Preston, Billy 1946–
Billy Preston 1946–
Keyboardist, vocalist, songwriter
Developed Hit Sang from Chance Remark
Frequented Open-Air Drug Market
Billy Preston is known to the musical world for a string of pop and R & B hits in the 1970s, in particular for the enigmatic “Will It Go Round in Circles?” Less well known is the fact that Preston was one of the most active and sought-after session keyboard players in rock music. He played keyboards on many hit recordings with superstars such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and other artists. As a musician who thrived on constant activity, Preston was dragged down by the perils of cocaine addiction, and experienced severe personal difficulties in the 1990s. But he has remained a much-revered and much-loved icon of modern pop keyboard playing.
One of four children, William Everett Preston was born in Houston, Texas, on September 9,1946. His parents were divorced when he was a year old, and his mother moved the family to south central Los Angeles and took a job as a funeral home secretary. She also played the organ at the city’s historic Victory Baptist Church, and by the time he was three, Preston was sitting at the family piano in his sister’s lap, playing back tunes he had heard. When he was seven, the church’s choir director noticed Preston imitating his conducting motions and put him in front of the group. That turned into a regular Sunday choir-directing slot. “Here was a 150-voice choir of adults directed by this little kid,” Preston told New Times Los Angeles, adding, “I loved it.”
Appeared in Film at Age 12
By the time he was ten, Preston was backing visiting gospel giants such as Mahalia Jackson and the Rev. James Cleveland on keyboards, and was the youngest member ever in the local musicians’ union. In 1958 Preston appeared in the film St. Louis Blues, performing the role of blues bandleader W.C. Handy as a child. Preston’s gospel performances around Los Angeles drew the notice of rock-and-roll star and ordained minister Little Richard, who asked Preston to join his gospel-oriented tour of Europe in 1962.
The European trip had several important effects. Preston ended up playing both gospel music and Little Richard’s secular hits, energizing crowds with the powerful tones of a Hammond B3 organ. Partly due to Preston’s influence, the instrument became central to many recordings in the genre that would soon be called rock. He met the four members of the Beatles—a rising
At a Glance…
Born on September 9, 1946, in Houston, TX; son of Robbie (a funeral home secretary). Religion: Baptist.
Career: Directed church choirs in childhood; played the young W.C. Handy in film St. Louis Blues, 1958; toured Europe with Little Richard, 1962; released debut album Sixteen Year Old Soul, 1963; released album The Most Exciting Organ Ever, 1965; appeared on television series Shindig, mid-1960s; recorded with the Beatles, 1968-69; signed to Apple label, 1969; recorded and performed with George Harrison, 1971; signed to A & M records, 1971; released hit records “Will It Go Round In Circles?,” 1973, and “Nothing from Nothing,” 1974; wrote song “You Are So Beautiful,” recorded by Joe Cocker and others, 1975; recorded duet album with Syreeta Wright, 1981; music director, David Brenner Show, 1986; numerous recordings as session man, mid-1990s; recorded gospel music, late 1990s-.
Addresses: Home—5410 W. 61st St., Los Angeles, CA 90056,
English band who opened several concerts for Little Richard. “I used to stand on the side of the stage and watch them work,” Preston said in an an interview quoted in the St. Petersburg Times. “I thought they were sharp, good-looking guys. And they were different from all the other bands.” He met soul vocalist Sam Cooke and played in his tour band after Little Richard’s tour ended. The 16-year-old Preston drank vodka, and not long after that began experimenting with cocaine.
Back in the United States, Preston appeared on Cooke’s hit “Little Red Rooster,” and recorded an album of his own, Sixteen-Year-Old Soul, for Cooke’s Derby label. He followed that up in 1964 with The Most Exciting Organ Ever, recorded for Vee Jay, the U.S. label that distributed the Beatles’ early recordings. That was followed by two more electric organ recordings for the Capitol label. Preston’s records led to a band slot and some solo appearances on the Shindig television series, featuring both his singing and keyboard playing.
Two important musicians saw Preston’s Shindig appearances—pop singer and keyboardist Ray Charles hired Preston for his own European tour, and Beatle George Harrison invited Preston to join the Beatles at their upcoming recording sessions in England. Preston performed the jazzy electric piano part on the Beatles’ “Get Back,” one of their major hits of the late 1960s. In its original release the song was credited as “The Beatles with Billy Preston,” the only time the band shared billing with a collaborator in its entire career. Preston appeared on the Beatles’ last two albums, Abbey Road and Let It Be. He played on Harrison’s triple LP All Things Must Pass and at the giant Concert for Bangladesh benefit, where he sang his gospel trademark, “That’s the Way God Planned It.”
