Andy Abad loves a good musical stretch. Currently on tour with Marc Anthony's pop and salsa bands (he also toured with Anthony in 1999/2000), Abad did a stint with the Backstreet Boys in 2001 and recorded a South African-flavored song, "Hear Me Lord," with Bonnie Raitt for her latest album, Silver Lining. He's no stranger to recognition, either, having played with Grammy award-winning instrumental jazz band Shadowfax during his college years while studying music at the University of Southern California.

Although Abad is frequently in the spotlight with his sparkle-top Les Paul Standard, he's been playing a copper Firebird VII and a CS-336 as of late, and he also likes the Chet Atkins Tennessean. In addition, he has a large collection of Latin acoustic guitars, everything from a six-stringed tres - a small-body, parlor-type Cuban guitar - to a requinto guitar, a traditional nylon-stringed Spanish instrument. He also plays a Gibson Montana J-200 onstage.

Abad's diverse upbringing colored his musical world at a young age. Born in Hollywood to parents from Ecuador and Mexico, his father supported his musical curiosity by purchasing an accordion for his 10-year old son. By the time he was 13, Abad had convinced his father that he really wanted to play guitar, and he acquired an Ibanez Blazer.

"I tore it apart and rebuilt it, like every weekend," laughs Abad. "That was during the early Van Halen phase. I taped it together and took it apart."

Abad's musical influences at the time were directly rooted in classic rock, but also roots and world music. "My older brothers were big Zeppelin-heads, so Jimmy Page was really the guy that was the big influence. It was definitely Page, Carlos Santana, and then on the flip side it was Paco de Lucia and Al DiMeola. Those were the early influences that made me really hungry and turned me on to the instrument."

Abad's first Gibson was a Les Paul Custom "Black Beauty," lent to him by his guitar teacher in his junior year of high school. At that point in his life, his musical idol was Randy Rhoads, then guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne.

"Randy was a really big influence on me. He was a guy who was this dedicated musician and I'd read about him - he'd seek out classical teachers and study on the road. I thought he was a real musician, with that sort of dedication."

From the time he was old enough to play in a bar, Abad sat in on West African guitar with a traditional Afro-pop band for 10 years; his bandmates were from Zaire and Cameroon. Abad's love for African music led him to Latin and eventually roots music, which has become the focal point of his musical wanderlust - everything from blues to ethnic roots. He considers himself extremely fortunate to have had the experience.

"I just fell into the right rut where you meet the right guys who know how to play that music - there are only a handful of them in L.A., maybe five actually," Abad explains. "The [frontman] went by the name of Bateke. He's a guy who can play the hell out of the drums, the congas, the thumb piano, the bass, the sax - he was a teacher in that sense."

Indirectly, it was that experience that led him to the gig with Bonnie Raitt. Abad was on tour with the Backstreet Boys, and he got a call from someone with Raitt's management, saying she was looking for a guitar player for an African song she was recording. Abad mistakenly thought the representative was looking for names of African guitarists he knew, and he gladly supplied some. He was quite surprised to get a call back to play the session, but even more surprised at Raitt's free-spirited approach to recording.

"She was talking about the arrangement, and she said, 'Well, we really haven't rehearsed this since pre-production a month ago.' And she just kind of talked it down and said, 'Let's start the song and I'll sing, and I'll look at you and you do the thing on guitar, and I think there's a bass solo, and let's just try it once and see what happens,'" Abad remembers. "So I thought it was like a rehearsal. And the band was really cookin' and afterwards, she says, 'Well boys, I think you can go, I think we got it.'"

He was astonished to find they had gotten it in one take. The engineer did a couple of additional takes to be safe, but Raitt believed they had captured the spirit of the song during the first pass.

There was nothing spontaneous about touring with the Backstreet Boys, Abad says, and he likened it to being part of a tightly-choreographed unit. He played with click tracks and the music was synched to video, audio and pyrotechnic effects. The dancers and the lighting were merged with the musicians in the production. If not for certain songs where the players got to step out for a brief solo, they would have been nearly anonymous. He found it interesting to be in such a large pop music extravaganza, but prefers the camaraderie he has with Anthony and his bandmates.

"With Marc, it's all about his voice, his connection with the audience, and the musicians. It's the man, the music and the players," Abad enthuses. "His is a very unique gig - I can't really think of any other gig in the world that has the diversity he has as far as different styles to play in one show. I can see myself playing with him for a very long time."

Abad's fancy fingerwork can be heard on Anthony's celebrated 2001 salsa record, Libre. It incorporates a hodge-podge of Latin influences, everything from Andean music from Peru and Ecuador to music from Paraguay and Uruguay, which is Afro-South American, he says.

"Along with Bonnie's record, that record made my year. In fact, it kind of made my whole musical life so far to this day!" he laughs contentedly.