You’ve been a hired a gun musician for ke$ha for a while now.
I think a lot of students would appreciate a little insight as to how you landed a gig like that.
After The Actual broke up I went and got a grown up job working in politics and started Max and the Marginalized, a very wonky political punk band focused on current issues. I love that band, but we were not able to tour enough to really have a go of it. I was sick of my job (even though I love politics) and decided I just wanted to be playing so I quit and set my sights on finding a gig. I got in touch with everyone I knew who ever hears about anything and told them I was looking and started basically making a full time job out of finding a gig and auditions started coming my way. I tried out for a couple things in bands I was quite familiar with and liked — Eve 6 and Kill Hannah namely. I didn’t get them; I was devastated to not get Eve 6 ’cause I love them! Then I got an email forwarded to me — it actually came twice in the same day, once from The Actual’s old manager and once from my next-door neighbor who tour managed Soul Asylum at the time that said “new pop act signed to RCA looking for guitar player based in LA”, very little other info. I responded, sent me Ke$ha’s songs (this was before Tik Tok came out so she was mostly unknown) and they had me come down to audition. I made sure to audition as early as possible. I had tried out for other things late in the audition day before and everyone is zoned out and tired. I think they want to find the right guy quickly and they commit their minds to that person and then everyone after is up against them, so to speak. I read something that Randy Jackson of all people wrote about auditioning that said “try to go first if you can” and this really matched my experience. Anwyay, when they called and said we’re holding auditions all day Thursday September whatever, I said “as early as possible is best for me” and her manager said “great, you’re first at 1pm.” I went down, played four songs along with the DJ while Ke$ha and her manager watched, and had a nice 5 minute chat with Ke$ha and we got along right away; I left feeling like I was the man to beat rather than an I-hope-the-next-guy-is-better candidate. I got a call two days later to come down for a second audition which was really just a full day of rehearsal. At the end of the day me, her, the DJ and the dancer/keytar player were hanging out and she was asking questions about if I’d be willing to grow a beard or do this-and-that with my hair and I said “if I have the gig, which I think I do…” and she was like “yeah you got it, you’re in”. Our first show was in LA two weeks later and then we went to Europe a week after that. Then Tik Tok was in the Top 100, then the Top 10, then #1. It’s been fun as hell and very musically challenging and rewarding. Very lucky I get to do it, and which such great people too.
Is your role limited to just live performing?
That’s a lot of it but I’m her co-musical director and the only MD when we’re on the road so I handle a lot of new arrangements of songs, preparation of playback tracks (there are percussion, fx and a couple other ear candy tracks that accompany us), and I do the final mixes of most pre-taped TV performances that we do.
What comprises an average day when you’re on tour with ke$ha, vs M&TM?
Well, the biggest difference is that I’m not sleeping in a van. I wake up on the bus, drink a lot of coffee, and usually practice guitar for a couple hours unless I have to do some programming for the show. Then we soundcheck around 5:30, eat some dinner, spend about an hour with makeup and wardrobe and then we rock!
What does your ke$ha rig look like?
On the last tour cycle I used my Guyton Fv/100 head into a Bogner 4×12, along with a pedalboard with a Line6 M13, WMD Geiger Counter, Boss DD-20 delay, Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde which I use for the TS-808 clone, Boss Phase Shifter permantly on the “step” setting which is like an incremental phaser, very weird sounding, lots of other nonsense. I have a programmable pedal switcher made by G-Labs that can switch the M13 and my amp channel all at once so I just have presets for songs/parts because there’s a spot in the show where I have 3 seconds between two songs to hit 4 pedals and a footswitch. It saved my ass. That said, I’m planning on going out with something simpler next time, probably just my Vox AC/30, an 80s Boss DS-1 one 3 or 4 other pedals. We’ll see. For guitars, my main 2 are a 91 White Les Paul studio that my mom got me for my 12th birthday. I played it at the first gig I ever played when I was 13, and I played it at the Staples Center too. I think that’s pretty neat. The other is a J Mascis model Fender Jazzmaster.
pretty pissed off about it 
Either way, Sneaky Pete rules my life