About Me
Forrest Lee Sr. has been in the music biz for over 50 years! When he was 15 years old he singed up for the Army(lied about his age), and was chosen for the Army Air Corps, and stationed in Okinawa during the end of WWII. When the war was over, he came back to Seattle and worked for Texas Jim Lewis "Sherriff Tex" (a local Seattle TV personality and Country Music Star) playing fiddle and guitar. Tex took him to Hollywood in 1950, and Forrest stayed to become a Singing Cowboy himself. Soon he was starving to death, living in the back of a service station, and with the help of Frank Sinatra's wife (who felt sorry for him) made it back to Seattle. He drove truck for a few months and then the music bug hit him again. This time he was ready, He moved to Bakersfield CA. He formed a band with Clete Stewart, and hired a lanky hillbilly guitar picker named Buck Owens. Forrest would take the boys over the Grapveine to LA to record and play.
Around this time Forrest landed a gig as the star of a radio show at KXLA in Pasadena (yes the same KXLA in the film Joe Dirt)and hired Wynn Stewart and Billy Dee on the show with him. Take a look at the picture of Forrest, Wynn and Billy at the station.
One of the first recordings ever of Buck Owens, is Buck playing lead guitar for Forrest on "When I Hold You" which they penned together. That song along with Higher and Higher made it on the Billboard charts and made Forrest a Hillbilly star. Later Buck Released it as an instrumental called "The Mexican Polka". After Buck's career started taking off Forrest hired Jimmy Bryant as a sub until hiring another kid named Eddie Cochran to play guitar. Eddie was 14 years old and very green, but Forrest taught him to play with his pick and fingers, which made his guitar playing much cleaner and faster. Forrest also bought the Gretsch guitar (seen in all of Eddie's photos) from Bell Gardens Music, and took the payments out of Eddie's pay. Eddie went on to write Summertime Blues, 20 Flight Rock... and become a superstar rocker. By this time Forrest was tearing up Texas, Arkansas and Kansas City getting into lots of trouble (and avoiding more) with guys like George Jones (man there are some stories I'll bet George would like to forget about!), Little Jimmy Dickins and many more Grand Ole Opery stars.
Throughout the 50's and 60's Forrest was a staple of the California country music scene. In the 70's he worked out of Nashville as a tour coordinator / road manager working with groups like The Mashall Tucker Band, Mountain, The Sharks, Spooky Tooth, Dr. John, Ohio Players and Procal Harum. Being that he was a country boy on tour with rock stars... he was out of his element. He didn't do drugs and couldn't adjust to the rock star lifestyle. The he was divorced in 1974 and took his kids to Darrington Washington. Once there, Forrest started a Bluegrass festival that went on to become one of the biggest in the country. His old friends Ernest Tubb and Bill Monroe both played for free when they were rolling through town to help Forrest get it going.Forrest has had his songs recorded by Flatt and Scruggs (My Little Sweetheart From The Mountains), Jim Reeves (The Fallen Star Waltz), Billy Dee and many more country stars.
He's written songs with George Jones (I'll Just Remember What It's Been), Buck Owens (When I Hold You).Forrest is still kicking the footlights out in Nashville and parties like a rock star (just ask Gretchen Wilson).
If you're in Nashville hanging out on Broadway and see a really old guy looking sharp and hanging with the big boys, go say hi. Forrest is still writing and recording at 79 years old! and shows no signs of slowing down.
