Ronnie Dunn, Ira Dean Shout Out Guitar Gods in ‘Tele-Man’ Collab

Singer-songwriter Ira Dean spotlights the Telecaster — arguably country music’s signature instrument — in “Tele-Man,” a collaboration with Ronnie Dunn.

The Brooks & Dunn bandmate isn’t the only star that studs this team-up.

Fittingly for the subject matter of the song, Dean enlisted some real-life country guitar gods to join him on the track, including CMA and Grammy-winning guitarist Brent Mason, a Musicians Hall of Famer who’s played on albums by legends including George Strait, Willie Nelson, Alan Jackson and many others.

Brothers Osborne‘s John Osborne gets a turn here, too, swapping guitar solos with Mason, and Dean’s longtime friend Vince Gill rounds out the quartet of superstars laying down fast lyrics and faster licks in “Tele-Man.”

The song itself is a fun piece of insider baseball, a peek into what exactly makes a hot country band so, well, hot. The music video is a peek behind the curtain, too: It shows the four musicians in studio — recording the song and goofing off in about equal measure.

Their talents are on display, and so is their camaraderie.

Viewers can see Osborne hilariously flubbing his solo in one spot; another shows Dean, Dunn and Gill crowded around a mic, Dunn frantically flipping through what appears to be lyrics sheets as he spits out fast-paced verse. Finally, they start throwing the papers to the floor — an impromptu move that Dunn himself came up with on set.

“Ya know, as a songwriter, I’ve heard publishers tell me to edit out guitar solos to make my songs shorter. They say, ‘People don’t want to hear a bunch of guitar solos — they just want the chorus.’ But me, I LOVE guitar solos,” Dean tells Taste of Country in a statement.

“All the music I grew up on — whether it was Merle Haggard, Aerosmith or Journey — had these incredible guitar solos, and I miss that,” he adds.

Dean describes “Tele-Man” as a “peek under the hood” at a recording experience so fun it “doesn’t feel like work,” and he adds that his favorite memories happened off-camera.

“When we were shooting the video, there was a lot of downtime, so Ronnie, Vince, John, Brent and I just sat around swapping road stories and laughing our a–es off. Honestly, the best stuff didn’t even get caught on film — and thank God for that!” he jokes.

The “Tele-Man” music video was filmed at Soultrain Sound Studios in Nashville, Tenn., and directed by Ryan Nolan.

Watch the clip below, which premieres exclusively for Taste of Country readers, and keep scrolling to see all the best behind-the-scenes photos from the shoot.