Interview -- B.J. Cole (pedal steel guitarist, session musician)
"In L.A., it was The Wrecking Crew.
And there was the equivalent in London as well. I was a part of it."
~ B.J. Cole ~
Session musicians like B.J. Cole may never know when they'll be asked to come into the studio, or who they'll be working with, but the good ones, the very good ones, always know the ask is coming. From Elton John to David Gilmour. T. Rex to The Alan Parsons Project. R.E.M. to Robert Plant. And it must be a double-edged sword at times. The anonymity of it all. Only music aficionados of a particular song or album might know the names of everyone involved in the recording. Perhaps a blessing and a curse. But for the last six decades, London's B.J. Cole has been the premier pedal steel guitarist, called on when an artist needs a particular sound and vibe to enhance their song.
B.J. Cole has been adding his unique pedal steel flavors and flares in all the right measures since the beginning of the 70s. And alongside all the juicy session work, Cole has been building a solid discography of his own, recording a variety of ambient, exotica, and paintbrush jazz albums to give music fans a mind rush. B.J. Cole has been fortunate to continue living out his passions, keeping the musical juices flowing and contributing to the common musical cause. You already know him and didn't know it. B.J. Cole...Go get you some.
B.J. Cole Interview -- May 2026
B.J. Cole
[The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.]
Casey Chambers: You've worked with so many artists over the years, I'm just going to cherry-pick a few. You were invited to play on Elton John's "Madman Across the Water" album. And provided the beautiful pedal steel we hear in the iconic song "Tiny Dancer."
B.J. Cole: And oh, that was a long, long time ago...1971. Well, I knew Elton John a bit already, and I also knew the people at Dick James Music quite well because I was in a band called Cochise. Named after the Apache Chief. (laughs) We did a few albums for United Artists, so I was in the Dick James offices quite regularly. I'd encounter Elton, or Reginald as he was known then, walking around the offices, doing demos in the demo studio. And so I knew him on a day-to-day basis. And just one day, I got a call in the afternoon asking, 'Can you come into Trident Studios?' And as I said, I knew Elton anyway, so it wasn't a big surprise.
So I went down to Trident Studios, which was in the center of London. At that time, you could just park your car virtually outside the studio. (laughs) There weren't any restrictions or anything then. And it became very clear that they put that session together at the very last minute. It was a last-minute track that we recorded. And it was "Tiny Dancer." When I got there, I knew most of the people involved. It wasn't really Elton's regular band on that session, you know, with Nigel Olsson and Dee Murray, etc. At that point, his band was only just coming together, and it wasn't there yet.
He used a couple of guys from a band called Hookfoot. That was Caleb Quaye's band, and they were playing on lots of stuff in that studio. That's who Elton used, 'cause I don't think the other guys were available at that time. And the studio was full of musicians when I arrived...all wondering what was gonna happen. Elton was there at his piano, and he had the arrangement pretty much hammered out right on the spot.
Casey Chambers: What was your impression of the song when you first heard it?
B.J. Cole: Well, it was coming together right before my eyes. Or ears. (laughs) I was familiar with Elton's songs over the previous couple of years. And "Tiny Dancer" sounded like a great song. It didn't have all the extended arrangements it came to have in the final analysis, but it was good even then. It took a long time to record that song. I was in the studio from about 10:00 PM, and we didn't get out until at least six in the morning. We were there all night. That was how long it took to hammer out that one track.
Casey Chambers: Your steel guitar adds such a nice, gentle balance to Elton's piano. And the song wound up becoming the opening track for the album.
"Tiny Dancer" - Elton John / "Madman Across The Water" (1971)
B.J. Cole: "Tiny Dancer" is such a strong song. It's not surprising that it was early in the running order on "Madman Across The Water." I imagine they wanted it to be a single, but obviously, being the length that it was, that put a doubt about that in their minds. But still, it got promoted very well.
Casey Chambers: I remember hearing the song again in Cameron Crowe's film, "Almost Famous," and it was like a revelation. For new fans and old alike. And it reminded everyone why we love music so much.
B.J. Cole: "Madman Across the Water" was a great album. And "Tiny Dancer" is one of my personal favorite Elton John songs, certainly. Well, obviously because I played on it. (laughs) But I love a lot of songs Elton was writing back then. We all had a sort of synergy about us. We all loved The Band, for instance, and much of what Elton did was influenced by The Band. At that time, anyway. The whole industry was much different then. It was more relaxed. You could try things out, especially as he was such a great artist. They allowed him a lot of leeway in terms of things he did. The studio was spending a lot of time promoting and gigging him, and once he started gigging over in the States, that broke him. And it was all very justified. He was great.
