Born in Leaf, Mississippi, on October 4, 1937, Lloyd Lamar Green became one of Nashville’s most revered session musicians and helped establish the pedal steel guitar as a signature melodic voice in country music. After his family moved to Mobile, Alabama, he began playing at age seven on an acoustic six-string lap Hawaiian guitar, later acquired a 1946 Rickenbacker Electro Model B, and performed at local events. At fifteen, inspired by Webb Pierce’s “Slowly,” he modified a double-neck Fender steel guitar with a pedal adapted from a Ford Model T car to imitate the pedal steel sounds of Forrest “Bud” Isaacs. While attending Mississippi Southern College, later the University of Southern Mississippi, he balanced his studies with barn dances in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and performances within a 90-mile radius of Hattiesburg backing artists including Hank Locklin and the Wilburn Brothers. At nineteen, he moved to Nashville the day after Christmas in 1956, joined Faron Young, and met Dorothy Jewel Edwards, whom he married six months later. By the mid-1960s he was a highly sought session musician, and his career rose further in the 1970s as he also released solo albums. Green played on thousands of songs and more than 30,000 recordings between the 1950s and 2000s, including 116 No. 1 country music hits such as Tammy Wynette’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” and the Oak Ridge Boys’ “Elvira,” and he performed with artists including Charley Pride, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Don Williams, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Lee Lewis, Lynn Anderson, Freddie Hart, Ronnie Milsap, Crystal Gayle, Willie Nelson, Alan Jackson, and others. His work on Sweetheart of the Rodeo, the Byrds’ landmark 1968 recording, helped bridge rock ‘n’ roll and country music and inspired the Americana genre. In 1988 an inner ear disorder interrupted his career and led to his retirement after recording Dolly Parton’s “Yellow Roses” and “Why Did You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That,” but after his condition improved he returned to record with Alan Jackson and others before retiring fully in the 2000s. His contributions were recognized in 1988 with induction into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame, and his sound left a lasting imprint on country music.