Born into a musical family, Chris Payton has become a master guitarist by the age of 20, with a highly versatile style that includes a diverse range of influences. Since 2011, the talented young player has been touring the world with multi-platinum singing sensation Robin Thicke, a gig that he landed just out of high school at the age of 18.

We caught up with Chris on the road for Edition 41 of the BOSS Tone Radio Podcast, where he talked about his current gig, musical background, and the BOSS pedals he uses every night on stage. To listen to the full interview, visit BOSS Tone Radio.

How long have you been in Robin Thicke’s band?

I’ve been playing with Robin going on three years now. I started playing with Robin fresh out of high school, when I was 18.

How did you get the gig?

I have a brother—he’s not my biological brother, but he’s another guitar player that I’ve always looked up to since I was 15 years old. He plays for a rapper named Lil Wayne. He had some dates with Lil Wayne, and he wanted me to come do the Robin Thicke gig. Robin loved me, and I’ve been there ever since. That was 2011.

You just played to over 60,000 fans at the Houston Rodeo. What does that sound and feel like?

I can honestly say it was different. I had my [in-ears monitors] in, and I took one out for a brief second at the end of a song so I could hear the crowd. I could not believe it.

The song “Blurred Lines” is one of the biggest hits of all time. It must feel great to be a part of that.

Man, you wouldn’t believe it—that song has crossed over. We’ve had the chance to go all over the globe. We went to the Far East. We’ve been all over Europe, and, of course, all over the United States. Everyone in the band just received a plaque. The song’s actually sold ten million singles worldwide [so far]. I am just honored to be a part of something so groundbreaking, such a history-making record. I’m just happy to be a part of the band and to experience all the glory and accolades. It’s really fun, man. I’m humbled by it.

Are there any gigs over the last few years that really stand out in your mind?

A couple of my favorites were playing at the legendary O2 Arena in London. That was a big thing. A very fun one that I’ll never forget was the MTV World Stage in Malaysia. That was a very, very fun experience. You know, we’ve been to Germany, Norway, Scotland, Ireland, basically all over the UK and most of Europe. It was just crazy fun. I’ve just been soaking it up. It’s really been a great time.

What is an average day like on tour? Since you go to bed late, do you also wake up late?

I don’t get up in California until maybe nine o’clock. On any given day, I’ll get up around 11 or 12 on the East Coast. I’ll definitely eat, find something close or do room service, and then really lounge around listening to music, even practice before it’s time to go down to sound check. Then we sound check, eat dinner down at the venue most times, and do the show, man. It’s really an easy day—nothing intricate about it. [Laughs.]

You also play with Gospel artist Deitrick Haddon.

I’ve played with Deitrick for the past couple of years. He has a very versatile style; he can go from Michael Jackson to Prince to rock to pop. He can do it all, man. He has a range like none other I’ve ever heard. He’s a great singer.

You come from a musical family, and you started playing at the age of four. What attracted you to the guitar?

My uncles and my grandfather and a few cousins of mine had a Gospel quartet called The Gospel Peace. As a young child around three and four, I would always go to church with my grandparents, and go to the different outings they had to sing at, and I always loved guitar. I would just sit and watch my grandfather practice in the garage for hours and hours and hours. I was so infatuated with that instrument.

At the age of four they decided to get me a little practice guitar. It was plastic—it wasn’t even real. It made no noise. [Laughs.] And I would go with them to churches and different outings, at one point they even bought me the matching suit they would wear. I would go on stage with them and play side by side, no noise, no singing. I would just be up there rocking with them.

But after that, they got me my first real guitar before I turned five. [My grandfather] showed me the basics. Maybe at the age of six, I would go over to my uncle’s house. He had a bunch of Gospel tapes, and I would try to learn the songs. I would slip those tapes into the VCR player and plug up my little amp they got me.

What other guitar players influenced you?

The only guitar players I knew around that time were blues guys. My grandfather was a blues guy as well. My mother also always loved the blues. I would listen to B.B. King, I’d listen to Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Buddy Guy, guys like that. I had a real thick blues influence coming up. I’d listen to those records, and, of course, watch the quartet guitar players.

There are a couple of L.A. guys that I really looked up to as I was coming up. Maybe around the age of 12, when YouTube just became popular, I would look up these guys Erick Walls, Jubu Smith, and, of course, my big brother, Jairus Mozee. I forgot to mention his name earlier—he was a big influence. When YouTube came out, I used to watch them all the time. A lot of West Coast guitar players have a certain style of playing that I’ve always loved. It’s a lot of chord melody and a lot of inversions.

