A Musical Life

Jade Hopkins is a singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Derby, Kansas. “I’ve been a songwriter for a long time but I got really into Jerry Reed. Most people know him as an actor but he was also a country singer. What most people don’t know is that he’s one of the greatest thumb-picking guitar players ever. This guy can play could play things that were completely unbelievable. When I heard it, I couldn’t understand how he did. So I sent away for these tapes to learn how to play like him and the songs that I play of Jerry Reed’s, it took me about 10 years to learn. “I have been writing songs since I was very young. My dad is a songwriter. He was always sitting at the piano. I remember, I probably wrote my first song walking back from Boy Scouts to my house when we lived, for a short time, in Whitewater, Kansas. Probably around 10 years old. “A guitar that’s not played is not loved.”