"Fifth Beatle" Billy Preston dead at 59

Posted:
Jun 6, 2006

Keyboardist Billy Preston, the singer-songwriter known as the "Fifth Beatle" for his close association with the Fab Four, died Tuesday at 59.

Preston had been in a coma since November at at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea in Scottsdale, Arizona and was taken to a hospital Saturday after his condition deteriorated, said Joyce Moore, his longtime manager.

"He had a very, very beautiful last few hours and a really beautiful passing. He went home good," Moore told Associated Press by telephone from Germany.

An autopsy will be performed, said his sister, Lettie Preston.

Preston provided the voice of Mose on The Kingdom Chums: Original Top Ten, a two-part direct-to-video cartoon by Rick Reinert Pictures. An introduction for kids of all ages to learn the 10 Commandments, the program was originally produced as a 1989 ABC Weekend Special, but was shelved when ABC dropped its children's programming. Offered via direct sales on an infomercial, the cartoon finally aired in two parts on a renewed ABC Weekend Special in 1992.

In 2002, he received a kidney transplant. Preston had battled chronic kidney failure, and the transplant failed to take. He had been on dialysis ever since, Moore said earlier this year.

Preston played keyboards on the Beatles' album Let It Be, and was especially distinguished for his work on the track "Get Back."

He also toured and recorded extensively with the Rolling Stones, playing on such classic albums as Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street. His gospel stylings could be heard on the Stones' "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?", and he recorded "Heartbreaker" with the band.

He also had several hit singles on his own, including "Outta Space" -- for which he won a best instrumental Grammy in 1973 -- and "Nothing From Nothing."

Born in Houston on September 9, 1946, Preston's smile was as big as his Afro.

At age 10, he played the keyboard for gospel singer Mahalia Jackson; two years later, he appeared in 1958 movie biography St. Louis Blues as a young W.C. Handy.

A piano and organ prodigy, he toured in the early 1960s with fellow piano men Ray Charles and Little Richard, who became his mentors. While touring in Germany, he first met the Beatles.

In early 1969, friend George Harrison recruited Preston to play on Let It Be. Although the project was nearly scuttled due to arguments between members of the Beatles, Preston talked the four into getting along. He performed a blues-style solo on "Get Back" on the Beatles' "rooftop" concert, the last time that the group played live.

He performed on both sides of the "Get Back"/"Don't Let Me Down" single. It was credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston." This was the first time that the band had shared credit with a sideman.

Preston also played on solo records by Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon. Especially close to Harrison, he performed at the "quiet Beatle's" all-star charity event, "The Concert for Bangladesh," and at the "Concert for George," a tribute to Harrison, who died in 2001 of cancer.

In the 1970s, Preston had such solo hit as "Will It Go 'Round In Circles" and "With You I'm Born Again" (a duet with Syreeta Wright).

Preston parted company with the Rolling Stones in the mid-1970s, reportedly because of dissatisfaction over lack of proper credit on such songs as "Melody." In 1979, he reunited with Stones on its Bridges to Babylon album.

Preston was a musical guest on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975, and Miles Davis named a song after him. His film credits included Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Blues Brothers 2000.

He did session work on such critically praised albums as Aretha Franklin's Young, Gifted and Black, Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks and Sly and Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On.

The writer of Joe Cocker's 1974 tear-jerker "You Are So Beautiful," Preston co-wrote (with Quincy Jones) the score for the 1970 movie They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, starring Sidney Poitier.

In recent years, Preston had several personal problems.

In 1992, he pleaded no contest to cocaine and assault charges. Although given a suspended jail sentence, he was ordered incarcerated for nine months at a drug rehabilitation center.

In 1997, a California judge sentenced him to three years in prison for violating
the terms of his probation for a cocaine possession conviction given earlier that year.
probation. The following year, he pleaded guilty to insurance fraud in an alleged $1 million scam, but agreed to testify against other defendants.

Preston toured with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, as well as Motown session musicians the Funk Brothers, in his later years. He also was featured on Genius Loves Company, Ray Charles' last album, as well as Stadium Arcadium, the most recent album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.