How much creative latitude did a touring musician have in Dwights band?
Unfortunately, once I left the touring band, Dwight tried to make everybody learn everything exactly, probably for his own safety. But, nobody could learn it exactly. The only one who did was Eddy. Nobody else ever got close. Sometimes Dwight would work out new tunes on the road and the soloists, fiddle or guitar, could play their own thing. But, when it came to the “hits”, Dwight had Eddy play exactly what was on the record, including the solos. Q: I heard Eddy played a Telecaster for the first time on that tour. Were there gear restrictions? A: Yeah, Eddy was a Strat guy and Dwight was like, “You’ve got to play a Telecaster.” That’s not a big jump. If you’re playing Strats or Teles, that’s not huge. The scale length and tension of the strings will feel pretty much the same. I think Eddy was playing through more rock amps like Marshalls and thicker sounding amps, but Dwight wanted him to play through a Fender Twin Reverb. However Twins are really loud, deceptively loud, louder than Ma
