Bobby Keys signs a copy of his autobiography Every Night s a Saturday Night The Rock n Roll Life of Legendary Sax Man Bobby Keys for Jo Claire Swayze in Greenwood Miss. on March 25 2012. Keys died Tuesday at his home in Franklin.(Photo File / AP)
Bobby Keys a saxophonist and lifelong rock n roller who played on recordings by Buddy Holly and John Lennon and performed one of the all time blowout solos on the Rolling Stones Brown Sugar has died at his home in Franklin. He was 70 years old.
Michael Webb who played keyboards with Keys said Keys died Tuesday after a lengthy illness. Keys a Nashville area resident for more than 20 years had been on tour with the Stones earlier this year before his health prevented him from performing.
The Rolling Stones are devastated by the loss of their very dear friend and legendary saxophone player Bobby Keys the band said in a statement. Bobby made a unique musical contribution to the band since the 1960s. He will be greatly missed.
Known for his heavy jowls and raw raucous style the Lubbock Texas native was born on the same day as Keith Richards Dec. 18 1943 and the Stones guitarist would often cite Keys as a soulmate and favorite musician. Besides Brown Sugar Keys also played memorable solos on such Stones favorites as the seven minute jam Can t You Hear Me Knocking and the country styled Sweet Virginia. Other career highlights included John Lennon s chart topping Whatever Gets You Through the Night and albums by Richards George Harrison Barbra Streisand and Eric Clapton.
I have lost the largest pal in the world and I can t express the sense of sadness I feel although Bobby would tell me to cheer up Richards said in a statement.
Keys career dated back to the 1950s when as a teenager he played with fellow Lubbock native Holly and The Crickets. He met the Stones in the mid 60s while they were on the same bill at a state fair in San Antonio and was distraught that the British rockers had recorded a cover of Holly s Not Fade Away.
I said Hey that was Buddy s song Keys recalled in Richards memoir Life published in 2010. Who are these pasty faced funny talking skinny legged guys to come over here and cash in on Buddy s song
But once Keys listened more closely he decided the Stones were playing actual rock and roll an opinion the Stones more than shared about Keys. He first recorded with them in the late 1960s and toured and recorded with them off and on over the following decades his work featured on three of the group s most acclaimed albums Let It Bleed Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street.
In some ways he was too close to Richards developing a heroin addiction that led to his temporary estrangement from the group. But he was with them on every major tour over the past quarter century dependably stepping up for his solo on Brown Sugar.
Keys was a frequent sight on Nashville stages in recent years sitting in with Music City standouts such as full album covers act The Long Players. He also led his own supergroup Bobby Keys and the Suffering Bastards whose members included Dan Baird of Georgia Satellites and Steve Gorman of the Black Crowes.
Keys memoir Every Night s a Saturday Night was published in 2012 with a foreword by Richards. Keys recalled that he was first exposed to rock n roll through Holly s music not on the radio but at the grand opening of a Texas gas station near the home of Keys grandparents. It was the first time he had heard an electric guitar played live.
And right then and there I knew I wanted to have something to do with that music Keys said. Holly just kinda lit a fuse that started burning then and it s still burning now.
Tennessean music reporter Dave Paulson contributed to this report.
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