The Robin Thicke band has been on TV a lot. Are there any TV shows that stand out?

My favorite TV show that I’ve done so far was probably Leno.

Was that cool because you grew up in L.A., and the show was shot in Burbank?

Exactly, and [because of session guitarist and Leno house-band member] Paul Jackson, Jr. I have a funny story about him. I met Paul in my tenth-grade year of high school at a Grammy party held by [Leno musical director] Rickey Minor. I went to this performing arts school, View Park, and the jazz band director was really, really well known in the industry. His name’s Fernando Pullum, and he would get us all these types of gigs with different exposure. I met Paul Jackson, Jr. at one of those parties.

The first time we ever did Leno, I saw Paul and he remembered me from that Grammy party a few years back. We talked, and I saw he was playing a PRS [guitar]. At this time, I had a Fender Telecaster. I was talking to Paul about his PRS, and I said, “Man, I love this guitar.” He said, “Oh you do? I’m going to give you the guy’s number, the artist rep at PRS. Tell him I sent you, and he’ll take care of you.” And I’ve been with PRS ever since.

Is your current PRS guitar stock?

The one I’m playing right now was special-made for me and I love it. They made me a special David Grissom model. It’s a black and gold theme; the color scheme of the Blurred Lines tour is black and gold. Our drummer has a black and gold drum set, Martin has a black piano with gold inlays and all this other stuff. They actually made me a black David Grissom with gold pickups and gold hardware—gold tuning machines and all that good stuff. But they put McCarty pickups in the Grissom. The McCarty pickups slap you in the face, man. They’re just these big, punchy, percussive humbuckers that drive me crazy. It doesn’t sound like the average humbucker. That’s what I love about it so much.

Do you have any BOSS pedals?

Man, maybe 60 percent of my pedalboard is BOSS pedals. [Laughs.] I’ve been using BOSS pedals forever. My very first pedal was my grandfather’s—it was a [PH-2] Super Phaser. He gave me that at the age of seven years old, the green Super Phaser. I still have that. It’s actually put up. I don’t want to use it anymore, because it’s so vintage to me. It’s just antique and sentimental. I don’t touch it.

Do you use any of the BOSS distortion pedals?

The new OD-1X Overdrive. That thing sounds amazing! It’s so dynamic. You can play aggressively and you’ll get the thick overdrive sound, but you can pull it back and dial your tone back, and it sounds so clear, so crisp. With a little bit of overdrive on it, you’ve almost got the true sound of an amp. It’s amazing, dude—I fell in love with that pedal. It’s on my pedalboard now. It’ll never come off.

Do you also have a tuner on your pedalboard?

Yes, I have a BOSS TU-3.

At big concerts, do you often click on the TU-3 to check your tuning in-between songs or places where you’re laying out?

Absolutely, because I play guitars with tremolo bridges. Even though I do have locking tuners, they can still fall out at the snap of a finger. So I definitely have to check tuning constantly throughout the show, especially after I solo when I use a lot of bends and stuff like that.

Do you use the whammy bar in solos?

Absolutely, it’s a big part of my playing.

Do you have the whammy bar so it’s floating, so you can pull up on it in addition to pushing down?

Absolutely. It’s made to be in the middle. It’s not so floating that it’ll just flop everywhere.

What other BOSS pedals do you have in your rig?

I have the green [TR-2] Tremolo pedal. I have the [CH-1] Super Chorus. Oh my God, the Super Chorus—I’ve absolutely loved that pedal since I was about nine years old. It’s just the epitome of what a chorus should sound like, just for the record. [Laughs.]

You have a Mesa Lone Star amp. Do you set the amp clean and then get distortion from a pedal?

Absolutely. I mainly stay on the clean section of that amp. I brighten it a little bit: I turn the presence up to around one o’clock, and the treble about one o’clock as well. Mesa makes some good amps. [It’s] really a clean-sounding amp.

Do you have any more thoughts about BOSS gear?

Man, all I can say is BOSS has been producing the best pedals I’ve heard in a very long time. I’ve always loved BOSS pedals since I got my Super Phaser at the age of seven. It’s an incomparable sound, man. You guys have always been the innovator of the next phase of sound that you would expect from a pedal.