The Day the Music Stopped- A Series
A boy is born on December 18, 1943 in a stale West Texas town. His soul fell through the musical ring that encircles the earth, a vibratory sea of sound, light and ether. It will baptize you with a natural born talent and rhythm if so choose Many have passed before; Mozart, Beethoven, Pavarotti, Sinatra, Aretha, Elvis and many will still come here to bring us one of the most complex of God/man creations....music. This is frequency, amplitude, wave form and duration, or in musical terms, pitch, dynamic, timbre (tone color), and duration that inhabit our ears and souls.
Robert Henry Keys, was born at a Army Air Field in Lubbock, Texas to a 16-year old mother. Later the family decides to relocate to New Mexico for work, But “Bobby” stayed with his grandparents and was happy just where he was. Later in life, Lucy Keys Brubaker, his mom went on to become a state senator in New Mexico. At an early age Bobby sees and hears his musical destiny, and self learns the saxophone, but never is able to read music. His roots of becoming a rock star begin at age 12! One morning, Keys heard music playing from his bedroom window, so he jumps out of bed and bolts to see who it is. He ran outside and climbed up a willow tree. There, he sees Buddy Holly playing on a flatbed wagon at a filling station down the road. In Lubbock, Keys gloms on to Buddy Holly, playing with him briefly as a teenager. “I kind of weaseled my way into the perimeter of the garage,” recalled Keys. “He was the first guy I ever heard play the electric guitar and it impressed the hell out of me”. Eventually, he splits from Lubbock for a tour with fellow Texan's Holly and Buddy Knox. The only road for Bobby... was the road out of rural Texas.
By the early Sixties, a teenage Keys was backing pop star Bobby Vee, hitting the road on Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars tour. “Rolling down the highway with Little Anthony and Little Eva and Major Lance and Billy Stewart and Freddy Canon and also plays with Elvis and Dion( Return to Sender)-(The Wanderer). It's at this time he meets the Rolling Stones playing the San Antonio Fair. Keys makes an indelible mark on the band with his signature sound which is like nothing they ever heard... especially Keith Richards who shares the same birthday! Later in time the Stones connection would be his ticket to ride a wave.
Born on the same day as Richards, the two became fast friends. Keys became Richards late night partner and accomplice in offstage shit, once throwing a television out of a hotel balcony in 1972. But his wild ways became even too wild for the Stones. On their 1973 European tour, he missed a commitment and Richards found him in his bathtub full of Dom Perignon. “He’s got a cigar, bathtub full of champagne and this French chick with him,” “Richards recalled in Life.”... And he tells me to ‘Fuck off’.” Keith advocates hard for his partner in crime his blood brother, but Mick Jagger has the final say and fires Bobby forbidding anymore contact. Not for nothing, no show on a gig, pissing band money away like it was going out of style and getting deeper into a Junk habit was causing ripples and waves. He had to go!
And for the next 10- years Bobby plays with; George Harrison, Delaney and Bonnie, Leon Russell, Eric Clapton, BB King, Carley Simon, Joe Cocker, Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye, John Lennon, Barbara Streisand, Sheryl Crow and Warren Zevon etc...
Keith relates the story. The Stones were rehearsing for another tour. This was 1980-something, and... I bought Bobby a ticket and said, "Just get your ass here”. When we rehearse "Brown Sugar", just sneak up and do the solo, man." Once we did "Brown Sugar," Bobby crushed the solo and then I looked at Mick like, "You see what I mean, Mick?" ( Richards planned this without the band knowing.) “It was the first take–I just really shut my eyes and played,” said Keys. “I listen subliminally. I play more rhythmically than I do a lot of notes. I pull a lot of the stuff that I play off the rhythm tracks – and Keith Richards has been one of the main contributors to my inspirational playing.” And Mick looked at me and says, "Yeah, you can't fucking argue with that." Once he just played those few notes, there really was no question. So Mick relents and said, "Okay, let's get Bob back in the band." He played with the band off and on over the following years, but had a contentious relationship with Jagger. You may not recognize his name, but you know his sax riffs which are legendary....and steaming. Bobby is back from the wilderness and plays on every Stones tour.
In 1989, Bobby becomes the musical director of Stones “Ronnie Wood”, who opens a night club in Miami, “Woods on the Beach”. Bobby murders it, booking Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis... they rock North Beach. Bobby kicked his Junk habit, but remained a marijuana smoker till the end. Keys was married to Holly Keys. Bobby's children are Amber, Huck, Jesse and his step-son Randy. Bobby checks out of this world, liver cancer gets the final say and he passes at his home in Franklin, Tennessee on December 2, 2014, sixteen days before his 71st birthday.
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No doubt, Bobby burned the candle at both ends as he hit the music trail running before puberty. I'm sure it was a sad Christmas for his family. Keith Richards was all tore up/devastated... as if he lost his brother. Bobby's tenor sax is heard busting with that Texas fat soul. Listen to the tracks, with headphones if you can. Knowing full well, that's the way you sound when you have the celestial vibrations bestowed upon your soul. Their is no choice in the matter and as such, given the perfect name for a sax man...Bobby H. Keys was destined to blow hard.