Al Perkins

Born on 18 January 1944 in Texas, guitarist Perkins first collaborated with Don Henley—later a member of the Eagles—in the late-1960s outfit Shiloh. In 1971 he stepped into the slot vacated by ‘Sneaky’ Pete Kleinow within the Flying Burrito Brothers, whose members at the time felt stalled in their career trajectory. Their concluding release, The Last Of The Red Hot Burritos, is nonetheless widely viewed as the group’s strongest recording. Six months later Perkins and ex-Burrito Chris Hillman entered Stephen Stills’s project Manassas, and Perkins additionally participated in the short-lived supergroup the Souther Hillman Furay Band during the first half of the decade.

Over the years he has contributed to sessions for Tori Amos, Garth Brooks, Cher, Gene Clark, Bob Dylan, the Desert Rose Band, the Eagles, Roger McGuinn, Randy Newman, Dolly Parton, the Rolling Stones, Emmylou Harris, Al Stewart and James Taylor. In 1998 he toured with Jon Randall’s band while maintaining a schedule of other studio dates. By the early 2000s he had become part of the reconstituted lineup of the country-rock ensemble Mason Proffit.