Eric Lee Russell is a native of Toledo, Ohio and has lived there all of his life. He is the eldest of seven siblings born in Toledo, Ohio to Clinton and Sedaleyer (Houston) Russell, August 2, 1959. Eric’s parents attended and raised their family in the Jewell Dominion Church of the Living God, located at 415 Indiana avenue. Eric first became acquainted with the church’s Hawaiian steel guitar music tradition, by watching his father, Clinton Russell, as he played it around the house when Eric was around eight years old.

At around the age of sixteen, Eric began to seriously pursue the instrument and purchased a Fender eight string double neck lap steel from Ronald Warren, another steel player within the local church. In 1977, Eric became the official steel player for the Toledo church and has remained faithful there for over forty years.

His main influences were the late Ronald Warren, Lorenzo L. Harrison, and Felton W. Williams Jr. In 1991, Eric began taking pedal steel guitar lessons at Valley Music in Maumee, Ohio, making him one of the few proficient pedal steel players in the Jewell Dominion church. In 2023, Eric was inducted into the Sacred Steel Hall of Fame.