Second born of Dave and Lois Metheny (the first son , Michael , was born five years before), music came into Pat’s life for the firts time, when He was only a few months old,.... One day his mother , going around shopping, was attracted by a classic music record offer .Back home , she turned the record player on, and realized that little Pat, had stopped crying..... It is useless to say that from that day as the Methenys became classic music record collectors. As Pat himself after was to say in some interviewes, growing up in that sort of enviroument also had a great effect on his musical fomation.

Music ,in deed, has always had a preminent part in the Methenys’ family life: besides classic music they listened to the Big Bands of the time, like the Glen Miller ‘s and Harry James’s, besides , of course, music played by other bands and the country music. His early childhood, therefore, found himself listening to a lot of trumpet music and it is really this musical instrument that he became to study when he was only 8 years old soon he became able to write and read music perfectly. When he was 10 years old he began to take lessons fom his brother’s teacher, who was the Director of the High School Band of Lee’s Summit.

In that period he started to listen to Ornette Coleman and started to play with his brother Mike ( a very well known trumpeter and flicornista ) during the Jam session with their friends; his interest for jazz started, thanks also to listening records of Miles Davis that the brother took home. At last he founded a " real band " performing at friends’ parties and in 1967 he became a member of the local Unity Band playng the French Horn in public for the first time.

In 1968 the turn appears: at the Kansas City Jazz Festival, , after Wes Montgomery’s performance, he was teken by the desire to devote himself to Jazz guitar! He studied "Big Names" .. like Grant Green, Jim Raney, Kenny Burrel ,Jim Hall, and chiefly Wes Montgomery thoroughty with great passion...He was able to pass quite 12 hours a day with his Gibson guitar during the school holidays ! In the summer of 1968 he won a grant for "The Magazine National Stage Band Camp" at the Millikin University . From this moment and for the next four years he listened only and exclusively to Jazz music!

In October, the same year, Pat made his debut in the Gary Silvis Quartet, where he remained until the summer of 1972; he played five or six nights a week at that time. His mother (as she herself said in an interview) would stay up waiting with a sandwich and a can of Dr. Pepper ready for him. He used to come back at two, sleep until seven and then go to school, where he stayed until 3:30 p.m.; back home, he would study, then practice his music, and after having dinner at nine he would go and play...

In may 1971 Pat exhibits like principal guest, in vece of one big names that couldn't come, at Kansas Jazz festival in front of 10.000 people, in that occasion he achieved widespread success.

In this period Metheny founded a trio (another important phase of his career) together with Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses, with whom he performed from the beginning of 1975 to the end of 1976, during the breaks of Gary Burton’s Tour. They played standard pieces, together with pieces by Metheny or Pastorius themselves, with a section especially dedicated to Coleman (a common passion with Jaco).

In April 1975 he met Lyle Mays at the Wichita Jazz Festival; this was another important turning point in his career. After the concerts, the two talked a lot, finding many points in common, and then parted... but they soon were to become partners for a long time. Another important event at the end of 1975: he made friends with Bill Evans and his trio.

Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays played together in Boston, for the first time, in May 1976. Together with them, on that memorable occasion, were Steve Swallow on the bass guitar and Danny Gottlieb on the drums... There was immediately an extraordinary feeling between the two... Between the end of September and the beginning of October the two arranged about ten concerts, with Mike Richmond on the bass guitar and Bob Moses on the drums, playing in Chicago and Kansas City.

The feeling with Lyle Mays was really a special one, and Metheny had been thinking of leaving Burton’s band for a while now, in order to start one of his own. After finishing, in November, the recording of Burton’s new album, three pieces of which bore his name, out of a total of six, Pat told Burton that he would leave the band, by the middle of the following year.