Nelson's career was gaining momentum -- he had already written "Crazy," a song Patsy Cline would make famous -- but had not achieved a popular breakthrough when he bought Trigger. It happened shortly thereafter, when he left Nashville, moved back home to Texas and released a series of albums, "Shotgun Willie," "Phases and Stages" and "Red Headed Stranger." v The recordings featured Nelson's spare and haunting picking of Trigger's gut strings, and shook up what was then a conservative, production-heavy country music establishment. The albums were smash hits -- and made Nelson a crossover star, popular on the pop as well as country charts.

By 1973 or so, Nelson began to notice that his audience was becoming a strange blend of American culture -- that straight-and- narrow rednecks and counterculture hippies, folks who wouldn't normally be caught dead together, were attending his shows in equal number.

A new world of "redneck hip" had been ushered in, and Nelson was branded the first "cosmic cowboy." He dumped his Nashville suits and short hair for braids and jeans and developed an inimitable and influential style that blended country, pop, jazz, gospel and blues. That evolution continues today, as creative and experimental musicians such as Beck and Ryan Adams fold traditional folk and country themes into popular rock songs.

"If you steal from enough people, somehow you wind up doing your own thing," Nelson said. "Music changed. It had to. And the sound of this guitar had a lot to do with that."

After all these years, Nelson still treats himself as a bona fide working musician, not a superstar, and on his bus he confessed he was a bit nervous about the show that night. He is not used to being an opening act, but the New Jersey shows marked the beginning of a mini-tour with The Dead -- surviving members of the Grateful Dead -- and Nelson was on stage first.

It was early on a Friday evening, and Nelson feared that most fans were either fighting traffic or tailgating in the parking lot. He was right. The amphitheater was largely empty when he strode on stage and strapped on Trigger.

" 'Whiskey River,' baby!" one man shouted, not that there was a question, because that's what Nelson plays to open virtually every show. The fact that the man could be heard, quite easily, in an amphitheater that holds 25,000 people made the place seem emptier.

A bit uninspired, Nelson picked his way through a few standards, strumming Trigger quickly on "Stay All Night, Stay a Little Longer," then caressing Trigger's low E string during "You Were Always on My Mind."

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