Session Man, The (2023)

[bunniefuu]

[Tape whirrs]

[Crowd applauds]

NARRATOR: And on piano,

the legendary Nicky Hopkins.

[Crowd cheers]

[Pop-rock music plays]

It was this unique marriage

of the rawness

of the electric guitars

and the rhythm section,

and then the wider palette

of the piano.

Piano says, has all the colors

and can say everything.

And a, a guy

who's as talented as Nicky

can take a simple song

and fill it with all kinds

of extra meaning and feeling.

Nicky could do

the absolute incredible--

you would believe that

Otis Spann was in the room,

which for, for a white

English kid in 1960s,

was absolutely amazing.

GREG: You didn't realize

how amazing he was

until you would take

his contribution out.

And then you realize,

oh man, that's, you know.

He's adding stuff in there that

broadens and deepens the songs.

Or he's like, right out front.

He can entrance, he could play

just about anything.

It was inspiring.

He was talented.

He was invisible. It's an

instinct. It's an art form.

Being a good session man.

It absolutely blew my mind

to see

this list of such classic songs

that are still

being played today.

And he performed on those.

I started listening

for what he's added,

and it's like, it's genius,

absolute genius.

NARRATOR:

Over a 30 year period,

Nicky Hopkins would play

on over 250 albums.

[Tape whirrs; piano plays]

In the golden age

of rock and roll,

bands consisted

of guitar and drums,

until they realized

that the piano

added harmonic richness

and melodic flair.

Then, along came the legendary

pianist, Nicky Hopkins.

[Blues piano plays]

You know the story.

It was when I was a little kid

and I was tall enough

to reach up to play this...

I didn't know what was up there.

It was just this table thing.

And all of a sudden,

these things on the top,

which were the keys, right?

Started making a noise,

and I got into it.

Mum lifted me up and helped me

for about three years, and...

You know, I picked it up.

INTERVIEWER: So by the time you

were six, you were rocking out?

- Almost.

- Yeah.

He learned classical music

to start with.

He went to the Royal

Academy of Music

and discovered rock and roll

when he was in his teens.

So he had both these strands,

which is what I think,

one of the things

that makes him unique.

So he could play very melodic,

semi-classical parts,

but he also could play

very beautiful gospel parts,

and very good blues playing.

BOB HARRIS: Nicky left

the Royal Academy

and its emphasis

on classical music

when he was 16 years old

and joined three other

aspiring musicians.

They became the Savages.

[Rock music plays]

For Nicky, it was a raw entry

into the world of rock and roll,

boozy venues

and shady nightclubs.

The '60s, if you were

a teenager in the 1960s,

you believed

you could do anything.

It was a land

of opportunity, then.

It was fantastic

to be in London in the 1960s.

Well, at 16, yeah.

We played local cinemas.

Back in those days, they could,

they'd have a little group on

before the movie.

We had so much great music

coming from America,

and unfortunately, you couldn't

always see these artists.

So that led to, uh, a great,

uh, boom in British artists.

The first pro gig I did was

with this bizarre character

called Screaming Lord Sutch.

INTERVIEWER: Oh, yes.

I remember Screaming Lord Sutch.

MIKE: It was, uh,

you know, basic.

It was very basic, very cheap,

and none of us had any money.

So I used to turn up

and sometimes

you had to look for a poster,

see where we were playing,

and then find the gig.

And then of course, the whole

club circuit developed on pubs.

And, uh, that's where the,

uh, young British bands

really learned how to play

and how to perform to audiences.

All those clubs, you know,

from Soho

going out all the way down to,

you know,

Crawdaddy in Richmond

or Eel Pie Island in Twickenham

or the Ricky-Tick in Windsor.

They're all in the area

where I lived.

One of my favorite places was

Eel Pie Island on the Thames,

where you had to cross

a little bridge

and you had to pay tuppence

to a little old lady, a toll.

[Rock music fades]

[Harmonica plays]

BOB: In November 1961,

Nicky joined

the legendary Cyril Davies.

Cyril was a blues guy,

a phenomenal blues

harmonica player,

who was with Alexis Korner

and decided to leave Alexis

to form his own band.

