Biography

Bobby Keys was born on December 18, 1943 in Lubbock, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Son of Dracula (1973), The Rolling Stones: Voodoo Lounge Live at the Tokyo Dome 1995 (1995) and Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones (1973). He was married to Holly. He died on December 2, 2014 in Franklin, Tennessee, USA.

He started out playing with Buddy Holly and The Crickets, and went on to become a top session and touring musician. He toured with the Rolling Stones for 45 years.

Doesn't sight-read music, and actually panicked when asked to do a recording session for John Lennon and expected Lennon to pass out horn charts. As it turned out, Lennon merely passed copies of his lyrics (with chords written in) around to the session players; he couldn't sight-read music either.

His musical idol was bandleader/saxophonist King Curtis.

...the image, according to 1964 US Rock and roll standards, was mohair suit and tie, and nicey-nicey ol' boy next door. And all of a sudden here comes this truckload of English jackflies singing a Buddy Holly song! Damn! I couldn't really hear all that well, amplifiers and PAs being what they were, but man I felt it...it reminded me so much of the energy I heard from Buddy and I heard from Elvis. There was something in there that was the real deal. [on hearing the Rolling Stones for the first time at the 1964 San Antonio Fair]

[King Curtis] approached his [sax] solos differently than your jazz cats - most of 'em were pretty snooty jazzberries who thought rock & roll was just a waste of time. But King Curtis, he played sax the way a guitar plays, like James Burton would play a lead on a song. It was how he played and how he attacked the notes and his phrasing that was different than the normal.

I kind of weaseled my way into the perimeter of the garage. [Buddy Holly] was the first guy I heard play electric guitar and it impressed the hell out of me.