CMA New Artist of the Year nominee and CMA-show performer Chris Young is now the proud owner of something very special to him: a guitar once owned by one of his heroes, the late Keith Whitley, himself a three-time CMA honoree. Chris played the guitar in a show for the first time on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry recently and sang Keith’s first number-one hit, “Don’t Close Your Eyes.” Chris talked with us about his new prized possession, and he tells us he’ll be feeling just a little pressure the first time he tries to write a song with Keith Whitley’s old guitar. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• Check out Chris’ Opry performance of “Don’t Close Your Eyes” — you can see a video clip on the homepage of his website at ChrisYoungCountry.com. You can also read some of the history of the guitar, a Sigma by Martin acoustic/electric, right here on Chris’ site.
• Keith Whitley’s recordings continued to generate hits even after his untimely passing at the height of his career in 1989. Ultimately, his music launched 10 Top 10 hits, with five that went to number-one, including such classics as “When You Say Nothing at All,” “It Ain’t Nothin’,” and the 1989 CMA Single of the Year, “I’m No Stranger to the Rain.”
• Another Keith Whitley favorite, the Top 5 single, “I’m Over You,” was a song that Chris recorded last year for his three-song digital release, Voices EP, which also featured his versions of Vern Gosdin‘s “Chiseled in Stone” and John Anderson‘s “Swingin’.”
• Look for Chris on this week’s CMT Top 20 Countdown, in the episode at 11am, ET, this Friday, November 4th, with Saturday and Sunday re-airings at 11 and 11:30am, ET, respectively!
• In addition to his CMA New Artist of the Year nomination, Chris is a triple-nominee for the upcoming American Country Awards, where he’s in the running for Single of the Year and Single by a Male Artist (both for “Voices”), as well as Breakthrough Artist of the Year. Fan voting in those categories is happening now through November 11th at TheACAs.com. Be sure to catch the show when it airs December 5th on FOX.
• Chris is hot on the radio and video airwaves now with his cool new hit, “You,” the follow-up smash to “Tomorrow,” both from his chart-topping NEON album.  

  Chris Young says there’ll be some stress associated with Keith Whitley’s old guitar. (:17)
“There’s pressure! Oh, trust me, there’s…’cause I’m gonna use it to write with, and I mean, you don’t want to come out of the gate and the first song you write on Keith Whitley’s old guitar is terrible. So, I may have to, like, have an idea in mind and who I’m writin’ it with and really be fired up about it before I go in with that one.”

  Chris Young talks about acquiring a guitar that was once owned by one of his heroes, the late Keith Whitley. (:33)
“They found this guitar that Keith actually owned and played, and it was one of the three guitars that he used on the road between ’84 and ’89, right before he died, when he was really, you know, havin’ number-ones and havin’ hits. And it’s so cool. It’s still got the original luggage tag on it with his signature. And gettin’ to pick up somethin’ like that, honestly, I don’t know if I’d have been able to do that if I wasn’t at the point I am now. But I don’t buy much stuff, but when that came by, I was like, ‘That’s one of a kind. I gotta have that.’ So…and I’m a huge Keith Whitley fan anyway, so for me, it means a lot to have it.”

  Chris Young tells us more about the guitar and why he had to have it. (:31)
“It’s got all the dings and the scratches, but it’s in really, really great shape for bein’ as old as it is. I mean, you think about…I think…I’m not exactly sure what year, but I think it’s early ’80s, so, I mean, that’s close to 30 years old. I mean, just the fact that the guitar has held up this well and the case is in such great shape, and it’s actually the original case. And yeah, I geeked-out a little bit over that, but that’s definitely…that’s the first purchase I’ve made in a long time that was purely just emotional, music-driven, ‘I-want-this-because-of-what-it-is.'”