Billy Preston

At 59 years old, Billy Preston physical status not available right now. We will update Billy Preston's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

William Everett Preston (September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006) was an American musician whose work encompassed R&B, rock, soul, funk, and gospel.

Preston was a top session keyboardist in the 1960s, during which he backed artists such as Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Rev.

James Cleveland and The Beatles.

He went on to achieve fame as a solo artist, with hit singles such as "That's the Way God Planned It", the Grammy-winning "Outa-Space", "Will It Go Round in Circles", "Space Race", "Nothing from Nothing" and "With You I'm Born Again".

Additionally, Preston co-wrote "You Are So Beautiful", which became a number 5 hit for Joe Cocker. Preston was one of five musicians credited on a Beatles recording other than the group's four members.

Preston continued to record and perform with other artists, notably George Harrison after the Beatles' breakup, and Eric Clapton, and he played keyboards for the Rolling Stones on many of the group's albums and tours during the 1970s.

Personal life

Preston was brought up in the African-American gospel tradition; he was a committed Christian throughout his life and openly expressed his faith in works such as his 1970s hit "That's the Way God Planned It". His personal beliefs were sometimes at odds with the attitudes and musical expressions of the secular world of rock & roll in which he often worked, but he was apparently willing to put his religious views aside when working on tracks like John Lennon's openly atheistic song "God". Preston was deeply attached to his mother, for whom he wrote the song that became his best-known composition, "You Are So Beautiful".

Although the details did not become fully known to the general public until after his death, Preston struggled throughout his life to cope with his homosexuality, and the lasting effects of the traumatic sexual abuse he suffered as a boy. Although his sexual orientation became known to friends and associates in the music world (such as Keith Richards), Preston did not publicly come out as gay until just before he died, partly because he felt that it conflicted with his deeply held religious beliefs and his lifelong association with the church. In his autobiography, Life, Keith Richards mentioned Preston's struggles with his homosexuality.

In an interview for a 2010 BBC Radio 4 documentary on his life and career, Preston's manager Joyce Moore revealed that after she began handling his affairs, Preston opened up to her about the lifelong trauma he had suffered as the result of being sexually abused as a child. Preston told Moore that at about the age of nine, after he and his mother moved to Los Angeles from Houston to perform in a touring production of Amos 'n' Andy, he was repeatedly abused by the touring company's pianist. When Preston told his mother about the abuse, she did not believe him, and failed to protect him. The abuse went on for the entire summer, and Preston was also later abused by a local pastor.

Another traumatic incident, which reportedly affected Preston deeply, occurred in the early 1970s, while he was engaged to actress/model Kathy Silva. At this time Preston had become close friends with musician Sly Stone, and made many contributions to Stone's recordings of the period (including the album There's a Riot Goin' On). According to Moore, Preston was devastated when he came home one day to find Stone in bed with Silva (who later famously married Stone on stage at Madison Square Garden). According to Moore, Silva's affair with Stone was the trigger that led Preston to stop having relationships with women. It was after this incident that he began using cocaine and having sex with men, and Moore has stated that she saw his drug abuse as his way of coping with the internal conflicts he felt about his "sexual urges".

In 1991, Preston checked into a drug rehabilitation program to treat his addictions.

While on probation for a drunk driving conviction in August 1991, Preston was arrested for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old Mexican boy, after picking him up at a gathering point for day laborers. The boy told authorities that Preston took him to his Malibu home, smoked cocaine, showed him pornographic pictures and tried to assault him before he escaped. Preston was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon involving a man he picked up to do work at his home, the day before his arrest in the case involving the boy. After submitting to a drug test, Preston tested positive for cocaine. He entered no-contest pleas to the cocaine and assault charges. The sex charges which included misdemeanor charges of child molestation and exhibiting pornographic material to a minor were dismissed. He was sentenced to nine months at a drug rehabilitation center and three months of house arrest.

In 1992, Preston was sentenced to 30 days in jail for violating his probation on a drunk driving conviction.

In 1997, Preston was sentenced to three years in a California prison for cocaine possession in violation of his probation. He had been placed on three years' probation earlier that year after testing positive for cocaine use; under the terms, he agreed to spend 90 days in jail and to remain drug-free.

