Billy Preston is no longer with us
Billy Preston, the famous keyboardist died Tuesday in Scottsdale. Ha was only 59.
Preston received a kidney transplant in 2002. But the kidney failed and he had been on dialysis ever since. In the past several years, Preston had revived his career as a sidemansideman, performing on albums by Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, Michael McDonald, Nikka Costa and others.
His music career began at 10, when he became backing gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. His gospel roots came to the fore on the Beatles‘ album “Let It Be,” the Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers” and “Exile on Main Street”; his perfperf of “That’s the Way God Planned It” was a standout at George Harrison’s “Concert for Bangladesh.”
He collaborated with “The Beatles” in 1969 when friend Harrison recruited him to play on “Let It Be.” Preston inspired the Beatles to get along and would perform on solo discs by Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr. Preston also toured and recorded extensively with the Rolling Stones.
In 1972, Preston released the album “I Wrote a Simple Song,” including the song “Outa-Space.” He won a Grammy for that song.
His hits were multiple: “Will It Go ‘Round in Circles,” “Nothing From Nothing”, “With You I’m Born Again,”, “You Are So Beautiful.”
But he had many problems in the recent years. In 1992, he was given a suspended jail sentence, but ordered incarcerated for nine months at a drug rehabilitation center for his 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 an alleged scam that netted about $1 million.
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