Diary of a Player: How My Musical Heroes Made a Guitar Man Out of Me by Brad Paisley and David Wild

                 Let me state something.  I am not a guitar person.  I admire and appreciate people who can play.  The sound of a guitar I greatly enjoy.  Once the specifics begin, I am done.  I cannot tell the difference between types of guitars.  Do not even get me started on amps.  These things are not my forte.      

                When I picked up this book I did so because of Brad Paisley.  He is my favorite country music star.  The funny thing is one of the main reasons I even know who he is is because of his wife.  I have been a fan of Kimberly Williams-Paisley since her Father of the Bride days.  Through my interest in her, I have become a Brad Paisley fan.  He is incredibly talented, funny, and appears to be a good man to top it off.  When I saw on the CMA Awards that Mr. Paisley had a book out, I was curious.  What I did not know was how guitar oriented this book was going to be, despite the title.  It was quite an education.

                There is a warning at the start of the book letting us know it is not an autobiography.  I beg to differ.  While I agree this is not a tell-all, here is every detail of my life, type book; there are a lot of autobiographical elements.  These, however, are surrounded by guitars and based on his life with them.         

                Seeing him now, it is hard to believe Mr. Paisley was a bit of an outcast growing up.  According to his story he was, and who am I to doubt him?  When a person is dedicated to something, and that something is off the beaten track as country guitar was, it can be isolating.  Especially so when people your own age do not quite understand what you are doing.  Thankfully Mr. Paisley had great mentors who encouraged and helped him become the man he is today.

                In my mind Mr. Paisley took a very intelligent path to stardom.  He took it slowly and truly learned the business.  Moving to Nashville for college he was able to get internships in the music industry.  Learning how all the parts work before success is a huge advantage.  It leads to less unfortunate surprises, in my opinion.  Mr. Paisley also trusted his instincts about who to have around him and how his music should be handled.  This helped him become a steadily growing success instead of instant star which can cause problems.  I believe people have a lot to learn from how Mr. Paisley achieved what he did. 

Most of the discussion about guitars and guitarists was mind whirling for me.  So many of these people I did not know.  Then there were the technical aspects.  That was completely beyond me.  For a guitar enthusiast I am sure these parts are absolutely fascinating.  As a person who is not, I enjoyed reading about how passionate Mr. Paisley is about the subject.  It is exciting to see someone so passionate about something and able to succeed with it.  To think, it all started with a Christmas gift from his grandfather.