The fifth Beatle dies

Crocker · 06-07-2006, 07:00 AM

Billy Preston, the gifted and versatile keyboardist who played with everyone from Mahalia Jackson to the Beatles before scoring big hits and a major drug habit on his own, died yesterday in Arizona after a long illness. He was 59.
Preston had been in a coma since November, suffering from kidney failure and other complications of his long battle with drugs.

He was already a session legend when he reached pop prominence in the 1960s by playing on the Beatles' "Get Back."

"Of all the people called 'the fifth Beatle,' Billy was the one who most deserved it," Ringo Starr said several years later.

Preston went solo in the early '70s and topped the charts twice, with "Will It Go Round in Circles" in 1973 and "Nothing from Nothing" a year later.

He continued doing session work for individual ex-Beatles before recording and touring with the Rolling Stones. By the 1990s his drug habit had landed him in prison, but after he got out he went back to work, playing with Eric Clapton, Ray Charles and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

"He was the sweetest man in the world," said Steve Weitzman, a New York promoter who booked him at the old Tramps club. "Just a nice guy."

Born in Houston and raised in Los Angeles, Preston was a child organ prodigy, playing and recording with Mahalia Jackson as a young teenager. He also played with Sam Cooke, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and many others.

A funeral is planned in Los Angeles.

Tyler Durden · 06-07-2006, 07:50 AM

I always thought Stu whatever the hell his name was who chose to go and become an artist (and then died) was the 5th Beatle.

Danny Diamond · 06-07-2006, 08:13 AM

I thought Eddie Murphy was the 5th Beatle?

Tyler Durden · 06-07-2006, 09:01 AM

You're just being silly now!!

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The fifth Beatle dies

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