Roddis Franklin Drake (October 8, 1932 – July 29, 1988) professionally known as Pete Drake, was a Nashville-based American record producer and pedal steel guitar player.

One of the most sought-after backup musicians of the 1960s, Drake played on such hits as Lynn Anderson‘s “Rose Garden“, Charlie Rich‘s “Behind Closed Doors“‘ Bob Dylan‘s “Lay Lady Lay“‘ and Tammy Wynette‘s “Stand by Your Man“. Drake was born in Augusta, Georgia, the son of a Pentecostal preacher, in 1932. In 1950 he drove to Nashville, heard Jerry Byrd on the Grand Ole Opry, and was inspired to buy a steel guitar. Later in the 1950s he organized the country music band Sons of the South in Atlanta, Georgia, which included future country stars like Jerry Reed, Doug Kershaw, Roger Miller, Jack Greene, and Joe South.

In 1959 he moved to Nashville, joined the Nashville A-Team, and went on the road as a backup musician for Don Gibson, Marty Robbins. and others. In 1964 he had an international hit on Smash Records with his “talking steel guitar” playing on Bill Anderson’s 1963 album Still.

The single, “Forever“, charted in March 1964 and reached #25 in the Billboard Hot 100, eventually sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. His innovative use of what would be called the talk box, later used by Peter Frampton, Joe Walsh, Roger Troutman and Jeff Beck, added novel effects to the pedal steel guitar. The album Pete Drake and His Talking Steel Guitar, harkened back to the sounds of Alvino Rey and his wife Luise King, who first modulated a guitar tone with the signal from a throat microphone in 1939. The unique sound of the talk box with a steel guitar was new in the 1960s, and it made the sounds of vocalizing along with the strings of the steel guitar.