Robert P. “Bobby” Lee is a pedal steel guitar player and active promoter of the instrument, including founding and participating on a number of Internet websites and discussion forums.
Inspired by the steel guitar styles of Jerry Garcia (with The Grateful Dead) and Don Helms (with Hank Williams), Bobby Lee took up the steel guitar in 1972. He started performing with country bands in San Francisco in 1975, and became a common fixture in Sonoma County’s country music scene starting in 1979. As a steel guitarist, his band affiliations included The Cowpokes, The Western Rhythm Gang, The Wheelers, Scott Gerber & Cowboy Country, The Stringbusters, Wanted, The Country All-Stars, John Reese & Open Hearts, Laughing Gravy, The Rhythm Rangers, Manzanita Moon, and Wine Country Swing. Bobby Lee retired from his career as a performing steel guitarist in February, 2019.
In 1996, Bobby Lee recorded and produced Quasar Steel Guitar, an album of his steel guitar music. He also produced The Demo of Wine Country Swing, his duo with guitarist Hugh Harris, in 2015.
As “b0b” (his online handle), he became involved in BBSes in 1983. He had his own BBS called The Nite Owl Motel, which networked with Usenet and Prodigy, and managed a FidoNet BBS for his employer. He leveraged that experience to launch The Steel Guitar Forum in 1997. Over the years that followed, The Steel Guitar Forum has become the online center of the international steel guitar community.