Note: In the recent edition of the Eastern Region newsletter, SGA's East Coast Manager Mark Saxon wrote about his thoughts on (and meeting with) the music legend Billy Preston and his recent passing.

I met Billy Preston in 1999 in Nashville. I had gone to a show at the now defunct Gibson Café, where he was playing in an intimate setting with a great band that included Jim Horn. I went with some friends, including Felix Cavaliere’s daughter Christina, who was Billy’s goddaughter, so he sat down at our table and we had a great time talking music. Fitting that the two men who single-handedly made the Hammond B3 sound a staple in Rock and Roll should be that close.

Of course, as a fan, I saw Billy play many other times. I was there for both shows of the George Harrison Bangladesh Concert at Madison Square Garden. I saw Billy play with the Stones, with Eric Clapton, and countless others. Billy loved to entertain, and you would be hard-pressed to find anyone that had a bad thing to say about him. He was that likeable a person. When Harrison was introducing the band at the Garden show, he mistakenly omitted Billy from the introductions, realized it and said “We’ve forgotten Billy Preston!”, and thunderous applause ensued. Whether for his constant, up-beat smile and personality, his great songwriting skills, powerful, emotive vocals, or the unmistakable Hammond sound that was heard on so many hit records, Billy made his mark on the world of Gospel, R&B, Rock and Pop that few others have come close to achieving.

Billy was one of the elite. With the exception of a couple of odd historical footnotes like Tony Sheridan and some minor studio players, Billy was the only person to ever be featured in print on a Beatles record. The Get Back single was credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston,” certainly a rare and singular privilege, but Billy actually played on a number of Beatles cuts. And they played with him on some of his own records, notably his Apple recordings, and prominently on his great single That’s The Way God Planned It, which featured not only most of the Beatles, but Eric Clapton and a potpourri of great artists. 

His association with the Beatles actually began much earlier in his career. At fifteen years of age and already established as a virtuoso keyboardist (if you doubt this, find the clip of Billy playing and singing on the Nat King Cole TV show at age 10!), Billy Preston first met the Beatles in 1962 in Hamburg while he was touring with Little Richard. Because of their closeness in ages, he and George Harrison became close friends.

Billy went on to play keyboards for Sam Cooke, and was also in the band on the Shindig TV show. His first charting record, The Most Exciting Organ Ever was released on Vee Jay records in 1966, a small label that had also released albums by the Beatles and Little Richard.

Afterwards, while touring the UK with Ray Charles, he and George met up again, and the Beatles decided to buy his recording contract from Vee Jay and sign him to their new Apple label. He released two superlative albums for the label, which, due to ever-mounting business problems that the Beatles were having at the time, went largely unnoticed (except for savvy fans who were lucky enough to snatch up copies of the discs). George Harrison co-produced the two albums with Billy, and in addition to playing guitar on some of the tracks himself, had some friends come in to play as well, including Klaus Voormann, Keith Richard, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton.

Billy appeared in the movie version of Sargent Pepper as Sgt. Pepper, and he appeared on George, John and Ringo’s solo albums after the band split up. But his association with music was not simply working as a sideman to greats like The Beatles, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Sly and the Family Stone, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Little Richard, the Rolling Stones, Ray Charles and others. Few people know that Billy wrote the classic song, You Are So Beautiful recorded by so many prominent artists, but probably best known due to Joe Cocker’s rendition. As a solo artist, he hit with Outta Space, Nothing From Nothing and Will It Go Round in Circles? and also scored with, With You I'm Born Again, a duet with Syreeta Wright. Preston also covered a number of Beatles compositions, many with some of the Beatles themselves playing on his versions.

Preston died June 6 in Scottsdale, Ariz., at age 59. He had battled chronic kidney failure, receiving a kidney transplant in 2002, but had been in a coma since last November from other complications. The memorial service was spectacular.

"He made that piano walk and talk," said Little Richard (Penniman), who discovered Preston, who was then in high school. He took him on tour in the early 1960s and introduced the teen prodigy to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. "There's nobody in this world who could play the piano like Billy Preston. He never got the credit he deserved. He made other people look good," Richard told the crowd in the Faithful Central Bible Church's Tabernacle Worship Center. A gospel choir clad in bright red sang throughout the almost three-hour service, and at one point, Preston's own sister Rodena Preston accompanied on piano.

Musical guests included Preston's longtime gospel troupe the COGICS, Joe Cocker, former Temptations singer Ali Woodson, and singer Merry Clayton, whom Billy had introduced to Ray Charles. She ended up touring with his band. You may remember Merry from the incredible vocal she supplied to the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter.” The mourners also heard letters written by Paul McCartney, Bonnie Raitt, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and others who toured and recorded with Preston.

Rest in peace, Billy.