The sexual abuse scandal involving Penn State has Vince Gill reflecting on an incident from his past: He was a near-victim of sexual abuse as a preteen.

The 54-year-old singer-songwriter made the revelation to CNN and "Showbiz Tonight" before a show at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, Calif. Gill was sharing stories about his new album, "Guitar Slinger," when talk turned to Penn State.

Vince said, "It conjured up something that happened in my past when I was about that age, as a 12-year-old kid starting 7th grade. There was unfortunately a gym teacher at our school that wound up being the same kind of thing...and there were some advances made towards me that were very awkward."

Vince says "nothing happened," but continues that when "it started to get weird, I had either the good fortune or the good luck to jump and run. I jumped up and ran. But I was so young I didn't know what to do, I didn't know much about sexuality, didn't know anything about all that stuff."

Vince believes the tools for handling such incidents are better now than when he was young (in the '60s).

He concedes he was lucky.

"Nothing happened, but it could have been a lot worse and my situation could have been a lot different. But there's just no telling how often this goes on and nobody knows."

Vince says keeping an open dialogue between parents and children is key.

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