Vince Gill on His Father’s Influence

In October 2025, Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince Gill began releasing a series of EPs of primarily new songs to celebrate his five decades as a performer. Pictured on the cover of his Secondhand Smoke EP are three of the instruments Gill learned to play on: two guitars previously owned by his father—a 1948 Gibson ES-125 archtop electric guitar and a 1945 Harmony Cremona S45 archtop acoustic guitar—as well as his first banjo, the customized five-string Gibson Mastertone he acquired when he was eighteen from Kentucky luthier Harry Sparks.

The instruments are currently on display in the Museum exhibit American Currents: State of the Music, which explores the storylines of artists shaping the genre today.

Reserve tickets: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.or…