★ on Wicked Din
The band
Brian Wooten
pedal steel and lap steel
Music has been my obsession for as long as I can remember. It all started when I was five, watching the gloriously terrible TV movie Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. That was the exact moment I got hooked, and I knew right then that I had to play guitar. It took a few years, but I finally started lessons at eleven—and 31 years later, the passion hasn't faded one bit.
Since high school, I’ve played in several bands around Knoxville, spanning everything from gospel to thrash metal. Years ago, I even played lead guitar alongside Mac in a rock group called Every Man a King.
My journey with steel guitar started on a total whim about 14 years ago when I bought both a pedal steel and a lap steel within a single week. I messed around with them briefly before throwing them in a closet, where they sat untouched for years. Fast forward to around 2021 or 2022, when Mac called and asked if I wanted to play steel for his new project. I pulled them out of storage, put on fresh strings, and dove headfirst into figuring them out. Joining Chameleous is my first time playing pedal and lap steel in a live setting, and while the learning curve has been steep, it’s been an absolute blast.
On Wicked Din
Lap steel guitar on I Knew, The Beanstalk Speaks, Wicked Din, Soup A.
Pedal steel guitar on Kiss Hello, Lonely Lady, Life Fever, Unshakable No.
Albums I love
Records Brian keeps going back to.
- Amanda Shires: Nobodies Girl
- Primus: Green Naugahyde
- Todd Snider: Live Storyteller
- Pantera: The Great Southern Trendkill
- Guns N' Roses: Appetite for Destruction
- Clutch: Blast Tyrant
- Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: The Nashville Sound
- Southern Culture on the Skids: Liquored up & Lacquered Down
- Drive-By Truckers: Dirty South
- Kiss: Hotter than Hell
- Aerosmith: Rocks
- Cody Jinks: Lifers
- Flying Burrito Bros: Gilded Palace of Sin
- Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon
- John Prine: John Prine
Photographs
15 shots Brian is in. The whole gallery.
What the press said
Brian Wooten's pedal steel drifts in and out like fog off a ridge, less a nod to Nashville than a colour, a texture used the way a painter might use grey: not for sentiment, but for depth.
Indie Dock Music Blog
Jules' unusual synthesizer textures, Rich Adlin's experimental guitar sounds and Brian Wooten's haunting lap steel create an especially distinctive sonic palette.
Dulaxi
… keeping Brian Wooten's pedal steel and lap steel work specifically because those instruments honor the band's Tennessee roots even while the broader album moves through considerable additional territory spanning blues, swing, jazz, and synth-driven rock textures.
Apricot Magazine