Hayden Pedigo can’t help but care
thefader.comHayden Pedigo is a leading light in fingerstyle guitar, but his chief aspiration has always been to excel in a different area. “I never wanted to be a guitar player,” he tells me over the phone from Amarillo, the mid-sized Texas panhandle town where he was born and raised. “I just wanted to be a prankster.
I like messing with people, but I’m not laughing at people or making fun of people, just putting out strange things.” Pedigo’s public persona is self-consciously silly, full of what fans of his bright-eyed yet studied take on American primitive playing might mistake for detours from the plot.
These include: an initially unserious city council run at the age of 24, a penchant for dressing up like highway billboards, and unexpected appearances in bona fide fashion shows like Gucci’s 2021 “Love Parade.” (In their coverage of the event, V Magazine referred to Pedigo as a “celebrity,” and in the same breath as Jared Leto and Macaulay Culkin.) But he insists that his decentralized pursuits are actually variations on a larger theme. “It’s all part of this one big thing I’m aiming for,” he says.
Read more on thefader.com