And I understood why,

because Alexis was playing

the right material,

but very insipidly.

Cyril went off on his own

and made his own band,

which was called

the Cyril Davies All-Stars.

And this included, amongst

some other great players,

Nicky Hopkins,

very young piano player.

NICKY: Cyril was

a very aggressive guy

who wanted an authentic

Chicago blues band.

And he actually

took Sutch's band.

We had gotten pissed off

with Sutch for some reason, uh,

and left Sutch

about a month before,

and then all of a sudden the

entire band, except for Sutch,

were just backing Cyril,

and we filled out the marquee

every Thursday night to capacity

and then beyond.

Mick and I were down the club

and we went to see Cyril, and

see what his new band was like.

And the piano player, they just

blew, he just blew us away.

There's this little white kid,

and he's sounding like

he's in the back room of

somewhere in Mississippi

or Chicago.

He is phenomenal,

you know, he is.

And that was my first,

Mick and I looked at each other:

Whoa. You know,

where did Cyril find this guy?

Star, he had a special star,

which was this combination

of gospel and classical

that, that I didn't ever

heard anyone else do.

Seriously enough,

it was during that period of

doing the marquee every week

that I met up with the Stones.

INTERVIEWER:

What year now, Nicky,

that you met up

with the Stones?

- Still the tail end of '62.

- Oh, wow. That early then.

- Oh, yeah.

- I see.

In fact, they were just starting

and we were just starting.

We already had our audience.

Uh, they didn't,

so they were our support act.

When I first met him,

um, when he was playing

with Cyril Davies at the Marquee

'cause we were opening for Cyril

Davies for about five shows

until we started to get a bit

more applause than expected.

And then we got fired because

he didn't like the competition.

[Music fades]

BOB: In May, 1963,

Nicky was rushed into King

Edward's Hospital in Park Royal

with internal trouble and

was put on the critical list.

He was later diagnosed

with Crohn's disease,

which was complicated

by losing his gallbladder,

his left kidney,

and suffering a collapsed lung.

Crohn's disease

is something where the, um,

the guts effectively become

very inflamed, um,

because the immune system

isn't working properly.

BOB: And as one young musician

would testify,

Crohn's is no fun.

It kind of came out of nowhere.

I had it, I had symptoms for

about three months of vomiting,

diarrhea, loss

of weight, fatigue.

And it got to the point where

I was rushed to hospital

and then I was quite quickly

diagnosed with Crohn's.

But then, certainly, very little

was known and understood

and how to treat it even less.

Trying to navigate your way

through normal life,

as well as being a musician

as well, which is, you know,

rock and roll and Crohn's

don't go hand in hand.

BOB: Nicky's unexpected

hospitalization

was to be

the start of an illness

that plagued him all his life.

[Piano plays]

The way I ran into,

found out about Nicky is, uh,

there was a, my go-to drummer

at the time was Bobby Graham,

who was one of the great

drummers in England.

And, uh, he told me that

he saw this kid named

Nicky Hopkins playing piano.

And he was terrific,

and I should check him out.

So I did.

And he was absolutely correct.

Cyril Davies came in one Sunday

and he brought

this young lad with him

who looked terribly ill,

I must say.

- The one thing I remember--

- He was so thin.

He was incredibly thin anyway,

but he'd turned up in clothes

he'd obviously been wearing

before he'd been

in the hospital.

Apparently he was playing the

piano, so I mic'ed the piano up

He started playing and I'd never

heard anything close to it.

So when the session finished,

I went up to him

and I said, well,

give me your number

and I'm sure I can get you

lots of work, and da da da.

And he said, "Well,

I'm not available at the moment

'cause I'm still not recovered

from these operations I've had."

So I said, "Well,

here's my number.

You ring me when

you are feeling up to it,

and I know I can get you

lots of work."

- Which he did, and I did.

- I know.

Glyn, who was a producer

and engineer,

recognized instantly

that this guy

was going to be an important

session player

because he covered so much,

so many bases.

And that's where Nicky Hopkins

could come in

as a classically trained pianist

who also miraculously could play

in so many different styles,

whether it was boogie-woogie,

the blues, rock and roll,

he could do it all.