Developed Hit Sang from Chance Remark
Preston himself was subsequently signed to the Beatles’ Apple label, and after recording two moderately successful albums for Apple, That’s the Way God Planned It and Encouraging Words, Preston signed with the A & M label in 1971. That inaugurated the prime hitmaking period of Preston’s career. He topped R&B charts and had major pop success with the instrumental “Outa Space” in 1972, and notched his first number one pop song with “Will It Go Round in Circles?” the following year. The lyrics of the song grew from a remark Preston made to songwriting partner Bruce Fisher that he had a song with no melody. It first appeared on Preston’s 1972 Music in My Life album, and its near-universal familiarity was cemented in 2001 when it was used in a television auto commercial featuring golfer Tiger Woods.
Preston hit the top of the charts again in 1974 with “Nothing from Nothing,” and had several other hits on A & M. He toured with the Rolling Stones in the mid-1970s and enjoyed the beginning of massive royalty payments for his popular 1975 composition “You Are So Beautiful.” The song was originally recorded by British rock singer Joe Cocker and later covered by artists ranging from country-pop vocalist Kenny Rogers to modern romancemeister Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds. Preston played keyboards on a startling variety of what are now considered to be classic rock and soul albums, including the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On, and Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks.
“With You I’m Born Again,” Preston’s 1979 duet with vocalist Syreeta Wright, brought him another number one single, and by the early 1980s Preston was living in a Topanga Canyon mansion, making an estimated $20,000 a week, and driving a white Rolls-Royce. He was also in the grip of a cocaine addiction that by his own estimate cost him as much as $1,000 a day. Preston, one of the hardest workers in show business, stayed afloat for a time, even though his string of hits was at an end. He became musical director for comedian David Brenner’s late-night television talk show in 1986, often appearing on the air under the influence of cocaine, and toured with the band of ex-Beatle Ringo Starr in the late 1980s.
Frequented Open-Air Drug Market
In 1989 Preston’s high life began to unravel. He was hospitalized twice that year for drug-induced heart seizures and arrested twice for drunk driving. Rehabilitation efforts failed, and Preston began buying and using drugs openly in Los Angeles’s MacArthur Park. “Cops would drive by and just let it go,” he told People. “They figured we were all killing ourselves anyway.” In 1991 Preston was charged by two Mexican laborers with attempted sexual assault at knifepoint. Preston denied the charges, which were eventually dropped, but during the ensuing investigation police found cocaine in the singer’s home.
A court-ordered stint in California’s Promises Residential Treatment Center was temporarily successful, and by 1997 Preston had resumed his busy schedule. That year he appeared on albums by Art Garfunkel, the Rolling Stones, Bebe Winans, and Enrique Iglesias, among others. The same year, however, he failed a drug test and spent 60 days in jail in Culver City, California. Released on probation, he landed what seemed like a perfect job, portraying an organist on the television sitcom The Good News. But Preston once again tested positive for drug use and in November of 1997 was sentenced to three years in prison. Another year was added to his sentence when he was convicted of having arranged a fake burglary of his house in 1994.
Started Prison Choir
Preston was released after 18 months in California’s Avenal State Prison, during which he gave up drugs cold turkey. His fellow inmates, he said, made his ordeal easier: “People knew who I was, they felt sorry for me,” he told the New Times Los Angeles. “They were happy to see that I was getting it together.” Preston made music constantly, performing at prison church services and starting a choir during his incarceration. He returned to the road once again after his release from prison.
In 2001 Preston was slated to join the band of rock guitarist Eric Clapton for Clapton’s world tour, but during the tour’s first few dates he complained of leg pain. Hospitalized in Nashville, Preston was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. “He was within 72 hours of an all-out catastrophe,” Preston’s manager, Joyce Moore, told the New Times Los Angeles. But dialysis treatments, which Preston would undergo three times a week while on tour, saved his life, and he became a candidate for a kidney transplant.
