Chris Steele performs with guitarist Ottmar Liebert on tour. The 1995 Butler High School graduate has been working in the Los Angeles area for 15 or 16 years.

Butler native Chris Steele's skills were audible, though not visible, when “Grease Live!” aired Jan. 31 on Fox.

The drummer worked on about 90 percent of the music, he said, but the music was recorded the week before the show.

“It was a really great experience, a lot of fun,” Steele said. “We recorded at Capitol Records' studio. The singers and dancers all performed live, as you saw, but the music was recorded the week before at Capitol Records.”

Steele, a 1995 Butler High School graduate, has been working in the Los Angeles area for 15 or 16 years, he said. He got the “Grease Live!” gig based on his resume and the recommendation of his mentor, Peter Erskine, “one of the greatest drummers ever,” Steele said.

“I was one of 35 session musicians. Those guys are the best of the best,” Steele said. “We would do two takes, but really the first take was it. We did all the songs and the underscore too.”

All that took about two days of six hours each and one day of about three hours, he said. The music was released as a soundtrack and “is doing pretty well I think,” he noted.

Steele said he did visit the set for a run through a couple of days before the live show, and he was in attendance the day the musical aired because he wanted to go to the cast party.

When he's not playing as a professional musician in L.A., the 39-year-old is out touring with flamenco guitarist Ottmar Liebert. “It's all instrumental. People just come in and listen. Artistically it's very fulfilling,” Steele said.

“It's me and him and two other musicians. We've been all over the world.”Steele himself released an instrumental jazz record called “Mistakes, Mishaps, and Other Things of Character.”He said he owes everything to his first drum teacher, Randy Roth of Butler.“Randy really helped fuel and guide my passion for the drums,” Steele said.Steele's mom and stepdad, Therese and Ben Keil, still live in Butler.Steele's dad, Bob Steele, who incidentally played drums for the Western Pennsylvania band The Jentz, lives in South Carolina.

Chris Steele didn't take any photographs of himself when he was at Capitol Records recording the music for “Grease Live!” recently, but he did take this shot of his perspective from behind the drum set.