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Music

Billy Preston dies at 59 after lengthy illness

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 7, 2006

PHOENIX - Billy Preston, an exuberant keyboardist who landed dream gigs with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and enjoyed his own series of hit singles including Outta Space and Nothing From Nothing, died Tuesday (June 6, 2006) at 59.

Mr. Preston's longtime manager, Joyce Moore, said Mr. Preston had been in a coma since November in a care facility and was taken to a hospital in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Saturday after his condition deteriorated.

"He had a very, very beautiful last few hours and a really beautiful passing," Moore said by telephone from Germany. "He went home good."

Mr. Preston had battled chronic kidney failure, and he received a kidney transplant in 2002. But the kidney failed, and he had been on dialysis since, Moore said earlier this year.

Known for his big smile and towering Afro, the Houston native was a teen prodigy on the piano and organ. He lent his gospel-tinged touch to classics such as the Beatles' Get Back and the Stones' Can't You Hear Me Knocking?

He broke out as a solo artist in the 1970s. He won a best instrumental Grammy in 1973 for Outta Space and also had hits with Will It Go 'Round In Circles, Nothing From Nothing and With You I'm Born Again, a duet with Syreeta Wright.

He also wrote Joe Cocker's weeper You Are So Beautiful. He was a musical guest on the 1975 debut of Saturday Night Live, and his film credits include Blues Brothers 2000 and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Mr. Preston's partnership with the Beatles began in early 1969 when friend George Harrison recruited him to play on Let It Be, a back-to-basics film and record project that nearly broke down because of feuding among band members. Harrison quit at one point, walking out on camera after arguing with Paul McCartney.

Mr. Preston not only inspired the Beatles to get along - Harrison likened his effect to a feuding family staying on its best behavior in front of a guest - but contributed a light, bluesy solo to Get Back. He performed the song with the band on its legendary "roof top" concert, the last time it played live.

Mr. Preston also toured and recorded extensively with the Stones, playing on such classic albums as Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street. In the mid 1970s, he parted from the Stones, reportedly unhappy over not getting proper credit for Melody and other songs. He reunited with them in 1997 on their Bridges to Babylon record.

Mr. Preston had had numerous personal troubles in recent years. In 1992 he was given a suspended jail sentence but ordered incarcerated for nine months at a drug rehabilitation center for no-contest pleas to cocaine and assault charges. Five years later, he was sentenced to three years in prison for violating probation. In 1998 he pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and agreed to testify against other defendants in a scam that netted about $1-million.

[Last modified June 7, 2006, 09:34:15]