I was reminded of a funny 'Tony story' yesterday afternoon after I forwarded a link to the above article to a guitar-playing buddy. We grew up playing music together around here back in the 80's, and he was really the first guitar player I'd encountered who could pull off Rice licks convincingly.. and since I knew that whole catalog by heart, we made a good fit with me on bass.
So one time we went to see the Tony Rice Unit at a nearby High School, a common venue back then for the mainstream bluegrass acts to stop. After the show, we youngsters were allowed to go back to the band's green room, (an improvised classroom) to meet Tony and the guys. While he was signing a few autographs and talking with the handful of people, out of the corner of his eye, he caught us gawking at that old beat-up guitar in a HUGE road case, and bellows in his already gruff-by-then, voice- "ya'll go on and pick a tune on it... hell, you can't tear the damn thing up any worse than I have!"
I couldn't play guitar back then, so I took pictures of my buddies playing on Tony's infamous old Martin D-28. (and wished desperately I had a bass to play)
