Biography
Born on the same day as Keith Richards, saxophonist Bobby Keys was best-known as The Rolling Stones' longest-serving sideman, but also worked with a whole host of other musical legends during a 50-year career which revelled in rock and roll excess. Born on a Lubbock army airfield in 1943, Keys took up his instrument of choice after suffering an injury which derailed his baseball ambitions, and first started performing in Lubbock's best-known band, The Crickets, at the age of just 15, going onto play behind the likes of Buddy Holly and Buddy Knox. After performing on Dion's 1961 hit "The Wanderer," Keys toured with Bobby Vee on Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars, appeared on stage with Joe Cocker on his "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" trek, and joined the ever-changing rock-soul ensemble Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. Five years after first meeting The Rolling Stones at the San Antonio State Fair, Keys was invited to play on the band's 1969 album, Let It Bleed, with the saxophone solo on "Live With Me" his most notable contribution. Keys continued to work steadily with the group over the next few years, guesting on classics such as Exile on Main St. and Sticky Fingers, but also found the time to perform on George Harrison and Eric Clapton's solo debuts, and release his own self-titled instrumental LP in 1972. However, Keys' taste for the rock and roll lifestyle eventually caught up with him a year later when Mick Jagger discovered him and a French model lying in a bath filled with Dom Perignon champagne hours before a show in Belgium and promptly banished him from the majority of the Stones' touring schedule for the next decade. Keys used the time out as an opportunity to further establish his sideman credentials on records by the likes of Warren Zevon, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Carly Simon, and also joined John Lennon's entourage during his 'Lost Weekend' era, playing on his first US number one hit, "Whatever Gets You Through The Night." Keys also recorded his 1975 sophomore album, Gimme The Key, and performed various club dates under a guise inspired by arguably his most famous studio recording, Mr. Brown Sugar. Keys gradually began to return to the Rolling Stones fold in the '80s, and also teamed up with Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood in their respective side-projects X-Pensive Winos and The New Barbarians, as well as serving as the musical director of the latter's Miami club, Woody's on the Beach. From 1989's Steel Wheels campaign onwards, Keys became a permanent member of the Stones' live set-up, while he also formed his own band, The Suffering Bastards, featuring various members of The Black Crowes and The Georgia Satellites. Less than six months after making his final ever live performance with the Stones at Roskilde in July 2014, Keys passed away as a result of cirrhosis at his home in Franklin, TN.
