The has not survived for 70 years as the world’s go-to electric guitar without eliciting profound reactions in those who play it. Take Ana Popovic, the Serbian blues guitar ace, who has become one of those players whose name is synonymous with the instrument. As part of our celebrations for the Strat’s big 7-0, we sat down with Popovic to hear why she started playing them, and how her very sense of self has become intertwined with the model’s sound.
If this Bergman-esque melding of identities isn’t a profound reaction, we don’t know what is...
“I grew up in a family with guitars around the house – and good music. My dad is a guitar player, sort of a hobby guitar player. I wanted to play guitar since I was a little girl; I’d look at my dad’s guitars, but I couldn’t touch them.
He liked to keep them tidy and clean, and we couldn’t touch any of the instruments, so it was an object of obsession for me growing up.” “It came when I was 18; I bought a ’73 Strat with my own money that I [had] saved.” “The ’57 reissue I got from my parents means the most to me.
I got it when we were really poor. Back in the day, when we were traveling to Holland and the car broke down and we had no money, my dad called a family meeting and said we can’t spend any money on this vacation – or get this guitar. “But my mom and sister said, ‘We don’t need anything; just get her the guitar.
’ That’s how I got my Fiesta Red Strat, which I’ve been playing forev.
