BOBBY BLACK HAS BEEN PLAYING PEDAL STEEL SINCE 1948 AND YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF HIM.
Bobby Black (Robert L. Black, May 11, 1934 — ) is one of the world’s foremost pedal steel guitarists. He has been inducted into the California Western Swing Society Hall of Fame and the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. He was the pedal steel player in Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Asleep At The Wheel, and the New Riders Of The Purple Sage. He has played with Barbara Mandrell, Elvin Bishop, Tom Waits, Maria Muldaur, and numerous other acts. He has performed on television and radio programs, including A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. At age 88, he’s survived Covid-19, and just last week played a gig with Maria Muldaur. And you’ve probably never heard of him. So let’s do the enlightenment dance, and here we go.
Bobby was born in Prescott, Arizona in 1934. His father, Robert Black, worked for Woolworth’s department store; his mother, Ruth, was a homemaker and a pianist. Bobby’s brother Larry was born in 1936. Both brothers took piano lessons.
Growing up, Bobby listened to pop and big-band music on the radio. Ear to the airwaves, he listened to Western swing — Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, and Spade Cooley, whose steel guitar player Earl “Joaquin” Murphey caught Bobby’s attention. When he heard Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians, he was taken…
