- In full:
- William Everett Preston
- Died:
- June 6, 2006, Scottsdale, Arizona (aged 59)
- Awards And Honors:
- Grammy Award (1972)
Billy Preston
What is Billy Preston known for?
What was Billy Preston’s cause of death?
What was Billy Preston’s biggest hit?
What notable collaborations did Billy Preston make with the Beatles?
Billy Preston (born September 2, 1946, Houston, Texas, U.S.—died June 6, 2006, Scottsdale, Arizona) was an American musician who was the consummate sideman as a keyboard player, recording and touring with a who’s who of popular music, most famously with the Beatles. He was also a star in his own right as well as an accomplished songwriter. Of his formidable instrumental skills, Preston told Dick Clark during an appearance on American Bandstand in 1981, “I believe my talent is God-given. When I touch the piano, I’m giving God the praise.”
Early life and career
Preston was raised in Los Angeles and began playing piano at age three. By age 10 he had accompanied gospel legend Mahalia Jackson, and he played the young W.C. Handy in the film St. Louis Blues (1958). He traveled in 1962 with Little Richard’s band to Europe, where he met the then unknown Beatles in Hamburg. The young Preston released his first solo albums, including 16 Year Old Soul (1963) and The Most Exciting Organ Ever (1965).
Recording with the Beatles and solo success
After playing in the house band on television’s Shindig and in Ray Charles’s backing band, Preston recorded several albums for the Beatles’ Apple Records. Arguably the musician with the strongest claim as the “Fifth Beatle,” he added a driving organ to “Get Back,” which was credited to “the Beatles with Billy Preston.” It was the only time the Beatles shared credit with another recording artist on one of the band’s tracks. Besides contributing to Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970), he was part of the rooftop performance at the center of the band’s film Let It Be (1970). Over the years Preston also performed on solo projects by the individual former Beatles.
Preston toured often with the Rolling Stones and played on landmark albums such as Sticky Fingers (1971) and Exile on Main Street (1972), as well as on Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Going On (1971). Seemingly everywhere in the early 1970s, Preston charted as a solo artist with the Grammy Award-winning instrumental “Outa-Space” (1972) and reached number one with “Will It Go Round in Circles” (1973) and “Nothing from Nothing” (1974). He also co-wrote “You Are So Beautiful,” a gigantic hit for Joe Cocker. In 1975 Preston and singer-songwriter Janis Ian were the first musical guests selected to appear on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.
Although Preston’s career peaked in the 1970s, he continued to record and tour with such artists as Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr. He appeared in the film Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) and was a guest performer on Johnny Cash’s 2002 album American IV: The Man Comes Around, on Ray Charles’s Genius Loves Company (2004), and on the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Stadium Arcadium (2006).
Death and legacy
In November 2005 Preston fell into a coma after experiencing kidney failure. (He had long struggled with drug and alcohol addiction.) He died the following June at age 59.
Preston was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. The documentary Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It (2026) explores Preston’s influence and his struggles with sobriety. The film also reveals that Preston, who had long hid his homosexuality partly because of his religious upbringing, had come out during a group therapy session in a drug rehabilitation program only four days before his coma.
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