.
In an Instagram video, Gill said, “I remember all the early days when I would open for people and I could only play for 20 minutes or 30 minutes or 40 minutes. I promised myself that when I was able to do my own shows, that I would play as long as they let me. And often times, that’s what I do.”
In fact, that desire to spend as much time as possible performing is exactly why Gill says no to taking an opening act with him on the road.
“A lot of the reasons I never take an opening act is cause it gives me another 45 minutes to play. I love playing. I love playing live. It doesn’t matter how long,” he said in that same Instagram video. “I’m like the Energizer Bunny I guess, of hillbilly music,” Gill goes on. “I love seeing people feel like they get their money’s worth. And maybe seeing the entirety of my life musically, you know, in a night.”
Vince Gill Turned Down His Own Signature Model of Fender Guitar
The country icon is known as not only a great singer, but also a skilled guitar player.
And while he regularly performs playing his 1953 Fender “Blackguard” Telecaster, he passed on a chance to have his own signature model.
Gill says in the early 1990s, Fender wanted to recreate his favorite guitar as a signature model. But he turned them down flat.
Vince sat in on the Shred with Shifty podcast, where he explained, “Back in the early ’90s, when I was starting to kind of blow up a little bit…they came to me, Fender did. They said. ‘We want to make a Vince Gill model.’ And I said, ‘Why would you want to do that?.’ They said, ‘Well, you’re doing really good and we think it’d be cool.’”
Gill told them, “No disrespect intended, but you can’t make a guitar as good as my old white one.” The Fender representative said, “We’ll try.” and and sent him a prototype. “It wasn’t great,” he told podcast host Chris Shiflett. Gill lost the prototype guitar in a flood more than ten years ago.
“My ego is not such that I need a model of my own name on it to satisfy me. But I appreciate it. So it never did come about.”
For more information on Vince Gill’s tour dates and tickets (though many shows are sold out) click here.
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Vince Gill Once Opened for KISS