Olli Haavisto

Olli Haavisto (born 30 May 1954) is a Finnish musician best known for playing the pedal steel guitar and the guitar. He is one of the most respected pedal steel guitarists in Finland, and he has worked as a session musician for numerous Finnish artists. He has played on ca. 1,850 songs on ca. 600 albums. He has also acted as producer on ca. 50 albums. In addition to this, he has played ca. 5,000 gigs.

Early life Haavisto was born in Pori. He studied the flute in the Espoo Music Institute during 1968–73. He also studied musicology and the English language at Helsinki University for five years in the 1970s.

Haavisto released his first solo album, Pysäkkimusiikkia, in 2002. His second album, Collisions, came out in 2020. Both were released by Texicalli Records. The musicians on the latter album include e.g. Pepe Ahlqvist, Jukka Gustavson, Seppo Sillanpää, Timo Kämäräinen, Verneri Pohjola, Tuomo Prättälä, and of course, his younger brother Janne Haavisto. and so is his brother, drummer Janne Haavisto, who is 10 years younger than him. Their sister Susanna Haavisto is known both as a singer and an actress.

In 2015, Haavisto was granted an artist's pension by the state of Finland.