Of all the unexpected things that can happen on an international tour, the last thing singer-songwriter Madi Diaz expected was for her 20-year-old Martin guitar to be torn to shreds.
“I didn’t know that losing a guitar would ever hit me the way that losing that guitar has hit me,” Diaz told Us Weekly exclusively ahead of her Boston Calling performance on Friday, May 24. “But I’m grateful for the response and the Internet getting pissed with me. I’ve never experienced that before.”
Weeks earlier, Diaz, 38, revealed that her beloved instrument was destroyed as she was on her way to Europe to open for Kacey Musgraves on the Deeper Well tour.
“Starting tour w @KaceyMusgraves tmrw and opened my guitar case to practice and found this. The damage is beyond. How could this happen,” she wrote via X on April 27. “Delta needs to know they can’t treat instruments like this.”
The post was accompanied by pictures and videos of the severe damage to her instrument, and the public’s response was overwhelming. With over 1.5 million views, Diaz’s post received immense support, and users demanded that the airline make things right.
Diaz shared that she was first gifted the D28 Martin from her father when she was moving out of the house at 18 years old. In the two decades since, the instrument has followed her from Berklee College of Music to Los Angeles and Nashville. It also accompanied her on stage with Harry Styles when she joined his band during his highly successful Love on Tour, as well as in songwriting sessions and when she recorded her duet with Musgraves, “Don’t Do Me Good.”
“I can’t think of a single thing I’ve done without it,” Diaz told Us.
The singer-songwriter received an outpouring of support from the internet and friends alike — including Musgraves, who is also a close pal — but the guitar seems to be damaged beyond repair. Diaz was forced to persevere, and in turn, she said the first night of the tour in Dublin felt cathartic.
“That first show, I was filled with vim and vigor,” she recalled. “It was hard-earned. It went really well. It just felt really nice to blow off some steam and feel how lucky I was.”
Diaz — whose most recent album, Weird Faith, has been generating buzz in the music world — went on to play nine shows with Musgraves all across Europe, in addition to Diaz’s own headlining performances.
“It was one of my favorite tours I’ve ever done,” Diaz said. “There was so much love and peace and support.”
Both Musgraves and Diaz live in Nashville — where they grew close over the pandemic — and both musicians make genre-bending music that challenges what defines “country.”
“Genre is such a funny thing,” Diaz told Us. “I really feel like things have been blown open in recent years by so many cool artists. Kacey and Harry being two of the frontrunners of that where they operate in such a pop music space, but in a way that they have been opening the ears of the world, which has been doing a great service for a lot of artists, myself included.”
In addition to Musgraves and Styles — the latter of whom Diaz describes as a perfectionist who “goes above and beyond to make each person feel seen” — the singer also praised Beyoncé’s move into the genre with her most recent album, Cowboy Carter.
“She’s not even toeing the line, she just walked her fine ass over it,” Diaz said. “I wish there were more changes. I wish there were more outspoken women in this genre and I hope that country music behaves itself. And welcomes everybody, because everybody deserves a seat at any f–king table they want to sit at.”
Madi Diaz is set to perform at Boston Calling on Friday, May 24.
