Sax king for the Stones

Sax king for the Stones

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norman lebrecht

December 02, 2014

Bobby Keys, a Texan who played saxophone for the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Joe Cocker, Barbra Streisand, B.B. King, Carly Simon and more, died today of cirrhosis, aged 70.

‘I got hurt playing baseball and couldn’t play any contact sports,’ he’d say. ‘In Texas, everybody wants to play football. The only thing left was to join the band. By the time I got there they had one instrument left. It was a beat-up baritone saxophone. I wanted a guitar, but my parents wouldn’t get me one. So I was stuck with that old sax.’

 

 

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photo: (c) Mikio Ariga

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