Pete Drake

Birth Name:

Roddis Franklin Drake

Birth Date:

October 8, 1932

Birth Place:

Augusta, Georgia

Death Date:

July 29, 1988

Place of Death:

9010 Hood Place, Brentwood, Tennessee

Age:

Cause of Death:

Emphysema

Cemetery Name:

Spring Hill Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Music

Pete Drake was one of the greatest pedal-steel musicians who played on 118 Gold and Platinum albums with artists ranging from Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Marty Robbins, Elvis Presley, Ernst Tubb and George Jones. His session work alone on Bob Dylan's "John Wesley Harding" and "Nashville Skyline" made him the choice session player in Nashville from the 1960s through the late 1980s. Equally in demand in the studio and at the Grand Ole Opry, Drake was always an innovator. He has been credited with popularizing the "talking" guitar long before Peter Frampton and Jeff Beck made it to the airwaves. As Drake's career and reputation grew, he branched out into production, publishing and became the owner of a highly successful recording studio on Music Row in Nashville. His work with Ernst Tubb (with whom he produced 20 of Tubb's greatest hits) earns him a place as a leader of the Nashville Sound. Pete Drake was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2021, 33 years after his death.

Fun Fact

Pete’s Place, the storied Nashville recording studio that Pete Drake worked for much of his career at 809 18th Ave South, Nashville, Tennessee has since been torn down.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Spring Hill Cemetery

5110 Gallatin Pike S

Nashville, Tennessee, 37216

USA

North America

Grave Location:

Laurel Hill

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery, from the front office take the second left at the Valley Vista section and follow the road so that the Laurel Hill section is on your left and Section 17 is on your right. Park in the middle of Laurel Hill and you will see the upright Drake monument 30 feet from the road.