See Joe Walsh Praise Vince Gill’s ‘Million Dollar Voice’
In addition to being an ace songwriter and one of country’s greatest voices, Vince Gill is also a killer guitarist when he’s got a Fender Telecaster (or pretty much anything else) in his hands. Recently, Gill was inducted into Guitar Center’s RockWalk with a special ceremony at the retailer’s flagship Hollywood location.
Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh did the honors of inducting Gill, whose latest album Down to My Last Bad Habit was released on February 12th.
“He’s humble. He’s brilliant. He plays pretty much everything. He’s got a million dollar voice,” says Walsh of Gill in the video above. “He’s a national treasure.”
In a Q&A session with RockWalk host Nic Harcourt that follows the ceremony, Gill recalls moving to California as a teenager and being as enamored of rock & roll as he was with bluegrass style picking. In the years since, he blossomed into one of country’s most reliable stars, selling millions of albums and nabbing 20 Grammy awards for a range of different projects.
“What I’m proudest of, more than anything, is the diversity that those Grammys represent,” he says. “There’s Grammys for instrumental work, there’s Grammys for production work, Grammys for songwriting, Grammys for singing, and Grammys for collaborating. And those are the things that I wanted to do.”
Gill doesn’t have too much left to prove in terms of chart success or gathering industry honors, but his restless, creative nature continues to push him onward 40 years after getting his start in California.
“I want to continue to sing better and play better and write better songs,” he says. “I didn’t have goals 40 years ago when I took off and thought I could do this — I just wanted to have a go at it.”