SNEAKY PETE IS ILL

John Daugherty · Post by **John Daugherty** » 19 Sep 2006 4:33 am

Gotta keep this topic going for my old pickin buddy, Sneaky Pete, whom I will never forget and for Anita, who is my very special friend.
Pete, wouldn't it be great to go back to Escondido and play one more gig? I can't play lead guitar like I did then, but I'm sure you could still blow my mind with your great sound on the Fender 400. Let me know when you're ready, my friend ...... John Dee.

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www.home.earthlink.net/~johnd37

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 19 Sep 2006 4:38 am

I love Chip's story. when I got Gilded Palace of SIn I was completely floored. The only steel Ihad ever heard was Alvino Rey on the King Family Show and Lloyd Green/Jaydee Manness on Sweetheart of the Rodeo, so Pete's playing was completely nuts in a great way (I was a big progressive rock fan, and I kept thinking "dang, Yes ought to hire him!"). In those dayssession players were noted on album covers often, and I started buying anything with Sneaky (and Claence White) on it. I never saw the "Gram" version live, but saw him with Bernie & Chris at a local benefit here in Hermosa, and live was more crazy than on record. I knew SOMEDAY I'd have to go that route - and ended up playing stringbender guitar, but copping a lot of Sneaky's licks, but more his feel...there's still just ONE guy that sounds like that...a lot of us can get close, but we can't get nside his head and know where it all came from!

Anita - ""that's not a steel guitar, my dad plays steel guitar." - perfect!

Arty Passes · Post by **Arty Passes** » 19 Sep 2006 5:27 am

Well, I have to add my brush with greatness...
It was 1978 and the New Riders were playing the Armadillo. The girl I was supposed to meet did me a huge favor and stood me up, so I went in and ran into a friend who always managed to get herself backstage. "Come on, I'll introduce you to Sneaky Pete" Yeah, right.....
A few minutes later, there we were, chatting it up like old buds. Friendly, down to earth, couldn't have been nicer to a nobody like me. I spent the show just offstage between Pete and his amp.
I'll never forget it.
Creative, innovative, one-of-a-kind. No telling how many people he touched personally, through his film work, and how many musicians he inspired.
I lost my dad to the same disease 16 years ago, so I have some idea of what it's like.....all of our thoughts and best wishes are with you, Anita
And Pete: Your being here has made our lives richer. Thanks.....

Arty[This message was edited by Arty Passes on 19 September 2006 at 01:22 PM.][This message was edited by Arty Passes on 19 September 2006 at 01:24 PM.]

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 19 Sep 2006 6:29 am

We never know how many lives our life touches. Sneaky Pete was my biggest inspiration to learn the pedal steel. His records with the Burritos made it cool in so many different ways. I was hooked. I became a steel player.

Years later, I started this Forum for steel players. But think about this for a minute: If Sneaky Pete hadn't played that wonderful solo on Hot Burrito #2, I might never have ever been inspired to take up the instrument. The Steel Guitar Forum exists because Pete Kleinow pushed the steel guitar in new directions. He changed my life back then, and that change has rippled forward in time to spawn this wonderful online community.

Thank you, Pete, from the bottom of my heart.

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b2005.gif" width="78 height="78">Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
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Cliff Kane · Post by **Cliff Kane** » 19 Sep 2006 7:26 am

Yes, Sneaky Pete has been a real fountainhead in so many ways. I listen to the FBB about every day, and more and more I am insprired by the way the man plays guitar. He's a steel player and a rock-n-roll guitar player at the same time....I think that's so cool, and I look to Pete as a great model for rhythm comping as well as playing leads.

I think Pete was my first awareness of the pedal steel guitar. It was his solo on Frank Zappa's "It Just Might Be a One-Shot Deal", on the album Waka/Jawaka. His ride is bouncy and smooth, wonderful sense of melody, just a real joyful sound, and exactly the bridge that the song needs to get from one movement to the next. I was just a kid who loved rock guitar, but when I heard Pete on that Zappa tune a light went on, and I thought, "What IS THAT!?!?" Well, here I am with a life-long endevour that has brough so much to my life in so many ways.
Thank you Sneaky Pete!

David Wren · Post by **David Wren** » 19 Sep 2006 11:02 am

"MaaaaaMaaaaa".... I love it! Thanks Anita!

My grand daughter likes my bird whistles

What a touching post this has become.

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Dave Wren
'96 Carter S12-E9/B6,7X7; NV 112; Fender Twin Custom 15 ('65 reissue); Session 500s; Hilton Pedal; Black Box
www.ameechapman.com

Mike Bienstock · Post by **Mike Bienstock** » 21 Sep 2006 5:25 pm

Anita,

I'm really sorry to hear the news about Pete. I had the great fortune of working with him in the early 90's on the 2nd RoboCop movie at Phil Tippett's place in Berkeley. There were a lot of laughs with Pete during that production- I recall him being cooped up in a little smoke room animating the giant monster robot. His animation was absolutely wonderful. At the time I was just starting out and didn't have any idea that he, Pete Kleinow the animator, and Sneaky Pete the amazing musician, were one and the same. It blew my mind when I found out a week or two in. I feel blessed to have shared time working with him,--all the goodness in him definitely flowed through his hands whether he was animating a puppet or the steel guitar. Please let him know my heart is with him and you.

Jim Meiring · Post by **Jim Meiring** » 22 Sep 2006 5:59 am

thank you Pete for all the great work you have done. No telling how many musicians have said "what the hell was that" upon first hearing your steel. thanks