Forrest Lee Jr. has been playing music since he was born. His parents and their parents were successful musicians. This history lesson starts when Forrest was 2 years old. He got his first guitar for Christmas in 1972, and a little reel-to-reel tape recorder. By the time he was 4 he could play the guitar and was totally obsessed with recording. His mom has a tape of the first song recorded when he was 4 years old.
When he was 4 his favorite album was Jerry Reed's "Georgia Sunshine" with the great songs "Amos Moses" and "The Preacher And The Bear". At 6 years old he learned to play "Windy and Warm" by Chet Atkins. By the time he was 11 years old, he had learned to sing the melody and harmony parts for every Beatles song he had and he experimented with recording techniques like over-dubbing and backward reverb. Forrest was working gigs with his father by the time he was 7 or 8 years old. He would take Forrest Jr. to private gigs or hide him backstage, or outside during breaks at club dates.
When Forrest heard Emmylou Harris's "Luxury Liner" album with Albert Lee on lead guitar, everything changed. From that moment on, he was devoted to country guitar, though he continued to listen to and learn other genres. His heroes began to compile into a list of eclectic taste, any devoted guitarist would appreciate. Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Leslie West, Ronnie Montrose, Geno Burbank, Albert Lee, Vince Gill, Yngwie Malmsteen, George Benson, Skunk Baxter, Eddie Van Halen, Brent Mason, Randy Rhodes, Duane Allman, Danny Gatton... (we could go on for a few days!). EVH had a huge influence when Forrest was about 12, followed by Led Zeppelin, he bought every tape he could get his hands on.
Forrest played private parties with his father Forrest Lee Sr. from around
8 years old, until moving to Texas and being able to legally play in bars.
He played lead guitar around the Ft. Worth area in clubs.
All through his teens he played country music. When he turned 18 he was a
seasoned singer and guitarist and could "legally" play any honky tonk
in the country. He played seven nights a week at The Palms in Birch Bay, WA
doing two shows on Saturday and Sunday. The intense playing schedule had
Forrest and Ray Neyens (now his manager) playing until they were exhausted,
but created a strong work ethic. Forrest also toured extensively with his
father during this period. From 1988
through 1991 he played lead guitar and sang in his father's band
Forrest Lee and The Shenandoans.
During this time frame he was doing session work on radio commercials and appeared on television commercials. He was also writing jingles for local restaurants and nightclubs. Forrest engineered and produced radio commercials for local business's in Bellingham, WA using very limited resources, but competing with the commercial studios.
By 1991 he was ready to hit the road on his own. He toured all over British Columbia Canada, Washington State and Vancouver Island. Forrest headlined several country music festivals and by the end of 1991, Bobby T and Forrest Lee were voted duo of the year in Twang magazine the Canadian country music magazine, which doesn't happen often in Canada for US artists.
Forrest moved to Nashville in 1995 and took up residence as the new hot guitarist in the Nashville music scene. He was subbing for Redd Volkaert at Gabe's by his second night in town, and continued to work the gig until Redd returned form a tour with Don Kelly (Forrest didn't even know he was subbing for Redd for a couple weeks). He would go to music stores and people would say hey... you're that new kid tearing up the guitar. He was instantly recognizable because of his old beat to hell pink paisley Telecaster. Even if they didn't remember the name... they knew the Tele. He didn't get a chance to sing much because he was labeled a guitar picker. So he formed a band and played at the Matador lounge for 6 weeks... the owner wanted a blues band so Forrest put up with it and played blues for 6 weeks straight, then sang nothing but George Jones and Merle Haggard songs the last night and got fired. He should have done that 6 weeks earlier!
He was playing five nights a week at Gabe’s, the quintessential honky tonk nightclub in Nashville. He then went on to play Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, The World Famous Turf, The Music City, The Broken Spoke Saloon, Nashville Nightlife, The Nashville Palace, Robert’s Western Wear, Legends Corner and several other gigs in Nashville. Forrest was playing at The Turf at 2:00, and running across the street to Legends Corner or Roberts for a 6:00 gig, and back to the Turf, Tootsie's... or down to Legends for a 10:00 show. He sometimes played 4 shows a day within those 4 venues.
By 1996 there were a few guitar players playing all the gigs on Broadway. Forrest Lee Jr., Johnny Hiland, Redd Volkaert, Ray Flack, Jimmy Yeary, Pete Mitchell, Lyle Nordby and few others. Everybody would come in to those gigs and jam, a list of players is impossible. But the players that stick out are Rodney Rielly (super picker that played for everybody), Keith Horne (now in Hot Apple Pie), Keith Gattis (Had a deal at the time, was playing guitar for Dwight Yoakam recently), and Randy Kohrs (excellent dobro picker and singer). Everybody stole licks from everybody on their breaks. It was an electric vibe and a guitarists proving ground. You either jumped in with both feet, or packed it up and went home to practice!
The Nashville tornado brought Lower Broadway music scene to a dead halt on April 16 1998. The Turf was completely ruined. The bricks from the front of the building blew out onto Broadway leaving a huge hole. It was immediately condemned and they locked up all the musical equipment inside, including Forrest’s (he was supposed to play that night). After the initial shock wore off and he got his guitar and amp back, he decided it was time to hit the road again. He took a few gigs traveling out of Nashville, playing Casinos and opening shows for other artists. Forrest then toured with various artists from Nashville and abroad as lead guitarist and background vocalist.
Forrest released his mostly instrumental CD "Frankentele" in 1998. He has
since recorded hundreds of his songs. Forrest is an accomplished
songwriter and has had songs recorded by several artists. He has co-written
songs with many of Nashville's hot writers Like Brad Wolf, Jimmy Yeary
and James Otto, but still waiting for a hit. Forrest recently completed the
instrumental CD "Telethon" which is a collection of what he likes to call
"Speed Twang". This CD has guest appearances from some of the best
Telecaster players in the world including Redd Volkaert, Jimmy Yeary and
Matt Rea.
CMT started using the instruments from Forrest Lee Jr's "Frankentele" CD for several CMT original programs. Music libraries are licensing Forrest's catalog for everything from TV shows to movie soundtracks, to telephone answering systems. If you watch CMT, you've heard Forrest several times.
Forrest is endorsed by Floyd Rose Guitars and performed several shows at the winter NAMM show in CA in 2006. The response was awesome.
visit www.Broadjam.com/ForrestLeeJr to hear some songs from his upcoming album.