No, not Sneaky Pete the TV crime series that ran from 2015-2019.

We’re talking about the legendary pedal steel guitar player “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow.

Most people who have heard of Sneaky Pete know him as the incomparable pedal steel player of the also-legendary Flying Burrito Brothers, headed by (another legend!) Gram Parsons, the spearhead of an important new sound of the late sixties and seventies: “Cosmic American Music.”

Sneaky Pete was an important, even integral, component of that cosmic sound.

Born in South Bend, IN on August 20, 1934 he took up steel guitar after graduating from high school and played around locally with club bands, one of which dubbed him “Sneaky.”

But Pete had bigger plans than what could be realized in the mid-west.

In 1963, he moved to Los Angeles and wrote jingles, and worked as a special effects artist and stop motion animator for movies and television, including the Gumby and Davey and Goliath series. He did special effects for the film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) and the cult TV show The Outer Limits.

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Yes. Sneaky Pete was not just a formidable music talent. He was also an in-demand and successful animator. Like most all great artists, Sneaky Pete Kleinow was an artiste, a multi-dimensional creator.

By all accounts, Sneaky Pete was also a great human being.

Gram Parsons’ daughter Polly said, “Sneaky Pete was and will always be one of the best of his kind, a great man, a talented artist, and a great friend to all that knew him…”

In 1965, Pete met Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman at a local LA venue where they invited him to join the Byrds. He performed with the Byrds for a brief period of time before Parsons and Hillman left to form the Flying Burrito Brothers. Sneaky Pete became an important player in the Burrito Brothers debut album The Gilded Palace of Sin which many say was the beginning of “country-rock” music and changed the course of country music forever.

Sneaky Pete was known throughout his career as a “musician’s musician.” He was a kind and generous soul who played and recorded with a litany of impressive and diverse acts including Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, Joan Baez, Frank Zappa, John Lennon, the Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker, Delaney and Bonnie, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, the Bee Gees, Little Feat, Little Richard, John Cale, Linda Ronstadt, Harry Nilsson, Leonard Cohen (and more)…not to mention the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers.

In 1981 Pete was back at the animation drawing board and was responsible for creating special effects for big budget movies such as The Empire Strikes Back, Gremlins, The Terminator, and Terminator 2, while continuing to work as a musician.

All Music Guide described him as “one of the unsung heroes of the country-rock movement” and Rhapsody.com said that “he was the first person to rip steel guitar licks and bended country notes through a fuzz box.”

Chris Morris, host of Indie 103.1 FM’s weekly roots show “Watusi Radio,” said, “Kleinow was among the most significant pedal steel players of his generation. He was one of the first to apply the traditional country and western pedal steel foundation to the development of the country-rock format.”

Sneaky Pete Kleinow died on January 6, 2007, from complications brought on by Alzheimer’s disease in a nursing facility in Petaluma, California. He was 72 years old.

His daughter Anita confirmed his death saying that he had been living with the disease for over 18 months and it “hit him hard and fast.”

Sneaky Pete’s legacy lives on through his recordings, in particular, his recordings with Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers, and of course Gumby.