Leon Rhodes--Buddy Emmons changed my life

[Dave Magram]

In this short snippet of a NAMM interview, Leon Rhodes explains how Buddy Emmons changed his life forever...
"Rhodes Leon webclip"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-R7dPDcPxk

- Dave

[Greg Cutshaw]

Another great interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv0BudT4oJc

[John LeMaster]

Greg, thanks for sharing these interviews with the great Leon Rhodes.

John L

[Greg Cutshaw]

When i was a little kid we went to see ET at Ponderosa Park in OH. Dad was well known by ET's band having followed them for many years and we always got invited back stage. I got to see Leon playing pedal steel and Buddy Charleton playing lead guitar together while they were just horsing around. I don't remember how well they played those instruments but I do remember how friendly and kind they were and how good the chicken dinners on the bus tasted. As a side note, one of the best "steel" players I ever heard was Tommy Cash's lead player doing pedal steel riffs and sounds including the modern chromatic stuff of the 1960's. Buddy Charleton was amazed by this and watched Tommy's whole set spellbound peaking out of side stage curtain.

[Larry Dering]

Good interviews and interesting details. Leon was definitely an inspiration to guitar players. Especially me.

[Ernie Renn]

Buddy Emmons changed a lot of people's lives...

[David Wren]

Players today, who were fortunate enough to have parents who went to dances (concerts) in the 50's and 60's understand how different a touring band was then... at least the top Nashville recording artists.

I remember when I was way too young to tag along.... ,my folks traveling from Sacramento to Napa to go to an ET dance. Amazing to even think about today, but the bands would play a 3 or 4 hour "dance", and during breaks the musicians would often invite fans out to see their bus. There's a reason ET's "Troubadours" records featured their bus driver (in a Nudie suit) along with the musicians on the front cover pix.

Seems a hard life to me today, but there was a connection between fans and artists, well, I think that's largely gone away today... now that a touring headliner has to travel in a convoy of semis

Nice interview..... I do remember me and my highschool friend trying to learn the Leon/Buddy screaming leads.... ha, no chance

[John Goodrich]

Thanks for posting those Leon videos. He was very open and kind to me when I met him at the Midnite Jamboree. He told me about his 1970 Telecaster, about the pickups and switches. Very nice guy. He was my favorite.

[Drew Howard]

A testament to a true genius. Buddy changed my life too, and I'm here to tell you, he is changing the lives of younger players today!