It’s universally known in the guitar community that Brad Paisley isn’t just some guy that strums a guitar and sings country songs. He’s widely respected as one of the best players in the country music scene and takes an unusual approach to achieve the sonic insanity that spills out of his guitar. From Telecasters, G-benders, and cranked Dr. Z amps to instrumental records and wild guitar solos getting mainstream country radio airtime, Paisley has solidified his place in the discussion of all-time greats, and not just in the country world. In this lesson, we’ll dive into one of the cornerstones of Brad’s playing that makes him so unique: open strings.A couple of prefaces:Most of the licks in this lesson are exponentially easier when hybrid picked.And in case you didn’t know, YouTube allows you to alter the speed of videos. This is a massive tool to take advantage of when learning licks, practicing them, and getting them up to speed. Simply click the Settings button in the bottom right corner of the video player and select Playback Speed. This will allow you to speed up or slow down the video to your liking without any changes to pitch. Transients will become an issue the farther away from the original speed you go, but not enough to keep you from slowing a solo down 50 percent to really learn and nail the nuances.We’ll start by just dipping a toe in the water for Ex. 1, looking at a small part of the solo from Brad’s song “Ticks.” This section is found at the 3:06 mark of the video below. Brad really likes to use open strings to provide color to licks, usually with the note falling outside of the established scale. This little nugget is entirely in the E major scale (E–F#–G#–A–B–C#–D#) with exception of the open 3rd string. The use of the open string throws a b3 into the mix, while making it feel faster with little added effort. If you were to play this lick at half speed, the open G string does not sound great—but that’s the whole idea behind what Brad is able to do with open string licks. At tempo, the open string sounds like a natural inflection and the lick has more velocity than if it were omitted.Ex. 1TicksIn Ex. 2 we’re still looking at the “Ticks” solo but focusing on the back half. This entire section of the solo is a smorgasbord of open strings. The first phrase uses sliding and open strings to create an almost bouncy and circus feel. The use of the open G string allows Brad to travel up the fretboard with some very interesting flair. Then he uses the open 1st string in measure 2 to create momentum again, but in this instance, the open-string pull-offs fall inside the E major scale rather than acting as color tones. It’s much easier to connect this section of the lick to the previous by using the third finger to execute the bend and the fourth finger to start the new descending phrase. Lastly, Brad takes the solo home with a simple descending three-note-per-string pull-off lick that combines inside and outside notes.Ex. 2If you’ve ever listened to Paisley’s “Time Warp,” you know that it’s a gold mine of licks to steal. In Ex. 3, I’m focusing on a lick Brad plays on the “Live on Letterman” version, which occurs after the piano solo at the 1:23 mark in the video below. It’s worth noting that this is not the same line featured on the album version from Time Well Wasted. This lick is a perfect example of how Brad uses open strings to create velocity and really get going downhill at breakneck speeds. The lick is not overly complicated, but it is extremely fast, especially if you are new to hybrid picking. I’m playing it at roughly 75 percent speed so that the notes are intelligible and not just a blur. The lick is mostly based in the A Aeolian mode (A–B–C–D–E–F–G), with flatted second being the exception.Ex. 3Brad Paisley – Time Warp (Live on Letterman)In this example (Ex. 4), we tackle a fantastic phrase from the solo to “Water.” The lick I’m breaking down falls around the 1:43 mark in the YouTube video. What’s so interesting is that while the song is in F major, Brad utilizes the open A, D, and G strings to navigate the fretboard vertically and create energy. My favorite thing about the descending pull-off section of this lick is that it’s a tame bluegrass-style lick in G, but it’s the placement of the lick over the chord changes that makes it sound interesting.Ex. 4Brad Paisley – WaterEx. 5 is where things get really exciting. It’s from a live performance of “Water” during the 2010 ACM awards. At the 3:40 mark Brad uses an open-string lick to build tension and work his way up the fretboard that caught my attention. As before, it sounds monstrous at tempo but really doesn’t make a ton of sense when slowed down. It’s a fairly simple pull-off lick that isn’t too difficult if you’re already used to hybrid picking, but it creates a ton of movement and excitement when sped up. I’m guilty of stealing both this lick and the idea behind it for “wow” moments in solos.Ex. 5Brad Paisley – Water (live ACM Awards 2010)It’s undeniable how freakishly good of a guitar player Brad Paisley is (try grabbing some of the monster licks from the outro of “Water”). Because of how many tricks he has up his sleeve, he’s nearly impossible to replicate, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something that everyone can take from Paisley’s bag of tricks. Use this concept of using open strings in unconventional places to add spice, speed, and mystique to your playing.

