Lloyd Green was born on October 4, 1937 in Leaf, Mississippi. He moved with his family to Mobile, Alabama at the age of four, where he began to take music lessons. At the age of seven he learned to play a Hawaiian string guitar and eventually learned how to play the steel guitar. By the time he was ten, he was playing professionally in clubs a couple of nights a week with a rhythm guitarist. Green graduated from high school in 1955, and went on to study psychology at the University of Southern Mississippi. He left college at the age of nineteen and went to Nashville to seek fame as a steel guitarist. Over the years, Lloyd Green has become one of the most popular and respected pedal steel guitarist of all time, and arguably the best player of the E9th tuning on the pedal steel guitar.
Session work
Green's joined Faron Young's road band in December 1956 and stayed for 18 months. He soon played steel guitar on his first session, George Jones' "Too Much Water". After he could not afford to renew his union card, he moved back to Mobile, but eventually moved back to Nashville and became a shoe salesman. He told his story to one of his customers, widow of publisher Fred Rose, and she renewed it for him. The first successful session he played on was Warner Mack's "The Bridge Washed Out" in 1965. For the next 15 years, Green averaged 400 sessions a year. The artists whose recordings he played on included Faron Young, Freddie Hart, the Byrds, Charley Pride, and Paul McCartney. He turned down a U.S. tour with McCartney due to the fact that he didn't want to lose work in Nashville. In the 1980s an ear infection forced Green to stop working, but he eventually returned to session work. He also plays live on occasion. Lloyd Green was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1988. He has performed with over 500 artists, has played on 115 number one hits, and over 100 top ten hits. He was profiled in the September 2008 issue of Vintage Guitar magazine by music historian and journalist Rich Kienzle.
Lloyd Green designed the Sho-Bud LDG steel guitar. His first was delivered on May 9, 1973 at his home by David Jackson and Duane Marrs of Sho-Bud. It was the fourth and last Sho-Bud guitar that Lloyd played on sessions. His LDG was used on between 5000 and 6000 sessions between 1973 and 1988. One notable song recorded with this steel was "Farewell Party" by Gene Watson.
June 1988- Nov. 1988.... JCH (on recordings with Dolly Parton, Lorrie Morgan and Ricky Skaggs)
Lloyd also owned:
Sho-Bud LDG walnut color
1999 Green lacquered JCH
JCH with silver aprons
Show-Pro
Discography
Albums
Also appears on
1984: "The Celestial Sounds of Steel Guitars with JB Van - produced by Robin Vosbury and Lloyd Green
