The Steel Guitar Forum

It was at Scotty's around 1990 and Jeff Newman had played a nice set. He went off stage and returned for an encore with his guitar and a pair of bolt cutters and a chainsaw. He clipped his strings, maybe cut a pedal rod or two, started his chainsaw and cut his guitar in half. The halves dropped stage left and right. Everyone was dumbfounded.
When he went offstage and came back for the encore, he came with an inexpensive mockup of his guitar.
If I remember correctly, the guitar was green and had a John Deere sticker on it. I believe the guitar he played was a Kline universal.
Does anyone have pictures of this? It was hilarious.

I don't have the pictures but wasn't Jeff the ultimate joker. He keep the show exciting with unexpected events.

Well OK...you asked for it! Not sure of the year, probably not 1999 as that was the year JN was inducted into the Hall of Fame, I was there but don't recall seeing this mess or hearing about it. Looks like Bobby Caldwell, Jeff N. lying "incapacitated" center stage(as usual!), Duke Dumas in the background. Enjoy a bit of steel guitar history. Respectfully submitted, Rick K.

THAT'S IT!!!!! thank you Rick!
Looks like Jeff had a little too much out of Buddy's Lulu cup.

Bobby Caldwell doing surgery on Jeff's guitar. Jeff in white suit at left.

It was Bobby doing the deed!

That is so Jeff! I would love to have seen that. 🤪🤪

I guess I missed that year, but Jeff was always entertaining both with his sets and his sense of humor. There are so many stories....and his crew was as bad as he was. What an era!

Two Jeff Stories:
Admission to a couple of his concerts at the end of a seminar week, was a watermelon or an .011 guage string.
One time, Buddy did a seminar at Jeffran, and I was staying in my van and wasn't effected, and the other students were staying in Jeff's bunkhouse.
Everyone was overflowing with Buddy licks in their heads after a couple of days.
What Buddy did, was place a cassette recorder, on a timer, under the bunkhouse, set to go off around two or three in the morning, with him playing his licks. What fun! Subliminal Buddy.

What was the reason for cutting up the Kline?

Bobby and Jeff got into a staged battle of egos, and Jeff took his guitar and walked off the stage. In a couple of minutes, he returned carrying his steel, at which time Bobby cranked up the Stihl and went to work. The Kline at that point was a mockup, not the real thing, and of course the whole thing was staged, but still hilarious.

Those pics crack me up every time I see them.
Jeff was always dressing sharp.
Buddy & Ron Elliott would sometimes poke fun at Jeff by flipping back/out imaginary coattails, like people sometimes do just before sitting down.

I can't tell you how much I miss those days. The Convention was a bright spot and a shot in arm every year. My head would be swimming with licks and music for months. Best memories live in my heart. What a great period of pedal steel giants.

Stihl vs Steel

I have an unnamed overseas steel pal for over 30 years and he has a nice blonde, Sho~Bud, Pro I, rack and barrel.
His wife got upset at him and took some kind of saw to the front apron.
He plays a Carter now.
Scotty's this weekend. Don't forget!
I miss that fun and camaraderie.

Rick- Jeff did a lot of things with Duke Dumas on standup bass. Roy Rosetta might chime in on Duke, and, if you do, Roy, how about telling us about Bob Browning, who sang at Jeffran and on his tapes. Thanks

Jeff was always a gentleman and a true class act!

Well Tim Hurst, I sure am glad you set us straight on the fact that it was a mock up guitar. I was just sick at the thought of a beautiful Kline Steel being cut in half, whew. J.R. Rose

Now there's a parts guitar!

I guess that guitar only plays half notes now

Chris Templeton; regarding Bob Browning. During the 90's I played bass in bands around Mt.Juliet tn. Every once in a while Bob would come up and sing some songs. He was as fine as it gets. I remember seeing cassette tapes he recorded. should have bought them. Nice guy. I think He drives school bus in Lebanon tn. JK

J.R., if you look at the pic, you will notice there are no knee levers. Later in the day, the fake guitar was placed on display, in halves, to show a real guitar had not been destroyed. I guess you could say that no "living" steel guitars were harmed, in order to avoid the wrath of PETPSG

Thanks Tim, I missed that. J.R.

Wow! That tops Rusty Young setting his steel on fire at Carnagie Hall. Even puts The Who to shame....

That's funny, Mike Same with Hendrix.