The East Nashville music community is mourning the loss of our friend, Pete Finney. I’m not really sure where to start, so I’ll just blurt out some random memories.
This photo was taken in 2016 in a historic studio on Music Row. We were filming a Sarah Gayle Meech session for my Pandora show and Pete was playing steel. Pete and I spent most of the day begging the studio manager to tell us Kris Kristofferson, or Tom T Hall stories. I remember asking the manager if there was anything in the studio that only the most hopeless music nerds would find interesting. Luckily there was.
I remember looking through boxes of 70 year old quarter inch tape while Pete whispered to me, “I can’t believe we’re actually getting paid to do this!”
That was Pete.
He didn’t like having his picture taken and seemed most comfortable staying in the background. I asked him if I could snap a picture of him behind his steel. He told me I could take one shot, so make it a good one. This is my one blurry phone photo from that day. I don’t think I’ve ever shared it before.
Pete and Kenny Vaughan were hotel roommates for 2 years while playing with Patty Loveless. Imagine the great conversations those two must have had.
He was over the moon when Chris Scruggs asked him to play with him in The Stone Fox 5. He told me that he thought Chris was the best C6 steel player in the world and was honored that Chris asked him to do the gigs. He seemed to be more excited about playing with his peers than playing with famous artists. And he played with quite a few famous artists.
You may have heard Pete on my podcast talking about playing with Doug Sahm, or about curating the Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats exhibit at the Country Music Hall Of Fame. He was a great storyteller and those were excellent episodes. I tried to get him to come back on the show for years, but he didn’t really dig the limelight.
I’d sometimes run into him 4, or 5 nights a week at shows. If there were 9 people in attendance, Pete would usually be one of them. He’d joke that he liked seeing me at shows because he’d know it must be the place to be. He started greeting me with, “This must be the right show because Otis is here.” I started greeting him the same way and it went on for years.
I just saw him maybe 3 weeks ago at a Jon Byrd show in East Nashville. I snuck up next to him and whispered, “I must be at the right show because Pete Finney’s here.”
That was the last time I saw him.
Rest easy, Pete.