In a new interview with Pierre Gutiérrez of Rock Talks, Phil Demmel reflected on his final album with MACHINE HEAD, “Catharsis”, which got mixed reviews upon its release in January 2018. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “The record is what it was. I thought that there was some good stuff on that record. I enjoyed a lot of the stuff that I wrote. ‘Heavy Lies The Crown’, I fucking love the riffs that I did for that. ‘Hope Begets Hope’ I wrote; I love the music for that. [There are] a lot of good moments on that record, man. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen, and it just didn’t for me on that record. But I love ‘Bloodstone & Diamonds’ [2014], I love ‘The Blackening’ [2007], I love ‘Unto The Locust’ [2011], I love ‘Through The Ashes Of Empires’ [2003].”

Demmel, who previously said that he hated “Catharsis”, insisted that he doesn’t have anything negative to say about his former group.

“I’ve almost been out of the band four years now,” he said. “[MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn], he started the band in ’92. It’s been 30 years, man — it’s been 30 years, and still going so strong. There’s things that I don’t like that I was in the band for, but the dude is an amazing musician; he knows how to write a song. He’s such an underrated guitar player — fuck, such a good guitar player — and he’s got that band still clicking 30 years later, man. I can’t hate on that. I won’t.

“Everything that I’ve said before I felt like because I wasn’t able to do press for awhile that it needed to be my side of the story or there was parts that needed to be answered, there was questions that needed to be answered,” he explained. “I don’t think that I really slammed him. I told the truth about some stuff, but it hasn’t been, ‘Oh, he sucks.’ I’m not gonna do that because it’s just not fucking true. So it’s time to move on.”

Demmel left MACHINE HEAD at the end of the band’s fall 2018 North American tour. He was in MACHINE HEAD for nearly 16 years, during which time he played on the aforementioned five of the group’s studio albums.

In 2019, Demmel told the “In The Pitts Of Metal And Motor Chaos” podcast that MACHINE HEAD ended up becoming a Robb Flynn solo project toward the end of his time with the group. “We weren’t a band,” he said. “That was Robb’s trip, and we were basically just being told what was gonna happen… Everything had changed over time. Shit, we were together for 16 years and stuff changes after that. It’s been the band that he started. So things shift, and as they weren’t what we agreed to or what we wanted to be a part of, [drummer Dave McClain and I] just left. So we do our own thing, and [Robb] does his thing.”

Demmel told SiriusXM’s Liquid Metal that there were “a lot of things” that he couldn’t do while he was a member of MACHINE HEAD, including speak to the press. “There was a point where we were taking liberties and still doing [interviews],” Phil said. “It got to be where the talks that came along with it, it was unbearable. It was just like, ‘Man, I’m punching the clock here. I’m gonna show up. What songs do you wanna play? Okay. Cool. We’re gonna play the songs. When are the dates? Okay. Cool.’ For the last cycle, it was the paycheck. That was my living. I didn’t like my job anymore.”

Phil also revealed that he decided to quit MACHINE HEAD after spending “many stressed-out nights” talking with his wife and occasionally “losing sleep” over everything that was going on with the band. “And it just got to the point to where I [couldn’t] do this anymore,” he explained. “It’s unhealthy for me physically, it’s totally unhealthy for me mentally, and it’s taking its toll on my family now, and there’s where I’ve gotta draw the line,” he said. “This isn’t fun, and I’ve gotta quit my job. And there was a straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Demmel announced his exit from MACHINE HEAD in October 2018, explaining at the time that he wanted “to step away and do something else musically.” Phil, who first played with Robb in VIO-LENCE in the late 1980s and early 1990s, went on to complete MACHINE HEAD’s “Freaks & Zeroes Tour” before officially leaving the band.

Demmel spent most of 2019 and early 2020 playing sporadic shows with the reunited VIO-LENCE, which recently inked a deal with Metal Blade Records. The band’s new EP, “Let The World Burn” — featuring the first all-new VIO-LENCE music in more than three decades — came out on March 4.

Although Flynn was part of VIO-LENCE’s classic incarnation and played on the band’s debut album, “Eternal Nightmare”, he wasn’t approached about taking part in any of the comeback shows.

In January 2021, Demmel said during an appearance on Dean Delray’s “Let There Be Talk” podcast that he didn’t have “any desire or need to talk to [Flynn] ever again.”