“When she asked me if I would come be her lead guitar player, I just was like, ‘Um, how can I say no to Shania?’” Lindsay Ell talks performing with Shania Twain and finding joy in her career after 16 years

Lindsay Ell has racked up awards and top 10 albums since the Canadian guitarist put out her debut record in 2008 at the age of 19. But the past few years have brought her both highs and lows. If recent events in her life are any indication, she’s come out on top. Way on top.

A Stratocaster-toting guitar virtuoso whose influences include Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton, Ell has carved out a unique space for herself as a guitarist, singer and songwriter who blends blues, rock and pop into her country stylings. After honing her chops in clubs across Canada and the U.S., she broke through in Music City with 2017’s The Project and 2020’s Heart Theory.

But Ell was blindsided in 2023 when she was diagnosed with an eating disorder, the result of working too hard and dealing with personal battles, including sexual assault and “countless bad relationships,” she told People.

She addresses the struggles endured and the lessons learned on her new EP, Love Myself. And as she tells Guitar.com, her fans are appreciative of the message she sends.

“It’s one of my favorite things ever to get messages from fans like, ‘thank you for writing this music, thank you for releasing these songs. You’ve inspired me to go talk to a family member or talk to a friend, go get therapy,’ ” she says.

Moreover, Ell says she's learned to find comfort in the things that make her happy, rather than by trying to please others. After moving from Canada to Nashville 15 years ago, she was constantly told she wasn’t “country” enough. Meanwhile, she was struggling to find acceptance as a female guitarist.

Now she’s let those weights go. As Love Myself makes evident, she’s seeking out the aspects of music and career that make her happy. “I can play things that connect me to joy, compared to me reaching to be accepted as a female guitar player,” she says.

And one of those connections to joy is her current position as Shania Twain’s guitarist. A five-time Grammy winner and one of country music’s most successful female artists, Twain sought out Ell as a support act for dates on her Queen of Me tour in 2023. Since then, Ell has jumped onboard the Twain track as a member of the band, with performances at the singer’s Las Vegas Come On Over residency shows and the Legend slot at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

Shania Twain - Man! I Feel Like a Woman! (Glastonbury 2024) - YouTube

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It’s all been something of a surprise for Ell — which is really saying something when you consider that she got her start co-writing her debut album with Randy Bachman and touring with Buddy Guy, all while she was still in her teens.

“I never saw sidemanning being a part of my job,” Ell says. “When she asked me at the beginning of the year if I would come be her lead guitar player, I just was like, ‘um, how can I say no to Shania?’ ”

For Ell, the experience has been affirming and “a full circle pinch me moment,” she tells The Standard.

“I mean, I started singing because of Shania. I think the first song I fell in love with Shania was ‘Nobody Needs to Know,’ one of her very first singles and now, I play that song on stage with her. I’m like three feet away from her onstage and I’m like, ‘This is a wild moment, this is so crazy!’ ”