Pete Kleinow, virtuoso of steel guitar

LOS ANGELES -- "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, a steel guitar virtuoso who helped create the genre of country rock by introducing rock audiences to one of country music's cornerstone instruments while performing with the Flying Burrito Brothers, has died of complications brought on by Alzheimer's disease. He was 72.

Mr. Kleinow died Jan. 6 in a nursing facility in Petaluma.

Country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons spotted Mr. Kleinow playing with a country band in a small North Hollywood club in 1968, and when he and fellow Byrds member Chris Hillman decided to leave that group and form a band that could wed country emotion with rock attitude, they wanted Mr. Kleinow to be part of it.

From his springboard in the Flying Burrito Brothers, Mr. Kleinow went on to become one of the most respected and sought-after steel guitarists in the music business, playing in hundreds of sessions over the next 30 years for such acts as the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, Ringo Starr, Jackson Browne , and Linda Ronstadt.

A native of South Bend, Ind., Mr. Kleinow maintained a parallel career in film animation and special effects that began when he moved to California in 1963 and found work doing stop-motion animation for Art Clokey's "Gumby" cartoons.

While playing clubs at night, he continued his day job in film and TV special effects. He contributed special effects to such movies as "The Empire Strikes Back," "The Terminator," and "Gremlins" and more recently to music videos, commercials , and video games.

Musically, he brought a colorist's mind-set to whatever he played, crafting sounds that started with his instrument's usual country sighing and weeping to screaming fuzz-drenched solos and full-blown orchestral-sounding accompaniment.

His versatility allowed him to blend comfortably not only with folk and country-leaning singers and songwriters such as Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell , and Leonard Cohen, but also with a wide range of other musicians including Wonder and Carly Simon.