Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. He performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably on songs recorded by the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Who, the Beatles, the Steve Miller Band, Jefferson Airplane, Rod Stewart, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, The Hollies, Cat Stevens, Carly Simon, Harry Nilsson, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Jerry Garcia, Jeff Beck, Joe Cocker, Art Garfunkel, Badfinger, Graham Parker, Gary Moore, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Donovan. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest studio pianists in the history of popular rock music.[1]
Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian Hopkins
6 September 1994 (aged 50)
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Musician
- Piano
- organ
1960–1994
Early life[edit]
Nicholas Christian Hopkins was born in Perivale, Middlesex, England, on 24 February 1944. He began playing the piano at the age of three. He attended Sudbury Primary School in Perrin Road[2] and Wembley County Grammar School,[3] which now forms part of Alperton Community School, and was initially tutored by a local piano teacher; in his teens he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London.[4] He suffered from Crohn's disease for most of his life.[5]
His poor health and repeated surgery later made it difficult for him to tour, and he worked mainly as a session musician for most of his career.[6] Hopkins's studies were interrupted in 1960 when he left school at 16 to become the pianist with Screaming Lord Sutch's Savages until, two years later, he and fellow Savages Bernie Watson, Rick Brown (aka Ricky Fenson) and Carlo Little joined the renowned blues harmonica player Cyril Davies, who had just left Blues Incorporated, and became the Cyril Davies (R&B) All-Stars.[4] Hopkins played piano on their first single, Davies's much-admired theme tune "Country Line Special".[7]
However, he was forced to leave the All Stars in May 1963 for a series of operations that almost cost him his life and he was bed-ridden for 19 months in his late teenage years. During Hopkins's convalescence Davies died of leukemia and the All Stars disbanded.[4] Hopkins's frail health led him to concentrate on working as a session musician instead of joining bands, although he left his mark performing with a wide variety of famous bands.[8] He quickly became one of London's most in-demand session pianists and performed on many hit recordings from this period.
With the Rolling Stones[edit]
Hopkins played with the Rolling Stones on all their studio albums from Their Satanic Majesties Request in 1967 through until Tattoo You in 1981, except for Some Girls (1978). Hopkins first session with a member of the Rolling Stones was on the A Degree of Murder soundtrack, with Brian Jones, in February 1967. Hopkins' first sessions with the Rolling Stones as a band were also in 1967, from May 17 to 22, where he contributed prominent piano parts on "We Love You" and "She's a Rainbow". Hopkins added further significant piano parts to "Sympathy for the Devil", "No Expectations", and "Salt of the Earth" (1968), "Gimme Shelter" and "Monkey Man" (1969), "Sway" (1971), "Loving Cup" and "Ventilator Blues" (1972), "Coming Down Again", "Angie", and "Winter" (1973), "Time Waits for No One" (1974), "Fool to Cry" (1976), and "Waiting on a Friend" (recorded 1972, released in 1981). When working with the band during their critical and commercial zenith in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hopkins tended to be employed on a wide range of songs, including ballads, up-tempo rockers and acoustic material; conversely, longtime de facto Stones keyboardist Ian Stewart only played on traditional major key blues rock numbers of his choice, while Billy Preston often featured on soul- and funk-influenced tunes. Hopkins's work with the Rolling Stones is perhaps most prominent on their 1972 studio album, Exile on Main St., where he contributed a variety of musical styles, often playing the main melodic part. Hopkins plays on 14 of the album's 18 tracks, giving him a greater presence than full time Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, who only contributed to nine of the songs.[9]
Along with Ry Cooder, Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, Hopkins released the 1972 album Jamming with Edward! It was recorded in 1969, during the Stones' Let It Bleed sessions, when guitarist Keith Richards was not present in the studio. The eponymous "Edward" was an alias of Nicky Hopkins derived from studio banter with Brian Jones. It was also incorporated into the title of Hopkins's instrumental song "Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder", recorded with Quicksilver Messenger Service and released on Shady Grove in December 1969. Hopkins also contributed to the Jamming With Edward! cover art.
Hopkins' prodigious talents were well known among his fellow keyboard players and were frequently on display. Small Faces keyboard player Ian McLagan recounted the story of Ian Stewart playing McLagan the album The Original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, and in particular the track "Ghetto". Both were astonished by the piano work performed by session pianist Leon Russell. Stewart then told McLagan he had played it to Hopkins once, who then promptly sat at the piano and played the entire song perfectly. Stewart's half-serious comment was "that's what I hate about him". McLagan further elaborated "I understood his frustration, as neither of us could compete with Nicky as a piano player. Our talents are our own, but we couldn't just play something that brilliant after hearing it for the first time. He really was annoyingly, incredibly talented".
Hopkins was added to the Rolling Stones touring line-up for the 1971 Good-Bye Britain Tour, as well as the 1972 North American tour and the 1973 Pacific tour. Audio recordings of those tours reveal the band reaching an incredible live peak, with Hopkins’s dazzling piano work meshing perfectly with the twin guitars of Taylor and Richards.
