Billy Preston: A Life Like No Other
The Music Was Only Part of His Wild Ride
Most of you know Billy Preston as the keyboard player with the big Afro who played with the Beatles in their famous rooftop concert in 1969. He had a few chart-topping hits of his own in the ’70s, including Will It Go Round in Circles and Nothing from Nothing. In addition to touring and recording with the Rolling Stones for the better part of a decade, he was a central figure in the 1972 Concert for Bangladesh. But his life was a convoluted tapestry of events, both musical and not, that taken in total amounts to one of the more extraordinary journeys on this planet by a human being. Following are eleven things you probably didn’t know about Billy Preston:
He was a star at 11 years old
Self-taught, Preston was a piano prodigy that was backing the great Mahalia Jackson as a 10-year-old. One year later, he appeared as W. C. Handy as a child alongside Nat King Cole in the 1958 movie St. Louis Blues, and appeared on Cole’s TV variety show.
He helped feed the early Beatles while on the road
In 1962, the then-unknown Beatles were on a bill with Little Richard’s touring band, which included Preston. He befriended the Beatles on the tour (they were all teenagers) and upon hearing them complain about the meager food they received as the opening act, swiped some steaks from Little Richard’s spread and shared them with the Fab Four.
He inspired Steve Stills’ greatest hit
At a party attended by Steve Stills, Preston remarked “if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” Stills asked Preston if he could use the line in a song, and Preston encouraged him to do so. The resulting song is a classic rock favorite, reaching #14 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1971.
He liked to bust out some amazing dance moves
On the Ed Sullivan show in 1967, Preston appeared in a lemon-yellow suit, singing the Edwin Starr song, Double-O Soul and dancing up a storm as Ray Charles accompanied him on piano. At the Concert for Bangladesh in 1972, he famously got up from his Hammond organ in the middle of his song That’s the Way God Planned It and spontaneously began boogying across the stage.
John Lennon asked him to join the Beatles
George and Ringo were into it, but Paul said no, feeling that four people had enough trouble agreeing to anything, let alone five. It’s tantalizing to think about what might have happened if Preston had made it the “Fab Five.”
Sly Stone stole his fiancé
Preston was engaged to actress/model Kathy Silva and was collaborating with Stone on his album There’s a Riot Going On. Preston was devastated to come home to find Stone in bed with Silva. It was a turning point in his life, as Preston renounced relationships with women from that time onward and sought comfort in cocaine and alcohol, which (as it usually does) would eventually turn problematic. He also sought comfort in same-sex relationships, which likely has its roots in being abused as a child by both a pastor and the musical director of a touring musical show in which Preston participated.
He was in the house band for the groundbreaking TV show, Shindig
A showcase for rock music in the late ’60s, Shindig spawned a host of imitators, such as Hullabaloo. Other alumnae of Shindig’s house band included Wrecking Crew session stalwarts Glen Campbell and Leon Russell.
He wrote You Are So Beautiful, recorded by Joe Cocker
The song, which went to #5, was written as a tribute to Preston’s mother.
He played Sergeant Pepper in the fanciful movie of the same name
The 1978 Robert Stigwood film also featured Peter Frampton, the Bee Gees, Earth Wind and Fire, and Aerosmith, among others
He once set fire to his house in an insurance fraud scheme
Already in prison for drug offenses in 1998, Preston was indicted in a $1M insurance fraud case in which he set fire to his own house. He pled guilty and implicated others in the plot, and wound up serving a sentence of 18 months, some of which was concurrent with time served on drug charges.
He left his hospital bed to record a track for the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Months from death in 2005, the Peppers got a tape to Preston in the hospital with a song they wanted Preston to perform on, called Warlocks. The song excited Preston so much he left the hospital for the recording studio, where he laid down a Clavinet keyboard track for the song, on the Stadium Arcadium album released in 2006.
I could have included many more tidbits (touring Europe with the Rolling Stones multiple times, approaching Ray Charles as a kid, and later playing in his band, releasing an album called The World’s Most Exciting Organ) but I hope you have been given a sense of the thrilling and tumultuous life led by Billy Preston. His life is more than worthy of a movie, and White Horse Pictures announced last year that a documentary on the life of Preston is in the works.
They won’t even have to invent stuff for dramatic effect. All they need to do is tell his story.
