About The Back Pickup

THE BACK PICKUP

What is The Back Pickup? I ask myself that question often. Is it my brand? My YouTube channel? My thumb pick business? My digital modeling captures? All of it at once?

I think it's all of it at once. I'm figuring it out as I go.

My name is Richie Worrell. I've been playing guitar since I was a kid. I grew up in a small town in Southwest Virginia where music is a way of life for most people, and bluegrass is king. I had a guitar put in my hands at about age 10, but despite being surrounded by it, I didn't take much of an interest to bluegrass for 10 more years when I was 20, away at college, and homesick.

My teenage years were full of Megadeth tabs, Ibanez super strats, and chain wallets. There's still a little metalhead living somewhere inside me, but what carried over most from that period in life was an appreciation for proficient guitar playing. Guys like Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert, Guthrie Govan, and even fusion players like Shawn Lane and Alan Holdsworth.

Then when I was 20, at the zenith of millennial "stomp-clap-hey" music, I developed an affinity for bluegrass music and acoustic flatpicking greats like Tony Rice, and Norman Blake, and Doc Watson. I played in a regionally successful folk/bluegrass band and recorded two full length albums on nothing but a dreadnought acoustic.

Then somewhere around my mid-20's, my love of proficient virtuoso metal guitar collided head-on with my love for classic Americana guitar playing, and I fell head over heels in love with the Telecaster.

Brent Mason. John Jorgensen. Brad Paisley. Guthrie Trapp. Johnny Hiland.

I had never heard guitar playing like this, and I knew that's how I wanted to play. It's been a journey ever since - from developing chicken pickin' techniques, all the way to developing picks themselves.

In addition to guitar playing, I am also a completely un-medicated tinkerer. In practical terms, that means I forget to eat and accidentally stay up until 3AM in my basement making stuff. RoosterClaw was born out of that.

I've been sharing my guitar journey on YouTube for almost 2 years now, and if you're reading this - that's probably what brought you here. I'm glad you came, and I hope you stick around.

Whatever The Back Pickup is, let's build it together, yeah?

• Richie