Sneaky Pete - R.I.P.

[Gentle Giant]

Someone just posted this on the Brian Wilson message board.


[Reposted from Lonesome LA Cowboy]

Sneaky Pete Kleinow passed away on Jan. 6th, 2007, age 72, after a long fight with Alzheimer's Disease. I just wanted to take a second to say a word or two of appreciation for his contributions to a lot of the music I love.

He played pedal steel guitar, of course, as many of you know, but it was also his use of the fuzzbox, for instance, and his use of backwards recording techniques which elevated the importance of the pedal steel to the sound of California-based country rock, influencing nearly everyone who played the instrument after him, people like Jerry Garcia and Buddy Cage of the New Riders of the Purple Sage, to name just a few.

In 1965, Kleinow played on the Ventures' "Blue Star," and it was around that same time that he met Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, who approached Kleinow about joining the Byrds. Kleinow played with the Byrds (during their 1968 Sweetheart of the Rodeo phase), and played with the band on club dates around LA. Parsons and Hillman wanted him to become a regular full-fledged member of the Byrds, but that never happened.

Kleinow was a founding member, however -- along with Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman -- of the Flying Burrito Brothers, and continued playing with that original classic lineup of the Burritos until spring of 1971, appearing their first three LPs, including the band's outstanding 1969 debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin, which basically became a template of how the pedal steel guitar should sound in contemporary country rock. Kleinow remained with the Burritos through April 1971, appearing on the 1970 LP Burrito Deluxe and their third eponymously titled album.

Kleinow also became a sought-after session musician thereafter, playing on records by Joe Cocker, Delaney & Bonnie, and Little Feat, to name just a few. After departing the Burritos, he focused all of his energies on session work, appearing with John Lennon, Frank Zappa, Stevie Wonder, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, and the Steve Miller Band.

He was also affiliated with fiddler Gib Guilbeau in a band called Cold Steel (they released one album on a Dutch label in 1974), and he also played with the Burritos again that same year, teaming up with original Burritos bassist Chris Ethridge, ex-Byrd Gene Parsons on drums and Joel Scott Hill (formerly of Canned Heat) on vocals. This version of the Burritos released LPs in 1975 and 1976. He continued to play with the Flying Burrito Brothers in various lineups that lasted throughout the next two decades. He also recorded a couple of solo albums, which you see featured on this page.

Even before his music career, however, Kleinow also had a career as an animation and special effects specialist, working with stop motion, go-motion photography, motion control, miniatures, miniature set construction and he also found work as commercial director. He worked on the original "Gumby" cartoon, the "Outer Limits" TV series, as well as classic cult movies such as 7 Faces of Dr. Lao and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. From the 80's onward, he created special effects for movies such as The Empire Strikes Back, Gremlins, The Right Stuff, The Terminator, and Terminator 2.

But for me, he will always be the pedal steel player who changed the sound of the music I love.

R.I.P. "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow (b. August 20, 1934 in South Bend, Indiana -- d. January 6, 2007). You were one of the greats!!

[groover]

I saw him once with the Burritos back in the '70's and was quite impressed.

[Dr Dave]

I have a good friend and bandmate who plays pedal steel guitar (with lots of distortion) and works as a computer animation artist. Naturally, he idolized Kleinow. Not too many players picked up on Pete's sonic breakthroughs on pedal steel.