Buddy Emmons
Background information
Birth name	Buddy Gene Emmons
Born	January 27, 1937 Mishawaka, Indiana, U.S.
Died	July 21, 2015 (aged 78) Nashville, Tennessee
Genres	Country, jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Pedal steel guitar, lap steel guitar
Years active	1952–2015
Labels	Mercury, Flying Fish
Associated acts	Little Jimmy Dickens, Ray Price, Ernest Tubb, John Hartford, The Everly Brothers

Buddy Gene Emmons (January 27, 1937 – July 21, 2015) was an American musician who is widely regarded as the world’s foremost pedal steel guitarist of his day. He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1981.^[ Affectionately known by the nickname “Big E”, Emmons’ primary genre was American country music, but he also performed jazz and Western swing. He recorded with Linda Ronstadt, Gram Parsons, The Everly Brothers, The Carpenters, Roger Miller, Ernest Tubb, John Hartford, Little Jimmy Dickens, Ray Price, Judy Collins, George Strait, John Sebastian, and Ray Charles and was a widely sought session musician in Nashvilleand Los Angeles.

Emmons made significant innovations to the steel guitar, adding two additional strings and an additional pedal, changes which have been adopted as standard in the modern-day instrument. His name is on a US patent for a mechanism to raise and lower the pitch of a string on a steel guitar and return to the original pitch without going out of tune.^[ He won the Academy of Country Music’s “Best Steel Guitarist” nine times, beginning in 1969.

In 2013, two years before his death, he was honored by the Country Music Hall of Fame in a tribute called “The Big E: Salute to Buddy Emmons” featuring testimonials and performances by eminent musicians and hall of fame members.