(Photo by Wade Payne/Invision/AP, File)

Ever hear a musician say they had to “kick down doors” to get noticed?  It’s just a saying, of course, but Travis Tritt did something about as drastic to turn heads when he was starting out. He recalls, “I realized ‘I gotta do something to get these people’s attention,’ because I was just kind of background music that they weren’t really paying attention to.”

So he bought a Stratocaster guitar, a Fender twin amplifier, and a 100-foot guitar cord. Saying, “I brought that back to my stage, and by the third set, I pulled out that Stratocaster, and I would literally run out and jump on top of people’s tables.  I’m kickin’ empty beer bottles over, the whole deal.  They had no choice.”

It clearly worked, as over his career he’s won four CMAs and two Grammys.  And he’s still a force.

His new album, “Set In Stone”, will be out May 7th.