MANSFIELD — Taylor Schlupp has been a fan of country musician Brad Paisley, but now his relationship is much closer to friend than fanboy.
It began with a cup and a guitar solo. Schlupp, 24, sent a recording of the country music star’s song. After his solo, he pointed to a cup he bought at a 2017 Paisley concert fearuring the musician’s image.
“I had the cup sitting next to me and when I got done playing the riff, I was like ‘now you …” he said.
The Instagram caption for the video was “Jamming with Brad Paisley during quarantine ?”
About one week later, Paisley shot Schlupp a direct message on Instagram.
The message wanted to know if Schlupp could help him record a video of his guitar solo on the song, Nervous Breakdown.
“It was amazing. He wanted to know if I could learn the solo. I already knew it,” Schlupp said. “He’s one of my heroes and everything.”
Eventually, Schlupp and nine other country guitarists were invited to a meeting on Zoom, a virtual meeting place.
“We talked about all sorts of things,” the St. Peter’s graduate. “He just had a new song come out called No I in Beer and he wanted to get footage of us playing along to that song for his music video.”
Schlupp said he didn’t know the date the video would be released, but that Paisley and his video technician are currently working on it.
Richland Source sent a message to Paisley via Instagram, but did not get a response.
The two are still communicating.
“Actually spoke yesterday (Tuesday, April 21) about which amplifiers are best,” Schlupp said.
Schlupp, currently a guitarist for Jessica Hannan’s band, believes he has a great foundation if he wants to make music a career choice.
“Yeah, it’s pretty great, he said. “Typically, I’m a rock guy, but I grew up with country and Paisley has been one of my county guitar heroes. When I started getting really into guitar, I thought of him as being one of the best at guitar.
“He’s an all-around nice guy and that has always pulled me into seeing what he was doing.”
Schlupp added that this whole experience has been like a dream.
“Sometimes you reach out to a big social media account and you never hear anything back.” he said. “I was kind of a fanboy. At the concert, I reached out and touched his shoulder. For him to reply is a big deal. For all of this to have happened — to become almost friends — it’s a dream come true.”
