## A Happy Accident
In 1969, Willie Nelson was playing a show at a Texas honky-tonk when a drunk patron accidentally stepped on his beloved Baldwin guitar, smashing it. In a panic, Willie gave the guitar to an repairman to fix, but the damage was too severe. The repairman offered Willie a trade: he gave him a Martin N-20 classical acoustic guitar, and moved the electronic pickup from the broken Baldwin into the Martin.
## Named After a Horse
Willie fell completely in love with the unique, incredibly mellow tone of the nylon-stringed Martin. Impressed by its steadfast reliability, he named the guitar ‘Trigger’, after cowboy star Roy Rogers’ famous horse. Because Willie plays with a heavy pick (which classical guitars aren’t designed for), over five decades, he slowly wore a massive, gaping hole entirely through the wood beneath the strings.
## The Sound of an Era
Trigger became Willie Nelson’s undisputed signature sound and closest companion. It has been signed by over a hundred friends, including Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Willie has famously stated that when Trigger finally breaks and can no longer be played, he will officially retire from the music business. Until then, the battered, scarred piece of wood remains country music’s ultimate holy relic.