1. JayDee Maness was born on January 4,1945 and is an American pedal steel guitarist who is a veteran session musician in Los Angeles.
19 Facts About JayDee Maness
1. 2.
JayDee Maness is known for his work with Gram Parsons, the Byrds, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, Ray Stevens, Vince Gill, and the Desert Rose Band.
3.
JayDee Maness was born in Loma Linda, California, in 1945 and grew up in nearby Riverside.
4.
JayDee Maness's father wanted him to play steel guitar and bought him a six-string Magnetone electric steel guitar with amplifier at a price of $30.
5.
JayDee Maness did not have finger picks and played for a year just using his fingers.
6.
JayDee Maness later took some lessons and emerged with a working knowledge of the instrument.
7.
JayDee Maness's father played rhythm guitar and, with two more musicians, got a job playing with thirteen year-old JayDee at an American Legion Hall.
8.
JayDee Maness received his first break into recording session work after Cliffie Stone heard him play and asked him to come to a demo session.
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JayDee Maness was introduced to Jimmy Bryant whom he credits for instructing him "when not to play, when to play and in general how to record".
10.
JayDee Maness later moved to Los Angeles, was employed as a musician at the Palomino Club.
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JayDee Maness's skills were recognized, and he entered into the inner circle of elite session musicians in Los Angeles.
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JayDee Maness first recorded with the band on a pair of singles before contributing to the group's sole album, Safe at Home.
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JayDee Maness toured with the Byrds in California while the album was in post-production but with the departure of Parsons in August, 1968, JayDee Maness' tenure with the Byrds ended.
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JayDee Maness next played with Buck Owens, for about 18 months.
15.
In 1985, JayDee Maness became one of the founding members of the Desert Rose Band, a country-rock group, with fellow ex-Byrd Chris Hillman, John Jorgenson, Herb Pedersen, Steve Duncan and Bill Bryson.
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JayDee Maness left the band in 1990, but returned to it in 1998 and has remained part of the line-up since then.
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JayDee Maness's acclaimed bridge solo on Eric Clapton's 1992 hit "Tears in Heaven" was, according to the musician, another piece of recording luck that came out of the blue for him:.
18.
In 2018, JayDee Maness reunited with Lloyd Green on the 50th anniversary of Sweetheart of the Rodeo to record Journey to the Beginning: A Steel Guitar Tribute to the Byrds at Cinderella Sound in Nashville for Coastal Bend Music.
19.
JayDee Maness has won the ACM award for steel guitar on 18 occasions.