While in prison in 1998, Preston was indicted for a $1 million insurance fraud scheme after setting fire to his own house in Los Angeles. He pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against other defendants involved in the scam. His plea called for five years of probation, one year in jail, and $60,000 in restitution. The probation and jail time ran concurrent with his cocaine possession conviction. At California's Avenal State Prison, Preston led a chorus and performed at church services. He served 18 months of his four-year sentence, after which he apparently became drug-free.

Source

Life and career

Preston was born in Houston on September 2, 1946, but his mother, Robbie Lee Williams, moved to Los Angeles as a child. Preston was purely self-taught and never had a music lesson, despite being a child prodigy. By the age of ten, he was onstage supporting many gospel artists, including Mahalia Jackson. At 11, Preston appeared on an episode of Nat King Cole's NBC TV show "British Domino" with Cole. He appeared in the 1958 W. C. Handy biopic starring Nat King Cole; Preston also performed with Handy at a younger age.

Preston joined Little Richard's band as an organist in 1962, and it was while performing in Hamburg that he first encountered the Beatles. On Sam Cooke's Night Beat album in 1963, he performed on the organ and released his first album, 16 Yr. Old Soul for Cooke's SAR label. He released the album The Most Exciting Organ Ever in 1965 and appeared on the rock and roll show Shindig! He had a session with Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix in New York City in May or June 1965, resulting in the Soul classic dirge "I Don't Know What You've Got" in the Soul classic dirge. He appeared in 1967 in Ray Charles' band. Following this exposure, several musicians began requesting Preston to assist in their sessions.

Preston is one of those who are often referred to as the "Fifth Beatle." Preston joined the Get Back sessions in January 1969 after befriending the group in 1962. (At one point, John Lennon suggested that Preston join the band, but Paul McCartney argued that it was impossible enough to strike an understanding with four people). During several of the Get Back sessions, Preston performed organ and electric piano; some of these sessions were included in the film Let It Be and on the Beatles' companion album. Footage of their collaboration appeared in the 2021 documentary The Beatles: Get Back directed by Peter Jackson. Preston was also accompanying the band on electric piano for its rooftop concert, the band's last public performance. Their album "Get Back" was credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston" in April 1969, the first time an artist was recognised as a co-performer with The Beatles since the band began recording as independent artists. The Beatles were lauded for revealing Preston's on-track presence; his electric piano is omnipresent throughout and he performs as a soloist. Preston appeared on the 1969 Abbey Road album in a more limited capacity, contributing to the tracks "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Something" respectively.

He appeared as Sgt. in 1978. Pepper appears in Robert Stigwood's film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which was based on the Beatles' album of the same name, performed and danced to "Get Back" as the penultimate song.

Preston's album That's the Way God Planned It, produced by George Harrison, was a hit single in the United Kingdom and was signed to the Beatles' Apple brand in 1969. Preston's relationship with Harrison continued after the Beatles' breakup in 1970; he was the first artist to record Harrison's 1970 album Encouraging Words, which Harrison co-produced with him. He appeared on several of Harrison's solo albums, beginning with All Things Must Pass; the ex-Beatle's 1971 charity benefit; and appeared at the 2002 Concert for George tribute, held in London's Royal Albert Hall. Preston has appeared on Lennon and Ringo Starr's solo debuts.

Preston left Apple and signed with Herb Alpert's A&M Records in 1971. In the previous year, he contributed to another hit single when Stephen Stills asked to use the phrase "if you can't be with the one you love," a song on Stills' self-titled debut solo album.

Preston's solo career peaked at this point, beginning with 1972's "Outa-Space," an instrumental album that further popularized the clavinet in funk music. The song debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 and topped Billboard's R&B chart before going on to win the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. By the Royal Institute of British Architects in June 1972, "Outa-Space" sold more than 1 million copies in America, and the RIAA awarded a gold disc. Preston also contributed the title song to Jim Brown's hit blaxploitation film Slaughter later this year.

Preston followed up with the US chart-to-date singles "Will It Go Round in Circles" (which replaced Harrison's "Give Me Peace on Earth) at the top on July 7, 1973) and "Nothing from Nothing" in the second two years, as well as the number 4's "Space Race" and "Nothing from Nothing" which displaced Harrison's "Get Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth). Each of the three singles had a sales volume in excess of 1 million copies. Dick Clark, the American Bandstand host and executive producer, loved "Space Race" so much that he used the instrumental for the mid-show break for virtually the entire duration of the show.

