DEERING BANJO COMPANY, LEMON GROVE, CIRCA 1985-90

This unusual Deering Crossfire banjo blurs the visual lines between guitar and banjo, but produces superb sound and is even favored by bluegrass virtuoso Béla Fleck. While many banjo players prefer the classic look of a banjo, Rodgers has said: "I always thought [about] the uniqueness of the Crossfire, because they really went out of style very fast....but this allowed Nashville guys who didn’t know how to play the banjo to be like Keith Urban.... As a musician you want sounds and I know that at some point I was going to be working with country guys...maybe people would call me to write songs or whatever and I just wanted to have a banjo type of sound. Just to compose with."