Pete Drake

Roddis Franklin "Pete" Drake (October 8, 1932 – July 29, 1988) was a Nashville-based American record producer and pedal steel guitar player. One of the most sought-after backup musicians of the 1960s, Drake played on such hits as Lynn Anderson's "Rose Garden", Charlie Rich's "Behind Closed Doors", Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay", and Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man". Drake was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007, and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022.

Career Drake was born in Augusta, Georgia, The subsequent album with the same name reached No. 85 in the US. His innovative use of what would be called the talk box, later used by Peter Frampton, Joe Walsh, Roger Troutman and Jeff Beck, added novel effects to the pedal steel guitar. The album Pete Drake and His Talking Steel Guitar harkened back to the sounds of Alvino Rey and his wife Luise King, who first modulated a guitar tone with the signal from a throat microphone in 1939. The unique sound of the talk box with a steel guitar was new in the 1960s, and it made the sounds of vocalizing along with the strings of the steel guitar. According to an interview of Drake:

The equipment was only loud enough to be useful in the studio for recordings.

Drake played on Bob Dylan's three albums recorded in Nashville, including Nashville Skyline, and on Joan Baez's David's Album.

Drake produced albums for many other musicians, and founded Stop Records and First Generation Records, Countryrecords.com. Recording country legends, Ernest Tubb, Jean Shepard, Jan Howard, Justin Tubb, Billy Walker, Ray Pillow, Ferlin Husky, Stonewall Jackson, The Wilburn Brothers, Lonzo & Oscar, Cal Smith, Charlie Louvin, Vic Willis Trio, George Hamilton IV.

He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame's Walkway of Stars in 1970 and the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2010. Inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame May 7, 1987 as a member of the "A" team Nashville Session players. On May 1, 2022,

Death Developing emphysema and congestive heart failure after four decades of smoking, Drake's health began declining in 1985. He sold Pete's Place recording studio at 809 18th Avenue South to Mel Tillis in 1985, then built Pete's Place studio in Berry Hill (currently County Q studios) and the last recording studio he built was in the Drake's own home in Brentwood, Tennessee. He died on July 29, 1988, at the age of 55. He is buried in Spring Hill Cemetery in Nashville.