The early 2000s saw Preston returning to his roots, leading the choir at Los Angeles’s Brookins AME Community Church, and moving in with several family members, including his 87-year-old mother, Robbie. He was still a powerful draw when on tour, and the frequency with which hip-hop and electronic musicians sampled his classic recordings of the 1970s has testified to their distinctive sound and to Preston’s importance in the African-American musical tradition. Indeed, the histories of pop, rock, and R&B have all included prominent chapters devoted to Billy Preston’s music.
Selected discography
The Wildest Organ in Town, Capitol, 1967.
The Wildest Organ Ever, Vee Jay, 1967.
That’s the Way God Planned It, Apple, 1969.
Encouraging Words, Apple, 1969.
Wrote a Simple Song, A & M, 1971.
Music Is My Life, A & M, 1972.
Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music, A & M, 1973.
The Kids and Me, A & M, 1974.
It’s My Pleasure, A & M, 1975.
Billy Preston, A & M, 1976.
A Whole New Thing, A & M, 1977.
Billy and Syreeta, Motown, 1981.
Minister of Music, Pepperco, 1995.
Ultimate Collection, Hip-O, 2000.
Music from My Heart, MCG, 2001.
Sources
Books
Pareles, John, and Patricia Romanowski, The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press, 1983.
Periodicals
Columbus Dispatch, May 14, 1992, p. Features-8.
Jet, November 24, 1997, p. 62.
New Times Los Angeles, August 16, 2001, Music/Features section.
People, December 21, 1992, p. 59.
St. Petersburg Times, July 22, 1988, p. Weekend-21.
USA Today, June 4, 2001, p. D2.
On-line
“Billy Preston,” All Music Guide, www.allmusic.com (March 27, 2003).
“Billy Preston,” Biography Resource Center, www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC (March 27, 2003).
—James M. Manheim
Preston, Billy
Billy Preston
1946–2006
Pianist, singer, songwriter
Billy Preston is known to the musical world for a string of pop and R&B hits in the 1970s, in particular for the enigmatic "Will It Go Round in Circles?" and his 1973 Grammy Award winning instrumental "Outa Space." Less well known is the fact that Preston was one of the most active and sought-after session keyboard players in rock music. "He made the greats greater," his longtime friend Reve Gibson told the Los Angeles Sentinel. He played keyboards on many hit recordings with superstars such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and other artists. Indeed, Preston was often referred to as the "Fifth Beatle" because he played on so many of the Beatles hit recordings. Though personal and health difficulties impeded his musical career in the last decades of his life, his body of work remains a much-revered and much-loved treasure of modern pop keyboard playing.
Child Prodigy
One of four children, William Everett Preston was born in Houston, Texas, on September 2, 1946. His parents were divorced when he was a year old, and his mother moved the family to south central Los Angeles and took a job as a funeral home secretary. She also played the organ at the city's historic Victory Baptist Church, and by the time he was three, Preston was sitting at the family piano in his sister's lap, playing back tunes he had heard. When he was seven, the church's choir director noticed Preston imitating his conducting motions and put him in front of the group. That turned into a regular Sunday choir-directing slot. "Here was a 150-voice choir of adults directed by this little kid," Preston told New Times Los Angeles, adding, "I loved it."
By the time he was ten, Preston was backing visiting gospel giants such as Mahalia Jackson and the Rev. James Cleveland on keyboards, and was the youngest member ever in the local musicians' union. In 1958 Preston appeared in the film St. Louis Blues, performing the role of blues bandleader W.C. Handy as a child. Preston's gospel performances around Los Angeles drew the notice of rock-and-roll star and ordained minister Little Richard, who asked Preston to join his gospel-oriented tour of Europe in 1962.
The European trip had several important effects. Preston ended up playing both gospel music and Little Richard's secular hits, energizing crowds with the powerful tones of a Hammond B3 organ. Partly due to Preston's influence, the instrument became central to many recordings in the genre that would soon be called rock. He met the four members of the Beatles—a rising English band who opened several concerts for Little Richard. "I used to stand on the side of the stage and watch them work," Preston said in an interview quoted in the St. Petersburg Times. "I thought they were sharp, good-looking guys. And they were different from all the other bands." He met soul vocalist Sam Cooke and played in his tour band after Little Richard's tour ended. The 16-year-old Preston drank vodka, and not long after that began experimenting with cocaine. These habits would prove very destructive in his life.