He contemplated forming his own band with multi-instrumentalist Pete Sears and drummer Prairie Prince around this time but decided against it after the Stones tour. Hopkins failed to make the Rolling Stones' 1973 European tour, possibly due to ill health. For the 1989 Steel Wheels tour Hopkins was considered but the band settled for Chuck Leavell and Matt Clifford instead, according to Hopkins this was due to insecurities regarding his frail health. After this, aside from a guest appearance in 1978, Hopkins did not play live on stage with the Stones again.
With the Who[edit]
Hopkins was first invited to join the Who by Shel Talmy in 1965, while recording their debut album My Generation. His trademark licks and fills bounced effortlessly off the rest of the band and he received a rare songwriting co-credit for the riotous instrumental "The Ox". Due to the band breaking ties with Shel Talmy, he didn't record again with the band until the quirky single "Dogs" in 1968. However he was front and centre for the Who's Next album in 1971, contributing massively to "Song is Over" and "Getting in Tune". In addition, during those sessions he played on the single "Let's See Action" as well as "Too Much of Anything". His worth and repute among fellow musicians was such that Pete Townshend offered him a full-time role in the band, adding "if you would ever like to join a band, we'd love to be considered first".
Hopkins missed the Quadrophenia album, before making a full return in 1975 on The Who by Numbers. He was also a key instrumentalist on the soundtrack for Ken Russell's 1975 film Tommy. Hopkins played piano on several tracks and is acknowledged in the album's liner notes for his work on arrangements for most of the songs.
In later years Hopkins always maintained a soft spot for the band, stating they were probably his favourite act to work with.
Later life[edit]
Hopkins lived in Mill Valley, California, for several years. During this time he worked with several local bands and continued to record in San Francisco. One of his complaints throughout his career was that he did not receive royalties from any of his recording sessions, because of his status at the time as merely a "hired hand", as opposed to pop stars with agents. He received songwriting credit for his work with the Jeff Beck Group, including an instrumental, "Girl From Mill Valley", on the 1969 album Beck-Ola.
His precarious health, a consequence of Crohn's disease and its complications, made touring very difficult, limiting him largely to studio work. Only Quicksilver Messenger Service, through its manager Ron Polte, who went to great lengths to treat his musicians fairly, as well as with assent of the band's members, included Hopkins in an ownership stake.[18] Towards the end of his life Hopkins worked as a composer and orchestrator of film scores, with considerable success in Japan.
In the early 1980s, Hopkins credited the Church of Scientology-affiliated Narconon rehabilitation program with curing his drug and alcohol addiction so he ultimately remained a Scientologist for the rest of his life.[19] As a result of his religious affiliation, he contributed to several of L. Ron Hubbard's musical recordings.
In 1993, Hopkins, Joe Walsh, Terry Reid, Rick Rosas, and Phil Jones put together an informal group called The Flew. They played one show at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. This was Hopkins's last public performance before his death.[20][21]
Legacy and recognition[edit]
Songwriter and musician Julian Dawson collaborated with Hopkins on one recording, the pianist's last, in spring 1994, a few months before his death. After Ray Coleman's death, the connection led to Dawson working on a definitive biography of Hopkins, first published by Random House in German in 2010, followed in 2011 by the English-language version with the title And on Piano ... Nicky Hopkins (a hardback in the UK via Desert Hearts, and a paperback in North America via Backstage Books/Plus One Press).
On 8 September 2018, the Nicky Hopkins "piano" park bench memorial, crowdfunded through PledgeMusic, was unveiled in Perivale Park near Hopkins' birthplace.[23]
The campaign offered the opportunity for pledgers to have their name inscribed on the bench and contribute towards funding a music scholarship at London's Royal Academy of Music, where Hopkins himself won a scholarship in the 1950s. Names that have pledged in the campaign include Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman, Yoko Ono Lennon, Roger Daltrey, Jimmy Page, Hossam Ramzy, Johnnie Walker and Kenney Jones. A quote about Hopkins by Bob Harris appears on the bench.[24][25]
On what would have been Hopkins' 75th birthday (24 February 2019), the Nicky Hopkins Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music was created, and on 19 October 2019, a commemorative plaque on his childhood home, 38 Jordan Road, Perivale, donated by the Ealing Council and Ealing Civic Society, was unveiled.[26]
[27]
The Session Man documentary[edit]
In 2021, it was announced that a documentary about Nicky's life, called The Session Man, was in production.[28][29] The film's world premiere opened Doc'n Roll Film Festival 2023 at The Barbican Centre on 26 October 2023[30] for which it was nominated for a Doc’n Roll Jury Award – Best Music Doc of 2023.[31] The film was also screened at the Berlin Independent Film Festival 2024 where it won a Low Budget Feature award.[32]