What Made You Decide To Take It Up?

[Alan Brookes]

What made me decide to take it up ? Don Helms and Johnny Farina.

[Brett Day]

For me, it was because I love country music and I started lovin' the steel guitar at the age of nine, but with cerebral palsy in my left hand, I realized I couldn't handle the neck of a guitar, and then I moved on to playin' piano by ear with one hand, but I got tired of not bein' able to play with two hands, so then I decided to play pedal steel guitar and I've tried several different steel guitar bars and I got my current bar in 2003. There were so many great songs that guys like Bruce Bouton, Paul Franklin, Sonny Garrish, and Dan Dugmore had played on that I loved. I also loved Vince Gill's music because of the steel work by Paul Franklin and John Hughey. In 1996, a band called Ricochet came out with a few songs with great steel played by the band's steel player, Teddy Carr.

Brett

[Donny Hinson]

What Made You Decide To Take It Up?

The potential of making hundreds of millions of dollars, the satisfaction of being known and loved all over the world, and the ability to be irresistable to any woman in the world.

I know steel players today that started years ago with absolutely nothing, and today they owe hundreds of thousands of dollars! Is that the "American Dream", or what?

[Dave Grothusen]

Tom Brumley on Together Again.

[Ernie Pollock]

I was a bass guitar player in rock bands in the mid 60's, a friend from Frostburg Md that I was playing with wanted to do country music, I was against that, thought I didn't like it!! He got the first steel I had seen, I became a lead guitar player [what a joke, I knew 2 & 1/2 chords, just not the order they came in!!]. Later as a lead player I played with a guy from Johnstown Pa, & he was real smooth on steel, I just kind of got hooked on it from that point & decided to buy one for myself, the rest was just practice practice & more practice & Jeff Newman & Herby Wallace seminars!!
I really got hooked on it, practiced for hours on end.

Ernie Pollock
http://www.hereintown.net/~shobud75/stock.htm

[Tom Quinn]

This:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1EJ0KxK ... re=related

[JERRY THURMOND]

I was raised with music around me, having Bud Carter for a neighbor an family friend was the 1st time to see a Pedal Steel Guitar in the 50's. Bud was playing some really good stuff.Seeing Curly Chalker an Buddy Emmons in the late 60's made me want to play Steel even more.

Jerry

[Terry Watts]

My uncle, Jay Stuman, played steel and he is the one that influanced me into taking it up. I started out on guitar and Uncle Jay said that guitar players were a dime a dozen and steel players were more in demand at this time. To tell the truth, I don't think he thought I was doing all that good on the guitar. After six weeks I was playing on the Lawanda Rose show on a local TV station in Canton. Been steelin' ever since.

[Jack Dougherty]

Band needed a steel player. I said I played....I didn't. Bought one. Still at it!

[Mark Lind-Hanson]

The Carter Starter was actually less expensive than buying a Tele and sending it up to Gene Parsons to customize (because what I really wanted was a G-Bender)- That, and it was always something I wanted to do out of curiosity -and just sort of an itch that needed scratching... That plus going out to hear the David Nelson Band with Barry Sless about five times convinced me it was something I could attempt and not be too horrible about. In retrospect, maybe my b@njo playing is actually (still)even better! Ha.