Career Flourished
Back in the United States, Preston appeared on Cooke's hit "Little Red Rooster," and recorded an album of his own, Sixteen-Year-Old Soul, for Cooke's Derby label. He followed that up in 1964 with The Most Exciting Organ Ever, recorded for Vee Jay, the U.S. label that distributed the Beatles' early recordings. That was followed by two more electric organ recordings for the Capitol label. Preston's records led to a band slot and some solo appearances on the Shindig television series, featuring both his singing and keyboard playing.
Two important musicians saw Preston's Shindig appearances—pop singer and keyboardist Ray Charles hired Preston for his own European tour, and Beatle George Harrison invited Preston to join the Beatles at their upcoming recording sessions in England. Preston performed the jazzy electric piano part on the Beatles' "Get Back," one of their major hits of the late 1960s. In its original release the song was credited as "The Beatles with Billy Preston," the only time the band shared billing with a collaborator in its entire career. Preston appeared on the Beatles' last two albums, Abbey Road and Let It Be. He played on Harrison's triple LP All Things Must Pass and at the giant Concert for Bangladesh benefit, where he sang his gospel trademark, "That's the Way God Planned It."
Preston himself was subsequently signed to the Beatles' Apple label, and after recording two moderately successful albums for Apple, That's the Way God Planned It and Encouraging Words, Preston signed with the A&M label in 1971. That inaugurated the prime hit-making period of Preston's career. He topped R&B charts and had major pop success with the instrumental "Outa Space" in 1972, and notched his first number one pop song with "Will It Go Round in Circles?" the following year. The lyrics of the song grew from a remark Preston made to songwriting partner Bruce Fisher that he had a song with no melody. It first appeared on Preston's 1972 Music in My Life album, and its near-universal familiarity was cemented in 2001 when it was used in a television auto commercial featuring golfer Tiger Woods.
Preston hit the top of the charts again in 1974 with "Nothing from Nothing," and had several other hits on A&M. He toured with the Rolling Stones in the mid-1970s and enjoyed the beginning of massive royalty payments for his popular 1975 composition "You Are So Beautiful." The song was originally recorded by British rock singer Joe Cocker and later covered by artists ranging from country-pop vocalist Kenny Rogers to modern romance-meister Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. Preston played keyboards on a startling variety of what are now considered to be classic rock and soul albums, including the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers, Sly and the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On, and Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks.
"With You I'm Born Again," Preston's 1979 duet with vocalist Syreeta Wright, brought him another number one single, and by the early 1980s Preston was living in a Topanga Canyon mansion, making an estimated $20,000 a week, and driving a white Rolls-Royce. He was also in the grip of a cocaine addiction that, by his own estimate, cost him as much as $1,000 a day. Preston—one of the hardest workers in show business—stayed afloat for a time, even though his string of hits was at an end. He became musical director for comedian David Brenner's late-night television talk show in 1986, often appearing on the air under the influence of cocaine, and toured with the band of ex-Beatle Ringo Starr in the late 1980s.
At a Glance …
Born on September 2, 1946, in Houston, TX; son of Robbie (a funeral home secretary); died on June 6, 2006, in Scottsdale, AZ. Education: self-taught musician.
Career: Directed church choirs in childhood; played the young W.C. Handy in film St. Louis Blues, 1958; toured Europe with Little Richard, 1962; released debut album Sixteen Year Old Soul, 1963; released album The Most Exciting Organ Ever, 1965; appeared on television series Shindig, mid-1960s; recorded with the Beatles, 1968–69; signed to Apple label, 1969; recorded and performed with George Harrison, 1971; signed to A&M records, 1971; released hit records "Will It Go Round In Circles?," 1973, and "Nothing from Nothing," 1974; wrote song "You Are So Beautiful," recorded by Joe Cocker and others, 1975; recorded duet album with Syreeta Wright, 1981; music director, David Brenner Show, 1986; numerous recordings as session man, mid-1990s; recorded gospel music, late 1990s.
Awards: Grammy Award, 1973.
Drug Use Took Toll
In 1989 Preston's high life began to unravel. He was hospitalized twice that year for drug-induced heart seizures and arrested twice for drunk driving. Rehabilitation efforts failed, and Preston began buying and using drugs openly in Los Angeles's MacArthur Park. "Cops would drive by and just let it go," he told People. "They figured we were all killing ourselves anyway." Preston's addiction to drugs overwhelmed his life for much of the 1990s.