[Music fades]

Ray wrote a, a poignant

kind of, bit of a dig,

but respectful song

called "Session Man".

Nicky plays this incredible

baroque-esque type intro

on the harpsichord.

And I first saw Nicky's name

playing harpsichord,

I think, on a Kinks record.

And man, you know,

from day one, he was,

he was a guy

that you would know, that's him,

and you'd pay attention,

'cause he always brought

something beautiful

out of the song.

The studios, they had

a harpsichord for orchestras.

And we used to dabble with it.

And it somehow happened

Nicky knew how to play

the thing.

So it became integrated

because it was there.

And Ray liked the sounds

and I loved the sounds.

'Cause the bands wanted

keyboards on their records.

But actually, in most cases,

they were known as guitar bands.

It was simple, basic,

what we wanted, sexually-driven

kind of aggression.

Nicky had the ability

to meld things together

without getting in the way.

Of course, he was

technically brilliant, anyway.

These are people who,

you know, worked every day.

This was their job,

is to make great music

and to make good music better.

And I think Nicky was a prime

member of that fraternity.

DAVE: And I think he worked

very well with Ray

and extending Ray's vision

of what to play on the piece.

You took Nicky away. It was

like the magic disappeared.

Um, you don't what the magic is,

but something was missing

if you took his performance away

from the recording.

[Piano plays]

So if we look back at

some of those early Who records,

we can see, like, evidence

of Nicky's musicality.

I had no idea what he was gonna

do or how he was gonna do it,

or what show Tommy expected

of him, how he was gonna fit in.

But of course,

I did know who he was.

He'd played on

"Country Line Special" and,

and really not get a sense of,

of where this incredible blues,

high-speed blues piano

came from.

He would just be

in the background

and Pete would say,

okay, we need some piano.

We need this. And Nicky

would just get up and play.

So there's no clash

of egos going on.

And, and the Who had massive

clashes of egos in that band.

Not bad, but they,

that was why I think Nicky

probably fitted in.

Later, on Who's Next

and Who by Numbers ,

Nicky's contributions

were very different.

They were very creative.

He was much more rounded,

much more straightforward

to work with.

He didn't fall back into

just doing his part.

He was really quite brilliant.

[Music fades]

And what he's doing is he's

sort of, he's adding tension.

'cause most blues songs are kind

of like that medium tempo,

but then he'd sort of

double it up, you know?

So instead of playing

same rhythm as the guitars,

which could be, you know,

[Upbeat piano plays]

I think he might do...

[Upbeat faster piano plays]

And especially

on numbers like "The Ox",

which is, uh,

an instrumental by The Who.

And just in the background,

you can hear this frantic

piano going...

[Fast piano plays]

Again, about halfway through

the tune, there's a piano break

and it's very clearly

this kind of thing.

[Fast melodic piano plays]

Which, uh, you know,

it's that he runs this riff

throughout the whole tune

with, you know,

a few little variations as well.

And, you know, this sounds

very much like a jam.

And they sort of do

sort of merge into a 12 bar.

[Melodic piano plays]

Nicky's there

with these crazy...

[Fast piano plays]

You know, in dispersing it

with the original riff.

In 1967, I was doing, um,

Cat Stevens' first album,

Matthew and Son.

And Nicky turned up

and did the album

along with the other musicians.

And Nicky was fantastic.

There's one track

on the Cat Stevens album,

Matthew and Son ,

called "Granny".

And he just played a great piano

on that. It's piano heavy.

He did a fantastic job.

Nicky added to the mix.

I mean, in other words,

he wasn't just an ancillary,

I mean, what you have

with most session musicians,

they, they come in, they do

their job for three hours,

they'd disappear.

Uh, Nicky wasn't like that.

Nicky did want to do it again if

he felt he could make it better.

PP Arnold, Pat Arnold

was one of the Ikettes,

Ike and Tina Turner's backing

group, three girl singers.

And I had a phone call

from Andrew Loog Oldham,

who was the Stones' manager.

And he said, "I've signed

this girl from the Ikettes

and we're gonna call

her PP Arnold."

We were brainstorming

what material I would record

for the first album.

