Among the guitar heroes Brad Paisley celebrates in his book, Diary of a Player, there’s one hero who stands out as the most important: his grandfather, Warren Jarvis. He loved to play the guitar, and he not only tried to instill that passion in his grandson, he also gave Brad his first guitar on Christmas Day, 1980. It was a gift that changed Brad’s life unlike any other, and Brad says that he still feels as if his grandfather is watching over him. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• You can read more about Brad’s grandfather and his other guitar heroes in his book, Diary of a Player, co-written with David Wild.
• Brad’s latest single is “Camouflage,” from his album, This Is Country Music, which also includes his duet with Carrie Underwood, “Remind Me,” and “Old Alabama,” featuring Alabama.

  When he performs, Brad Paisley still feels the presence of his grandfather — the man who instilled his love for the guitar. (1:24)
“Seems like it. I mean, I feel that way. I feel like he is lookin’ at me all the time, and you know, I summarize it. The very last line of the book is something that has to do with my dad is consoling me after he dies — after my grandfather dies — and says, you know, ‘He will always be around,’ and you know, and he sees it sort of…he means that sort of like ‘He’ll be watching as you do this,’ and I see that to some degree, but what’s really obvious to me is that he is around when I play. I mean, he is around when I am on stage, in the sense that music is one of those things that just does not die. You write something that’s memorable, a song, or learn some style of playing, and as long as somebody’s around to absorb that, and take it with them, it gets passed around, it’s viral, and it really was the first sort of, you know, passing along YouTube and becoming a viral video or whatever it is. Well, you know, human beings have always passed things that way. We just have technology that helps now. So he’s…I think he’s around when I’m playing in that sense. I mean, he lives and breathes through me that way.”