The Wallflowers' "Sixth Member"

In the mid-1990's, Leo LeBlanc, the legendary pedal steel guitarist, was the unofficial "sixth member" of the Wallflowers. He was a Nashville veteran who played pedal steel guitar for many musicians, including Jerry Jeff Walker and John Prine. (A pedal steel guitar is a popular instrument in country music. You can see a photo of one at "http://www.reidsville.net/stadlermusic/".)

Leo moved from Nashville to Los Angeles, where he met the Wallflowers when they were looking for a record deal. He liked their style of music so much that he played pedal steel guitar on their song demos and, for approximately two years, at their live gigs. Because he was much older than the rest of the Wallflowers, Jakob admitted that, at first, Leo seemed out of place with the band. As Jakob told Request: "Leo ended up kind of being in the group, which was a little strange, because he was 60 years old, but he was a really sweet, special guy. He didn't want to be paid, and he didn't care how old or young you were, as long as it was music he enjoyed."

Before the Wallflowers entered the studio to record their second album, "Bringing Down the Horse" (BDTH), Leo was diagnosed with cancer. But despite the illness, Leo came into the recording studio to play his pedal steel guitar. "We were really nervous," Jakob admitted to Request, "and told his kids, `We love to have him here, but we're not sure it's appropriate.' They told us he'd be a lot happier if we let him play." Leo "loved to play country music so much," noted the Los Angeles Times, "that when his progressive blindness left him unable to drive, he would roll his equipment out of his Burbank apartment, down to the corner and ride the bus to his gig."

Watching Leo succumb to cancer was extremely sad for the Wallflowers. "We went to see him in the hospital just days before he died," Jakob told Request, "and, as sick as he was, Leo was in bed jamming on the lap steel." Leo died in 1995 of cancer. BDTH was the last record on which he played. Sadly, he didn't live long enough to see its release. Jakob admitted that Leo's death was an "emotional setback" for the Wallflowers.

Leo's life and struggles inspired Jakob to write the last song on BDTH, "I Wish I Felt Nothing." "I started to write it in the studio," Jakob told the San Jose Mercury News, "and I was kind of on autopilot. It occurred to me later that the song seemed to be about Leo. I was learning lessons from him for the last couple of years of his life . . . There's obviously a lot you can learn from a guy who played so long with so many great people."

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