"Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, who rose to fame playing pedal steel in the Flying Burrito Brothers, died January 6 from complications of Alzheimer's disease. Kleinow, whose last public performance took place in 2005, was 72. After parting ways with the Byrds, Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman formed the Flying Burrito Brothers as a loose union of musicians interested in exploring the country-rock sound the Parsons ignited on the Byrds’ 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Kleinow, at the time a visual effects artist, and bassist Chris Ethridge joined the ensemble soon after and the group released its first disc, The Gilded Palace of Sin, in early-1969. Along with the Flying Burrito Brothers, Kleinow helped define country-rock, then a fledgling style, and released Burrito Deluxe before Parsons left the group. The Flying Burrito Brothers recorded a self-titled album after adding Rick Roberts to its lineup, though Kleinow left the group shortly after its release. He earned some fast cash as a session musician, appearing on John Lennon’s "Mind Games,”  Fleetwood Mac’s "Heroes are Hard To Find,” and Joni Mitchell’s "Blue.” The Flying Burrito Brothers called it quits in 1973, the year of Parsons’ untimely passing.  

Soon after, Kleinow took part in the first of many Flying Burrito Brothers reunion tours in 1975. As interest in Parsons’ work continued to grow, the group toured and recorded periodically until 2001. In the 1980s the group released several albums on Relix records, including Cabin Fever, Live From Amsterdam, and Live from Europe. Simultaneously, Kleinow forged a career as a visual effects artist, working on such films as Terminator and the mini-series The Winds of War (for which he won an Emmy). Along with Garth Hudson, he also toured as Burrito Deluxe. After performing at a Georgia-based Gram Parsons Festival in 2005, Kleinow retired and spent the last years of is life in a nursing home in Petaluma, CA.

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