I was, uh, called the First Lady

of Immediate Records.

So Mike Hurst,

who also produced Cat Stevens,

brought this great song

to the meeting,

which was

"The First Cut is the Deepest".

If people ask me

what I'm proudest of,

probably there are two records.

One's a Cat Stevens track,

uh, "I Love My Dog".

Strangely enough, the first one.

The other one is

"The First Cut is the Deepest".

When I came into the studio

and I met Nicky,

he was this really lovely,

sweet guy,

you know, very quiet,

very calming.

So I felt really this calming

effect from him

that helped me to relax

because I was kinda shy

and introverted as well.

So, and then, that is until

he started playing the piano,

and I realized

this guy is there,

this beautiful, sweet guy,

no ego coming off of him.

And he's like the real deal.

You know?

[PP Arnold's "The First Cut

is the Deepest" plays and fades]

BOB: Was it serendipity

that their paths crossed

in those early days

at the Marquee Club?

Who knows?

For Nicky, the Rolling Stones

would become

a big part of his life.

When Nicky came into

the Rolling Stones scene

and all of a sudden

this guitar band

had this whole other color

to it,

or a bunch of colors.

We were coming up with

songs that, uh,

absolutely beyond Stu's, let

alone capability, his dreams.

He didn't want to know. So

I think that Stu called, said:

"The only guy that can handle

this is Nicky Hopkins."

"She's a Rainbow",

absolutely classic Stones song

with some beautiful piano

from Nicky on it.

This great introduction,

which really sets up the song

and again, you know, hugely, uh,

identifying part of the song.

So the intro's got

this very elegantly,

beautifully played piano.

[Plays melodic piano]

Stu was quite happy not to be

playing what Nicky was.

Stu always said, you know,

if you ever did any major-minor,

he went to minor chords.

He said, I don't play

any of those Chinese sh*t.

And I remember

hearing that piano

and it was this haunting intro,

and then it was anticipated

and it, it, it kind of like

didn't follow a click.

It was just like

this freeform thing.

And, and it got my attention as,

as a musician early on.

[Plays soft piano]

He had an intuitive feeling

of where the piano should sit

and where it should be.

'Cause you're playing with

two other stringed instruments

and in a way, you are a bridge.

You know, it's between the rest

of the band being on piano.

Um, I don't think

Nicky knew how, you know,

good he was, or just, you know,

his instinct for the right note

at the right place.

So, uh, how could I not do,

uh, justice by mentioning,

uh, "Sympathy for the Devil" and

Nicky's contribution to that.

Uh, very simple on the intro,

block chords,

but he does one very cool thing.

So you got...

[Sings]: Please allow me

to introduce myself

I'm a man...

[Ascending notes]

He does that little lift

to bring it back to the, uh,

tonic of the course of truth.

Please allow me

to introduce myself

I'm a man

of wealth and taste

And he does that

as you go through the song.

And then by the--

get to the end,

and he's doing

this great, uh, figure

using a seven chord like this.

[Plays upbeat piano]

You know, Nicky's just playing

this piano part

that sits nicely with the band,

doesn't stick out too much,

but you know, he is there.

So we've got this.

But whenever you sort of

started on a track

and sort of just put

some basics on,

suddenly Nicky

had just come out with a riff

or a, a melody line

or something,

which completely changed

the song.

I felt, uh, this thing

between Nicky and me,

'cause I'm churning out songs,

you know,

and, uh, you know, they're

only half written, half made.

And yeah, we, we're

boiling it in the studio

kind of thing, cooking it up.

And the way that Nicky

would cotton onto

what I was just sort of

barely laying down.

And I say, Nicky and I

would look at each other and go,

[Breathes in]

'cause it was the other part

that was in my head,

but I couldn't put my finger on.

Just always adding

that textural thing

and then sort of popping out

of the texture when,

when called upon.

The way that Nicky plays that

and swings it and voices it

and chooses to play these,

these chords here.

And his just

incredible rhythm.

Yeah, that's what drives

the track to me.

That and Keith's bass playing on

that is astonishing.

And somehow

nearly with every other song,

Nicky would find that part.

