Rolling Stones sax man Bobby Keys lets it bleed in new book
Published: Friday, February 24, 2012, 6:00 AM
By Michael Heaton, The Plain Dealer
People still argue: Who was the "fifth Beatle"? Was it manager Brian Epstein? Producer George Martin? New York disc jockey Murray the K? Or Pete Best, Stu Sutcliffe or Billy Preston?
I just finished Bobby Keys' rollicking memoir, "Every Night's a Saturday Night," and I came to this conclusion: Bobby Keys is the "American Rolling Stone."
It's not a tell-all, but it doesn't pull any punches. It's laugh-out-loud funny, but it doesn't take cheap shots. It's searingly honest, especially when Keys takes on his own prodigious foolishness.
Keys grew up in the West Texas shadow of Buddy Holly. He was a 15-year-old fledgling sax player who played with the Crickets after Holly's plane went down. Keys grew up listening to Little Richard, Roy Orbison and fellow horn player King Curtis.
The precocious player had a gift for being in the right recording studio during the right session. After following composer and performer Leon Russell to Los Angeles, he played sax on both Dion's "The Wanderer" and Elvis Presley's "Return to Sender." He fell in with the Delaney and Bonnie group, which led to Joe Cocker's "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" tour.
Keys really hit the jackpot when Eric Clapton invited him to play on the Derek and the Dominos project. Even though by the time Keys got to London, Clapton didn't want him anymore, Keys would go on to make music with George Harrison, John Lennon, Keith Moon and Mick Jagger.
The Stones were exploring the country and soul roots of rock 'n' roll. Who better to do it with than a leather-lunged Lubbock lounge lizard like Keys? Thanks to his friendship with Jagger, he wound up playing on the Stones' prime-time albums "Let It Bleed," "Sticky Fingers," "Exile on Main St." and "Goats Head Soup."
During the making of those records and the tours that occurred in between, Keys and Keith Richards became close friends and heroin addicts. There is an old unwritten Rolling Stone rule: You can be friends with Jagger or Richards, but not both. Scores of people have fallen out of favor with the Stones circus trying to straddle the Jagger/Richards gap.
Ultimately it was heroin that caused Keys to leave the band in midtour in 1973. He was no longer a musician, just a junkie. After cleaning up and reaching out to Richards, he was re-admitted to the inner circle of rock royalty almost 10 years later. He may be the only person ever to navigate those rocky shoals.
Keys' account of being a Southerner in the Rolling Stones' court is genius fun. He's the outsider who finds himself inside rock's most exclusive club. It's effortless to relate to his amazement because he's like us. Keys and his co-author, Bill Ditenhafer, roll out this story with a laugh and a smile. Even the musicianship described here doesn't daunt the nonmusician. Keys can't read a lick of music. Never could. And it's with that kind of sly, openhearted admission and self-acceptance that Keys, the American Rolling Stone, unspools an unlikely and quadraphonic rock 'n' roll adventure for the ages.