The idea of handing one of your most valuable possessions over to who knows who at an airport is enough to make most people nervous and a Nashville musician found out the hard way why you should avoid doing it at all costs. Sam Hayes, a former artist for Big Machine, was recently taking a United Airlines flight, and as usual, brought his guitar for the trip. He’d flown with it many times before, it’s a necessity for many traveling musicians, and to that point there had been no problems, mostly because he was allowed to bring it into the cabin, where it would be put in an overhead compartment or tucked away in one of the various places flight attendants store things. But this time he was forced to check the guitar, though United promised it would be well taken care of. Spoiler alert: The guitar was not well taken care of. He spoke to WSMV about what happened when they landed: “Somebody with an orange jumper that was working the tarmac came in holding the guitar in a case upside down with a thousand pieces in it… Your heart drops. It’s part of what you do and who you are, and just you fall in love with these guitars and they just become an extension of you.” My heart breaks for Sam… My guitar is so important to me and I don’t use it to make a living. The thought of it getting completely destroyed truly pains my deep inside. And completely destroyed this guitar was. Sam posted a picture of the damage on Facebook: It’s almost hard to imagine a guitar being more broken than that… did they smash it against a fire hydrant? United Airlines did say they would reimburse Sam for the cost of a new guitar but that means he’d have to pay out of pocket and who knows how long the reimbursement process would take. Knowing airlines (and I’ve had my fair share of run-ins which resulted in a refund), it would probably take months, if not years. Fortunately for Sam Hayes, he didn’t have to pay out of pocket because a country artist with 14 Number One’s and one of the smoothest baritone voices in the genre heard about the fiasco and stepped in to save the day. Hayes got a call shortly after from Chris Young, who simply asked him: “Do you want an Epiphone or a Gibson?” For those who don’t know, the former is a somewhat solid, economical brand but with a low ceiling for quality and is typically played by beginners and hobbyists. The later is one of the flagship brands of acoustic and electric instruments with a long, rich history, near limitless quality (for some products), and a much higher price tag… Chris Young purchased a brand new Gibson for Hayes and told him he could pick it up at Carter Vintage Guitars, an iconic music shop in Nashville that sells some of the best six-strings on the market. When he arrived, there was a gorgeous cherry red Gibson SJ-200 with his name on it. That goes for just under $5,700 on Gibson’s website, while a comparable Epiphone runs you around $550… Though I’d be remiss to not mention that Epiphone does offer some quality guitars these days in the $1,500 range. Big shout out to Chris Young. Not only does the guy have some bangers (“Who I Am With You”, “You”, “Tomorrow”, “Gettin’ You Home”) and a big voice, but he’s also got a big heart to boot. Yet again, airlines prove that they’re the absolute worst and humans prove they can be the absolute best. The post Chris Young Steps Up Big Time For Nashville Musician Who’s Guitar Was Destroyed By United Airlines first appeared on Whiskey Riff.