Buddy Emmons, widely regarded as one of country music's greatest steel guitar players, died of a heart attack in Nashville on 21 July 2015 at the age of 78. He is remembered for pioneering modifications to the pedal steel guitar that expanded its range and versatility, changes that went on to become standard practice across the instrument and shaped the sound of modern country music.

Emmons began playing lap steel at age 11 and was performing professionally in bands by his mid-teens, later backing stars including Little Jimmy Dickens, Ernest Tubb and Ray Price before becoming an in-demand session musician for artists such as George Strait, Ray Charles and Linda Ronstadt. His key innovation was adding extra strings and pedal mechanisms to the pedal steel, including a system allowing strings to bend and return to pitch without the instrument going out of tune, a design he reportedly perfected partly by practising in the dark to sharpen his other senses.