Preston's keyboards included piano, organ, clavinet, and several synthesizers for the Rolling Stones, as well as pianists Nicky Hopkins and Ian Stewart, on their albums Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, It's Only Rock 'n Roll and Black and Blue. From 1973 to 1977, he appeared as a support act with his own band (including Mick Taylor on guitar) on their 1973 European tour. On Preston's album Live European Tour 1973, a Munich performance from this tour was chronicled. "You Are So Beautiful" was cowritten by Joe Cocker and Bruce Fisher, one of his regular songwriting collaborators in the 1970s, and became one of Joe Cocker's most popular songs. He appeared on Saturday Night Live's first musical guest on October 11, 1975. Preston's 1973 album "Do You Love Me" was the basis for Rolling Stones' album "Melody," which was released on Black and Blue in 1976. Although two of his songs were included in the band's 1975 and 1976 (more than the famous El Mocambo)live sets, the Stones and Prestons split in 1977, mainly due to a money dispute. He continued to perform on solo albums by Stones artists like Mick Jagger's Wandering Spirit, and he appeared on the band's Tattoo You and Bridges to Babylon.

He joined Motown after seven years with A&M. He and Sylvie Wright appeared on the ballad "With You I'm Born Again" in 1979, which reached number four on the charts in the United States. Preston's career lost luster in the 1980s due to his cocaine and alcohol use. He left Motown in 1984 and concentrated on session work, contributing to works by artists such as Luther Vandross (1985's "Totaliation Comes Home"), Whitney Houston, and Patti LaBelle among others. He served as musical director for Nightlife, a late-night talk show hosted by David Brenner that lasted from 1986 to 1987.

Preston performed with Eric Clapton, performed with Gary Walker, one of the singers in his Los Angeles-based band, and collaborated with a number of other musicians. Ringo Starr appeared on his 1990 live album. After the death of piano player Stan Szelest, he was accepted to join The Band in 1991. He appeared on tour with the company, but the cocaine and sexual harassment charges against him in 1991 ended the association.

Billy Preston produced the album You and I in Italy in 1997, with the Italian band Novecento. Vaughn De Spenza and Novecento members Lino and Pino Nicolosi produced the album. Preston appeared on the UPN comedy program Good News in 1998, when he appeared on the choir numbers. He appeared and appeared synthesizer in the film Blues Brothers 2000 as part of the Louisiana Gator Boys supergroup the previous year.

Preston received word on November 29, 2001, when touring and battling his own health problems, that George Harrison had died after a long illness. Preston, one of many of Harrison's longtime acquaintances, appeared in the 2002 Concert for George at the Royal Albert Hall in London. "My Sweet Lord" received critical adoration, according to Preston's appearance on "My Sweet Lord." He also performed "Isn't It a Pity" on the other songs, assassinated vocals, and he performed the Hammond organ for the performance.

Preston appeared on Johnny Cash's album American IV: The Man Comes Around, playing piano on "Personal Jesus" and "Tear-Stained Letter" on "Personal Jesus."

Preston toured with the Funk Brothers and Steve Winwood in Europe in 2004, followed by Clapton in Europe and North America. He travelled to France, where he appeared in one episode of the Legends Rock TV show after the Clapton tours. "You Are So Beautiful" was Preston's last filmed concert, featuring a duet with Sam Moore.

Preston performed on Ray Charles' "Here We Go Again" with Charles and Norah Jones, a duet album produced in 2004.

He appeared on the American Idol fourth-season finale in March 2005. He performed "With You I'm Born Again" with Vonzell Solomon (who finished third place in the competition). He performed "Go Where No One's Gone Before," the anime series L/R's main title song, which was licensed by Royalty.

Preston appeared on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' album "Warlocks" on the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Stadium Arcadium (2006). Despite being sick at this point, he jumped out of his bed after hearing a cassette of the song being offered to him by the band, played his part, and went back to bed. Preston's last recorded contributions were the gospel-tinged organ on Neil Diamond's album 12 Songs (2005) and J. J. Cale's keyboard work on The Road to Escondido (2006).

Preston performed in Los Angeles in late 2005 to promote the re-release of the 1972 documentary film The Concert for Bangladesh. For the last song, he performed a string of three Harrison songs, including "Give Me Love," "My Sweet Lord," and "Isn't It a Pity."

Source