Casey Chambers: You worked with Gerry Rafferty on his mega-successful "City to City" album, one of the best albums of '78. Still sounds wonderful today.
B.J. Cole: I was very lucky to work on that one. That's a great album. I got into being a session man in the very early '70s, late '60s, and I'd been working pretty flat out. Everybody knew me. I had actually worked on a few things with Gerry Rafferty before "City To City." I worked with him while he was in Stealers Wheel. The band that had the hit, "Stuck In The Middle With You." So we knew each other already. The "City To City" album was made for United Artists Records, if I remember, and it did very well here... as it did in the States. And the song "Baker Street" was a huge hit over here, which makes sense because Baker Street is actually a famous road right in the middle of London. So it would be. However, "Right Down The Line" wasn't so big here. In the United States, "Right Down The Line" did pretty well, didn't it?
Casey Chambers: Oh yeah. Great song. Radio plays it all the time. And you sound fantastic!
B.J. Cole: I did play on that one. And I must have worked on four or five other songs on that album. I'm not really a country pedal steel player, but there was a bit of a country element to the album. I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms, but many people like Gerry Rafferty and Elton...the songwriters...were inspired by American music in their songwriting. I think I'm more inspired by American sounds in general, rather than being a copier of the greats of pedal steel. If that makes any sense to you. I got a lot of session work because most of the songwriters in the '70s were coming from that direction, without directly having the pedal steel sound too much like Nashville. Elton is probably the most high-profile example of that.
"Right Down The Line" - Gerry Rafferty / "City To City" (1978)
I think "Right Down The Line" is my favorite Gerry Rafferty song I've played on. It's the one I remember best because I've heard it more than any other track from "City To City," apart from "Baker Street." There was even an American pedal steel player, Weldon Myrick, who did a lot of work in Nashville, and he did an instrumental version of that song. You can find it online somewhere.
Casey Chambers: Inspiration works both ways, right? He must have enjoyed what you were doing and wanted to get in on some of the fun. (laughs) How cool and interesting it must be as a session musician to be part of it all and help bring so many other artists' songs to life.
B.J. Cole: I was there. I was here. And it is. It's a great thing. But session players in the studio are also concerned about making a living. Which was a lot easier back then than it is now. (laughs) At the time, I was the best-known pedal steel player around. There was another guy called Gordon Huntley who'd played on "Tumbleweed Connection," actually on "Country Comfort." And a contemporary of mine called Gerry Hogan. He was a regular session man who played with Albert Lee and Heads Hands & Feet, which was the band Albert Lee was in in the early part of the '70s.
But I did a lot of session work. I loved playing with Scott Walker. The Walker Brothers did a fantastic cover of "No Regrets" in the 70s, which was a big hit here. He was such a fantastic singer. One of the best singers I ever worked with, actually, if I had to say. Scott was much bigger here than in the States, bizarrely because he came from the States.
Casey Chambers: It's kind of interesting how some American artists struggle in the US but make it big overseas. Why is that, you think?
B.J. Cole: I think because in the States, it's more tied down to the commercial considerations. The market. Whereas in Europe, we have the luxury of picking up on obscure things. The things the audiences in the States miss. That's the general principle. It's not totally true. But a lot of stuff gets bigger...like Zappa, for instance. Captain Beefheart. People like that. They had more time to break in Europe than they did in the States. A lot of the more offbeat records that came out in the '60s and '70s made it much better in Europe. The Velvet Underground and the band Love, for instance. More offbeat things are all pretty much bigger here.
Casey Chambers: Since you're letting me cherry-pick songs, I heard the deep track "Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)" from the "I Robot" album. The Alan Parsons Project. I was just listening to that the other night and saw you grabbed a piece of chair for that one, too.
B.J. Cole: I do recollect going into Abbey Road, sitting in while the sessions were happening, and playing a bit. That record, strangely enough, was bigger in America than it was here, I think. But I've done a lot of sessions in Abbey Road for many various people, and I was certainly aware of Alan Parsons. He engineered The Beatles and almost everybody, it seemed. I knew him through just being in that studio. That's where I met him. It was a much more social scene back then. I'd walk into a studio, and people would pick up on you from being in other studios, and they'd go, 'Are you free on so and so?' and 'Come in, we'll put you on this track.' It was a lot more like that.
"Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)" - The Alan Parsons Project / "I Robot" (1977)
Casey Chambers: You were in one of those very cool "circle of trust" kind of things. A club by invitation only. And fellas like me ain't gettin' in! (laughs)
B.J. Cole: (laughs) It's like all the big recording centers in L.A., Nashville, Austin, and places like that. Recording centers where the musicians have a big bond. An identity together. Obviously, in L.A., it was The Wrecking Crew. And there was the equivalent in London as well. I was a part of it. The pedal steel player in London in the '70s.
Casey Chambers: So much good music made better thanks to contributions from session players like yourself. It must be extra sweet when you get a session call from someone whose music you really dig.
B.J. Cole: Thank you. It's... fantastic. It's a great compliment. It was a compliment to have worked with Humble Pie on about three albums in the early '70s. I played on a lot of heavy rock records then, and Humble Pie was one of the most interesting because of Steve Marriott. Another great singer. A great rock singer. What a character. People like that don't exist anymore. I worked with John Cale a lot in the '90s. I did loads of sessions for people in the '80s, '90s, and into this century.
Casey Chambers: Doing what you love and loving what you do. That's a lucky person in anyone's book.
B.J. Cole: I've loved it. Just focusing on doing sessions and making music with the pedal steel. It was really the instrument that got me into music.
Casey Chambers: How did you discover the pedal steel? How did you start on that instrument?
B.J. Cole: Well, I started playing the guitar a bit, as most people did back then. I was inspired by a guy called Hank Marvin with a group called The Shadows. I was of the era of Eric Clapton and all those people. Then I heard a record called "Sleep Walk" by Santo and Johnny.
Casey Chambers: A great instrumental.
B.J. Cole: Exactly, exactly. Beautiful. It's a great song. They played it on "The Perry Como Show" in the late '50s, and that was aired here. And I just...not only did I love the sound of it, I just loved the look of it. And I became completely passionate about it, and I still am.
Casey Chambers: I dig the sound of the pedal steel, as well. Before I let you go, would you recommend a couple of albums from other artists to check out?
B.J. Cole: My favorite record of the '60s is...Love "Forever Changes." You know that one?
Casey Chambers: Oh yeah, a great album. Great psych album.
B.J. Cole: Yeah, I think it is probably my favorite record of all time. "Forever Changes" just had everything. Very much of its time, as well. '67. And it was very popular here. It was one of those records that everybody was listening to. It was one of the big records of the Flower Power era. Not only was it psychedelic, but it was sort of punky and folky at the same time. Their other records were good too, but they weren't in the league of that one.
There's a very interesting story I read about Arthur Lee and that record. It was that the band were all out on acid for a lot of the time...being where they were. And they'd pretty much gone to seed. Not really capable of playing properly after their first couple of albums. So the producer at Elektra brought in The Wrecking Crew for a couple of their songs. I'm trying to remember which tracks. I think "Andmoreagain" was one of them. And The Wrecking Crew was so damn good that Love actually pulled it back together to finish the rest of the record, which is quite a story.
I also like Little Feat. Early Little Feat with Lowell George. "Sailin' Shoes" and the very first one before that, just called "Little Feat." And that one was really just a bunch of demos. They were so damn good. At the time, all the musicians were listening to Little Feat and The Band. Very influential. Great musicians, all of them.
Casey Chambers: Okay, so recommend a couple of The Band albums.
B.J. Cole: The Band's self-titled album with the brown cover and the one with the sort of rainbow colored cover, "Stage Fright," I like. But they were all great. It was all very down-homey, but electric. The Beatles were influenced by The Band, and I love The Beatles. "Abbey Road" was, I think, my favorite. Largely, because I happened to be in the publisher's office when the white label (promo) came in. We were in Dick James' office, and we all gathered around to listen to the new Beatles record that was coming out. It was actually their last record that they recorded. All the songs on "Abbey Road" are amazing. "Come Together"...amazing. The medley at the end, edited from different songs...amazing. That's George Martin's genius for you. And just hearing the record like that before the public heard it...that was a great moment in my career.
"Tiny Dancer" - Bus scene from "Almost Famous"
Casey Chambers: Hell yeah! A chance of a freakin' lifetime. Mr. Cole, thank you for sharing a few of your past accomplishments with me this morning. I know we've barely scratched the surface, but it's been an honor and a real pleasure.
B.J. Cole: It's great to still be here to remember it. (laughs) Great to talk to you, too.
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