Guitar Man

On the eve of JJ Cale’s first posthumous album, his widow and former bandmate, Christine Lakeland, gave us a tour of his guitar collection. This is the truth behind the legend’s one-off models, his refusal to release a signature guitar – and the gig that meant he never trusted a tech again…

- Henry Yates

Close your eyes and he could still be with us. That inimitable creaky door of a voice. That unforgettable bob-and-weave guitar work. For JJ Cale’s widow and former bandmate, Christine Lakeland, it was an emotional wrench to embark on Stay Around, the new posthumous album whose 15 songs were foraged from the demos left behind by the late legend upon his 2013 death. “But when I found the title track,” she recalls, “it floored me. I thought this music should be heard, y’know?”

For Cale fans, this material is an unexpected pleasure: a few last shards of genius to hold close. Thankfully, for Lakeland, there are other mementos to keep her late husband’s memory alive. Sprawled across the couple’s South California home – and in storage nearby – lies Cale’s 50-strong guitar collection, and it’s one of the most eye-opening A-list hauls around: mostly dirt-cheap, heavily modified and as unique as the man himself. “You know how some people collect automobiles?” Lakeland muses. “Well, John’s thing was guitars. He had a lot of them…”

How did it feel to put together Stay Around?