“John Mayer had Paul build a guitar for him for the Dead & Company. He wanted one guitar all night. I thought, ‘Let’s see if I can get back to that’”: Keith Urban on working with PRS on a ‘do-it-all’ guitar build –and why SRV is still numb

Since he hit the scene in 1991, Keith Urban has stayed at the top of the country music heap by indulging his passion for guitars. “It’s like a relationship,” he says. “Someone said once that a relationship is 50 percent support and 50 percent challenge. A guitar has to be the same.”

He continues: “If it’s all support – perfect, and easy to play – I’m probably going to miss something; it’s not going to bring something out in me, something that just doesn’t happen if a guitar is too easy to play. But if it’s too much of a struggle, it’s not going to have fluidity. It’s about balance.”

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Andrew Daly is an iced-coffee-addicted, oddball Telecaster-playing, alfredo pasta-loving journalist from Long Island, NY, who, in addition to being a contributing writer for Guitar World, scribes for Rock Candy, Bass Player, Total Guitar, and Classic Rock History. Andrew has interviewed favorites like Ace Frehley, Johnny Marr, Vito Bratta, Bruce Kulick, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Rich Robinson, and Paul Stanley, while his all-time favorite (rhythm player), Keith Richards, continues to elude him.