Born on August 20, 1934, in South Bend, Indiana, steel guitarist and songwriter Sneaky Pete Kleinow remains one of the country-rock movement’s overlooked pioneers. Jerry Byrd’s recordings sparked his interest, prompting him to begin playing the steel guitar at seventeen; after high school he then spent more than ten years employed by the Michigan State Highway Department maintaining roads. Kleinow moved to Los Angeles in 1963, where he performed regularly on the local club scene, wrote advertising jingles, composed the theme for the children’s program Gumby, and started developing special-effects techniques for motion pictures.
His first recording session came in 1965 when he backed the Ventures on “Blue Star.” While playing a club date, he encountered Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, who recruited him for a new group they were forming after leaving the Byrds; Kleinow accepted and, following a short stint as a Byrds sideman, joined the Flying Burrito Brothers. Their 1969 debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin, set the template for the country-rock sound. He stayed with the band until April 1971, appearing on both Burrito Deluxe (1970) and the self-titled follow-up, while simultaneously becoming a prized session player for Joe Cocker, Delaney & Bonnie, and Little Feat.
Once he left the Burritos, Kleinow devoted himself entirely to studio work, contributing to albums by John Lennon, Frank Zappa, Stevie Wonder, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, and the Steve Miller Band. In 1974 he briefly played with Cold Steel, then rejoined a reunited Flying Burrito Brothers for 1975’s Flying Again. Two further Burritos releases—Airborne (1976) and Live in Tokyo (1978)—preceded his first solo album, Sneaky Pete, also issued in 1978. After one last Burritos record, Hearts on the Line (1981), he largely stepped away from music to concentrate on special effects, working on The Empire Strikes Back, The Right Stuff, Gremlins, and both Terminator films. He still made occasional musical appearances with Leonard Cohen, Medicine, and the Golden Palominos; in 1994 he issued the solo album The Legend and the Legacy and led a fresh Burritos lineup on a European tour.