A court-ordered stint in California's Promises Residential Treatment Center was temporarily successful, and by 1997 Preston had resumed his busy schedule. That year he appeared on albums by Art Garfunkel, the Rolling Stones, BeBe Winans, and Enrique Iglesias, among others. The same year, however, he failed a drug test and spent 60 days in jail in Culver City, California. Released on probation, he landed what seemed like a perfect job, portraying an organist on the television sitcom The Good News. But Preston once again tested positive for drug use and in November of 1997 was sentenced to three years in prison. Another year was added to his sentence when he was convicted of having arranged a fake burglary of his house in 1994.
Preston was released after 18 months in California's Avenal State Prison, during which he gave up drugs cold turkey. His fellow inmates, he said, made his ordeal easier: "People knew who I was, they felt sorry for me," he told the New Times Los Angeles. "They were happy to see that I was getting it together." Preston made music constantly, performing at prison church services and starting a choir during his incarceration. He returned to the road once again after his release from prison.
Health Declined
In 2001 Preston was slated to join the band of rock guitarist Eric Clapton for Clapton's world tour, but during the tour's first few dates he complained of leg pain. Hospitalized in Nashville, Preston was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. "He was within 72 hours of an all-out catastrophe," Preston's manager, Joyce Moore, told the New Times Los Angeles. But dialysis treatments, which Preston would undergo three times a week while on tour, saved his life, and he became a candidate for a kidney transplant, which he received in 2002. Yet his kidneys failed again and he remained on dialysis for the rest of his life.
The early 2000s saw Preston returning to his roots, leading the choir at Los Angeles's Brookins AME Community Church, and moving in with several family members, including his 87-year-old mother, Robbie. He was still a powerful draw when on tour, and the frequency with which hip-hop and electronic musicians sampled his classic recordings of the 1970s testified to their distinctive sound and to Preston's importance in the African-American musical tradition. Indeed, the histories of pop, rock, and R&B have all included prominent chapters devoted to Billy Preston's music. A testament to his lasting appeal came in 2005 when Preston appeared on the his television program American Idol, and again in 2006 when Sam Moore's remake of Preston's "You Are So Beautiful," which featured Preston on the keyboard, was nominated for a Grammy award. Preston, however, did not outlive his music. He died on June 6, 2006, in Scottsdale, Arizona. He will be remembered, as Little Richard put it to the New York Times, for being able to make the piano "walk and talk."
Selected discography
The Wildest Organ in Town, Capitol, 1967.
The Wildest Organ Ever, Vee Jay, 1967.
That's the Way God Planned It, Apple, 1969.
Encouraging Words, Apple, 1969.
I Wrote a Simple Song, A&M, 1971.
Music Is My Life, A&M, 1972.
Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music, A&M, 1973.
The Kids and Me, A&M, 1974.
It's My Pleasure, A&M, 1975.
Billy Preston, A&M, 1976.
A Whole New Thing, A&M, 1977.
Billy and Syreeta, Motown, 1981.
Minister of Music, Pepperco, 1995.
Ultimate Collection, Hip-O, 2000.
Music from My Heart, MCG, 2001.
Sources
Books
Pareles, John, and Patricia Romanowski, The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press, 1983.
Periodicals
Columbus Dispatch, May 14, 1992, p. Features-8.
Jet, November 24, 1997, p. 62.
Los Angeles Sentinel, June 22-28, 2006, p. A1.
Los Angeles Times, June 15, 2006, p. B9.
New Times Los Angeles, August 16, 2001, Music/Features section.
New York Beacon, June 8-14, 2006, p. 3.
New York Times, June 22, 2006, p. E2.
People, December 21, 1992, p. 59.
St. Petersburg Times, July 22, 1988, p. Weekend-21.
USA Today, June 4, 2001, p. D2.
Washington Post, June 8, 2006, p. C5.
On-line
Billy Preston, www.billypreston.net (January 3, 2007).
"Billy Preston," All Music Guide, www.allmusic.com (March 27, 2003).
"Billy Preston," Biography Resource Center Online, www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC (March 27, 2003).
Preston, Billy
Billy Preston
Born William Everett Preston, September 9, 1946, in Houston, TX; died of kidney failure, June 6, 2006, in Scottsdale, AZ. Musician. With his trademark Afro hairstyle and showstopping virtuosity on the keyboards, Billy Preston was one of the most sought-after guest musicians in rock during the 1960s and '70s. He recorded and performed with both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and contributed an element of genuine soul to their respective sounds with his appearance on some of their best records of this era. "When you're doing it you're just trying to do the best you can," Preston once reflected about his legacy in music, according to his New York Times obituary. "You don't know if you're doing something important, and whether it will make history has yet to be seen. Just the fact of being able to do it, and striving to do the best you can, was the accomplishment."
