Only a few musicians reach this milestone. Musicians such as Don Helms who played for Hank Williams, Maurice Anderson who played for Bob Wills and Leon McAuliffe who wrote Steel Guitar Rag, just to name a few.
Bud Carter was born in Sullivan, MO in 1931 and came from a musical family. Bud’s brothers, Earl and Bob, also were musicians. As a young man, Bud worked at Turner’s Chevrolet in Sullivan as a mechanic and played music on the weekends for Warren Figler and his Hoe Down Boys.
In the early ‘50s, he began to play steel guitar. At that time, there were no pedals on the steel guitar. Bud started working on making pedals for the steel, often ­using carburetor parts, clothes hangers, welding rods or anything he could find lying around. By the early ‘60s, he had a working model that would stay in tune.
Bud started playing for the Ozark Jubilee with Red Foley, with Lee Mace’s Ozark Opry. It was, at this time, Maurice Anderson, who was playing with Bob Wills, saw Bud and his guitar and offered him a job in Dallas, TX making pedal steel guitars using Bud’s ideas for the pedal system.
From 1967 until today, Bud’s all pull system for the pedal steel is used worldwide as the industry’s standard.
Bud is a master steel guitar player who has played with many country super stars. He is a master builder and built the Carter Steel Guitar, which is one of the top-selling guitars in the world. He was also a master teacher who helped many young musicians along the way.
Bud was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame on Sept. 5, 2009, along with Barbara Mandrell and Ron Elliott.
Bud now resides in the Dallas, TX area, but still has many friends and relatives in the Sullivan area. He finds time to return home for a visit with his uncle, Paul Tutterrow, and to stop by Westgate Music for a visit with friends.