12 QUESTIONS WITH PETE ANDERSON

Can you give us a brief history of your playing career?

Wow… Brief? I Stared playing in East Detroit at 16 years old… Folk blues. Quickly went to electric blues by age 21. I moved to Phoenix and started playing blues in bars. Moved to Los Angeles in ’72 at 24 years old. I didn’t know one person, slept in my car, started going to jam sessions and meeting people. I went on the road with a top 40 club band for a brief while. Then I came back to Los Angeles and shuffled around for about 9 years playing, jamming and recording. I studied at GIT (now MIT) in ’79. That changed my whole musical world, I became music literate. I met Dwight Yoakam playing in a country bar. He borrowed $5,000 from a friend of mine and I produced the 1st record “Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.”. The record sold a million copies and I became well known. The rest is history.

What inspired you to start playing guitar?

Elvis Presley. But in retrospect… The sound, which was Scotty Moore.

What was your first electric guitar?

A Silvertone Esperanza. I bought it at a pawn shop near Tiger Stadium in ’67.

What are your top 5 favorite records?

Wes Montgomery, Chet Backer, Little Walter, B.B. King and Muddy Waters.

What was the proudest moment and/or performance of your playing career?

Either watching myself on The Tonight Show with my mother or playing Pine Knob Music Theather (DTE Theater in Clarkston, MI) when I was introduced as being from Detroit.

How did you hear about Reverend?

I saw Kid Rock flipping the bird in an ad in Guitar Player Magazine.

What Reverend guitar(s) are you using?

My own model, the “Pete Anderson Signature”. Also, the Buckshot, Flatroc and Jetstream.

What do you like about your Reverend guitar?

That Joe Naylor did what he said we would do… We made quite an outstanding guitar.

What amps and pedals do you currently use?

Usually an old Pod with a tube power amp. No pedals but I have lots of amps. I love Fenders.

Do you have any unusual hobbies, skills, or pastimes you’d like to share with us?

Staying healthy.

Do you have any advice for up and coming players?

Stay healthy and stay hungry. Look for your weakness and fix it… It’s a long road.

Please tell us about any of your current projects, tours, cds, etc. we should know about:

I am always working. I just finished a new CD called “Birds Above Guitarland”. It’s blues orientated. I’m going to Spain in August and headlining an Americana Fest. Doing the bandleader thing and opening the “King of the Blues” Guitar Center contest again in November. Also scoring a documentary for PBS, building a new studio, preparing to produce another record for Time-Life and rearranging my life to devote myself to performing as a guitarist 1st and foremost.