Born in Houston, Texas, in 1946, Preston moved with his mother and sister to Los Angeles after his parents' divorce. He began playing the piano at the age of three, at first copying the hand movements of his sister but soon emerging as a musical prodigy. His mother worked as a secretary at a funeral home and also was a church musician, and her son was drawn into the gospel scene through this. So talented that he was playing keyboards for gospel legend Mahalia Jackson by the age of ten, he made a notable Hollywood debut in the 1958 biopic St. Louis Blues as a young W.C. Handy, the pioneering American blues songwriter and performer.
In 1962, Preston released his debut album, Gospel in My Soul, and began touring with Ray Charles and Little Richard, two of the biggest names in R&B at the time. At a club in Hamburg, Germany, the 15-year-old Preston met the Beatles, a relatively unknown rock act from Liverpool, England, at the time who appeared on some bills with Little Richard. After releasing a pair of organ instrumental records and spending three years as a keyboard player for Charles, Preston became reacquainted with George Harrison. The Beatle invited him to help out on some sessions for the group's next LP, the so-called White Album from 1968, but his formal credit as a performer with them began with two tracks on 1969's Abbey Road.
Preston was invited to participate in another recording session for what would be the group's final recording together, Let It Be. The making of the 1970 release was filmed for a documentary of the same name, though there was tremendous rancor among band members by that point. Preston's easygoing attitude helped to smooth over tensions, and "Harrison would later say that Preston's presence was one of the few sources of positive energy during that time," noted the Los Angeles Times' Geoff Boucher, "and that by merely being in the room he probably prevented the Beatles from walking out on one another."
In the film version of Let It Be, Preston appears in what turned out to be the band's last live performance ever, which was shot on a rooftop. The song was "Get Back," and it surged to No. 1 on the charts and remains the only single ever released by the Beatles in which they shared credit with another performer. Of that entire Let It Be experience, Preston recalled many years later that "it was a struggle for them," New York Times writer Jon Pareles quoted him as saying. "They were kind of despondent. They had lost the joy of doing it all."
Preston was signed to the Beatles' own record label, Apple, and Harrison produced his first single for it, the gospel-tinged rocker "That's the Way God Planned It." He went on to work with the Rolling Stones, appearing as a guest keyboard player for their 1971 release Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street a year later, each of which regularly appear on lists of the best or most influential rock albums of all time. Other keyboardist credits from this period include Aretha Franklin's 1973 Grammy-winning Young, Gifted and Black and another classic of the era, There's a Riot Goin' On from Sly and the Family Stone.
Preston scored some solo hits in 1974 with "Nothing From Nothing" and "Outa-Space," which won him his own Grammy Award for best pop instrumental performance. He also co-wrote the song "You Are So Beautiful" with Bruce Fisher, which became a huge hit for British soul crooner Joe Cocker. In October of 1975, he showed up at what would be another pivotal moment in pop-culture history as the first musical guest on Saturday Night Live when its first episode aired.
Over the years Preston's run-ins with the law increased in frequency. He was convicted in an insurance fraud scam involving a fire at his Los Angeles home, and spent time in jail for it; there were other arrests for drug possession and assault. In the 1990s, he returned to his gospel roots with several albums, and appeared on a track from Stadium Arcadium by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2006. His health, compromised from years of substance abuse, declined considerably, and he underwent kidney transplant surgery in 2002; the new organ later failed, however, and he went on dialysis to survive. In November of 2005, he lapsed into a coma, and died on June 6, 2006, at the age of 59 in a Scottsdale, Arizona, hospital. He is survived by his sister, Gwendolyn Gooden, and two half-sisters, Lettie Preston and Rodena Williams. Tributes from rock legends poured in, among them Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, who called Preston "a fantastic and gifted musician," according to the Los Angeles Times, as well as "great fun to be with…. I will miss him a lot."
Sources:
Chicago Tribune, June 7, 2006, sec. 3, p. 10; Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2006, p. B10; New York Times, June 7, 2006, p. C10; Times (London), June 8, 2006, p. 58; Washington Post, June 7, 2006, p. B6.