Bobby Keys Biography

Fast Facts

• Began playing in local clubs in Lubbock, Texas and touring with Bobby Vee in the early 1960s
• Met the Rolling Stones when they were making "Let It Bleed" at the Los Angeles studio where he was recording with Delaney and Bonnie in 1969, although he had first seen them perform five years earlier at the Teenage World's Fair in San Antonio
• After an injury during high school meant that he couldn't try out for the football team, he joined his school's band as a way to attend the games, playing the only instrument still available: a baritone saxophone
• Quote: "If you believe in the magic of rock & roll, which I devoutly do, it isn't in the individual․ I've played in bands with A-team players around, but unless they can play together, it doesn't do any good․"
• Quote: "(On the Rolling Stones): "But these guys, man, they've just got that natural thing about it․ That's part of the music that I come from, cause I can't read music․․․I come strictly from feeling, and that feeling comes from rock & roll․""
• Was close friends with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, with whom he shared a birthday, in both music and recklessness, with the pair once famously throwing a television set from a hotel window in 1972
• Released two solo albums, a self-titled instrumental featuring Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Eric Clapton, and 1975's "Gimme the Key․"
• Best known as a saxophone player who toured with the Rolling Stones for more than 45 years and also performed with bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Who
• Was most prominently featured on the Rolling Stones songs "Brown Sugar," "Happy," and "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'․"
• Despite being a touring musician for almost 60 years, he was completely self-taught and never learned how to read music
• Published his autobiography, "Every Night's a Saturday Night," in 2012