Watch This Lost Clip of Barbara Mandrell Slaying the Steel

I want to give some flowers to a legendary country queen we just don't talk about enough.

Barbara Mandrell grew up in a musical family and was naturally gifted as a young child. Harmonizing and reading music maybe even before she could read a book. Folks considered her a child prodigy. She picked up new instruments very easily and was taught how to play the pedal steel guitar by Norman Hamlet. He played for Merle Haggard.

Her professional career started really early, too. She was just a preteen when she started performing with names like Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Little Jimmy Dickens. On TV, in Las Vegas, and all around the country. The story goes that she roomed with Patsy because she was so young that she needed a chaperone.

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I recently came across an old video of Johnny Cash introducing Barbara. With her hair perfectly poofed and a smile on her face, she absolutely SHREDDED the double-neck steel guitar in front of her. She was just sitting there looking like a beautiful angel and making it seem as easy as can be! I watched with my jaw on my lap.

@iwishiwastheredude Before she ever became a country star, Mandrell was already known in Nashville as a pedal-steel prodigy. By age 13, she was so good that she toured with The Johnny Cash Show—not as a singer, but strictly as a featured instrumentalist. She could play complex Western-swing steel parts note-for-note, and seasoned studio musicians used to joke that she was one of the few people who could “out-pick the pickers.” So when people say Barbara Mandrell was one of the best singers in country music, insiders quietly add: she was also one of the best pedal-steel players to ever hit the stage… #country #70s #pedalsteel #music #fyp ♬ original sound - IwishIwastheredude

That song is “Steel Guitar Rag” by William Leon McAuliffe. If it doesn't play, click here. I LOVE that everyone said she could "out-pick the pickers." I've seen some gnarly rockers noodling on electric guitars who can't hold a candle to her skills.

I do have to laugh because at one point, she is really getting it, and the camera pans out to show some of the men sitting in the room. They look bored to death! Come on, fellas! What the heck!

I hope that sooner rather than later, we hear more pedal-steel in country music. I don't know why the trend went away, but it is such an interesting and impressive instrument. I'm not sure anyone can touch Mrs. Mandrell's skills. That's just part of why she is one of the greatest of all time.