This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we return to our American stories.

Up next, a story from a man many considered to be the best acoustic guitarist in the

world. Interestingly, he's also a member of the Order of Australia and a Kentucky colonel.

We're of course talking about Tommy Emmanuel. Here's Tommy's story of how he discovered music

and himself.

We'll be playing his music throughout the entire piece.

The musician's prayer is beautiful because it says,

Make me a hollow read from which the pith of self has been blown.

In other words, get rid of me and all my crap,

my ego, my pride, my need for acceptance or any of that. Get rid of all that and just make me an open channel

that the love that is in this universe may flow through me through the music

and it may go out to other people and really help them in their lives.

Looking back on my childhood, I just want to say that everything that was American was the best in the world.

It was the best music, the best movies, the best cars, the best clothes, the best guitars, the best everything came from this country.

I started playing guitar because my mother could play guitar a bit and she was trying to teach herself how to play Hawaiian music

because it was very popular in the early 60s in

Australia, in rural Australia where we come from. She wanted me to play rhythm for her and she knew

I had rhythm in me because when I was little she would put my pram in front of the record player, I'd be screaming

my lungs out, and she'd put music on, and I'd go straight to sleep. And then when I was able to walk

around and run around the house, when she put the washing in the washing machine and pulled the

lever at the side, and the machine went,

...