Vince Gill fears no music.

Gill, a country music star for two decades, proved that when he played at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2004 and 2007.

He proved it when he guested on albums by diverse artists like Mark Knopfler, Sonny Landreth, Little Feat and Emmylou Harris.

And he proved it in 2006 when he released "These Days," an ambitious four-CD set of all-new material that ranged across a dizzying number of musical genres.

Though Gill is comfortable being labeled a country musician, he hopes that's not all people hear when they listen to him perform.

"That's the world I live in and sit and come from," Gill says of country music during a telephone interview from the Nashville home he shares with his wife, Amy Grant. "But I learned as much from Led Zeppelin as I did Bob Wills. I like people to know that I was just as inspired by Eric Clapton's guitar playing as I was Don Rich, who played with Buck Owens."

Gill, 52, will perform Friday night at the American Music Theatre. This time, however, Gill will not bring a 17-piece band with him and play for three hours, like he did when he was promoting "These Days." Fans can expect Gill to play a normal-length set with his regular touring band.

Gill, a triple threat as a songwriter, guitarist and singer who has won 14 Grammy Awards, says he was honored when Clapton invited him to play at both Crossroads festivals, which raise money for the Crossroads Centre, a drug treatment facility founded by Clapton. Other musicians invited included Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Robbie Robertson, Derek Trucks, Steve Winwood, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, John Mayer and John McLaughlin.

"It's unbelievable, and unnerving, too," he says. "In my case, a lot of those guys are my heroes. Am I theirs? No, not so much. It's pretty heady to look over and see some of the musicianship you see on the side of the stage."

Gill's own musicianship has been prized by other artists throughout his career as his name appears on the credits of countless albums.

He started as a session player before joining the band Pure Prairie League in 1979 and then launching a solo career in the mid-1980s. His career went into overdrive in the late 1980s and early 1990s when he released the albums "When I Call Your Name," "Never Knew Lonely," "Pocket Full of Gold" and "I Still Believe in You." Though Gill was one of the biggest stars in country music, he still found time to help out on other musicians' albums.

"I think music was meant to be collaborated on and not hoarded," he says. "I was always grateful to get those phone calls, and I think I got them because I was talented in those areas, not because I was well known. I love doing it and I love it when people call and ask me to come sing and play on their records. It's made me a lot of friends."

Many of those friends, including Diana Krall, Sheryl Crow, Del McCoury, Bonnie Raitt, Gretchen Wilson, Harris and Michael McDonald, help him out on the sprawling "These Days," which plumbs the depth of the musical well from which he draws.

"As much as anything, I was trying to convey all the music that's inside of me," Gill says.

He says he's building his own studio at his home and beginning to contemplate his next album, though not without some trepidation.

"I'm scared to make another one," he says with a good-natured laugh.

He'll get over it.

Vince Gill

Fri. 8 p.m. $75

American Music Theatre

2425 Lincoln Highway East

397-7700. www.amtshows.com