And so we always had this sort

of strange partnership

between ourselves, you know?

'Cause I would count on him

sometimes, say,

"I've got a half a song here,

Nicky, you know, yeah,

find me the other part",

you know? Yeah.

And every time he'd come up

with it, an incredible player.

No, he was a stunning,

stunning player. I've never...

I think it's particularly

underlined in the period of time

with the Rolling Stones,

which where he was featured,

pretty much.

When Mick Taylor

was in the band.

Those albums,

which you'll, you'll quote...

BILL: Beggars Banquet;

Sticky Fingers;

Exile on Main Street;

Let It Bleed.

All those four were

stunning albums.

One of my favorite Stones songs,

"Monkey Man", I just...

I play that

till the cows come home.

His introduction on that song.

It's like a, you know,

it's like a great movie scene.

The first shot you see is like,

you know,

wow, it's just gonna be great.

Just very distinctive chords.

[Fast, high-pitched

ascending notes]

Um, you know,

Nicky plays them great,

and I'm sure he came up

with that arpeggio idea

rather than just, you know,

he could have played them as,

played them as chords,

or even down here,

[Plays lower notes]

but he chose to play them

like that.

And it adds an instant

atmosphere to the song.

It's so iconic

what he's doing there.

You know, you think

of iconic guitar riffs.

Well, he was the master

and the creator

of a lot of iconic piano riffs.

And outside blues piano,

you can't think of

a lot of other people

whose riffs just hang

in your mind

the way Nicky's do.

BOB: In total, Nicky

would contribute

to 14 Rolling Stones albums.

I remember listening

to "Revolution"

from The Beatles as a kid,

and I just remember

hearing that crazy, crazy, uh,

uh, you know,

electric piano solo

and what he did

at the end of the song.

And I thought that was really

cool because, uh, you know,

understanding that

The Beatles were

a quartet with two guitars,

bass, and a drum.

They didn't have a keyboardist.

So it's like, who was that?

And what do you do

when The Beatles call you in

to play on something?

I mean, Nicky walked in

and played this solo,

which is

an absolutely k*lling solo.

It's got some really cool ideas

in it.

Um, it goes something like this.

[Plays fast upbeat piano]

Again, it's an absolutely

rollicking solo,

and it's got, um, it's got

these kind of cool ideas.

[Plays fast, repeating notes]

Just kind of

a Nicky Hopkins trademark

in the sense that he's got

that kind of movement,

that voicing that is changing.

It's not just...

[Plays same notes fast]

He's actually got some

inner-voice movement in there.

[Plays variety of notes fast]

BOB: The remarkable thing about

playing on a Beatles album

was that it gave Nicky

his first Grand Slam.

It meant that he'd now recorded

with the Kinks, The Who,

the Rolling Stones

and the Beatles.

[Upbeat rock music]

Nicky was not the star.

He was the side man.

His job was to make

the records better

and not to go,

look, look at me!

And, uh, I think that,

in that role,

he was much more purely

and essentially a musician.

I couldn't employ him full-time.

And I, he was too good to sit,

sit around and do nothing.

So, uh, I knew all those guys

and, um, I said, you know, uh,

"I've got a great piano player

for you.

You gotta check him out."

And of course, they,

all of 'em wound up using him.

Everybody would always talk

about Nicky Hopkins, this,

and Nicky Hopkins, that.

And, and sadly,

I became very aware

that he was playing

on everything.

Nicky had three years

of session work in London

where he played with

absolutely everybody,

In each record,

each record album we did.

And then it was done.

And then it was, oh, well,

what's the next one

gonna be like?

And we'd get on

and do the next one.

It was never with any viewpoint

of having made a record

that people were gonna listen to

10 years, 15 years,

20 years, 25 years

into the future.

I think most people that, uh,

that work with Nicky,

they get him to come

and do one song,

and then they suddenly realize,

he'd be great

on that other side. [Laughs]

He said to me when

he was working with Eric,

he said he'd go over and, uh,

and Eric would say,

"Oh, that was wonderful."

"So do you, look,

let me show you this one..."

- Eric is?

- Eric Clapton, I mean, yeah.

He was one of the busiest and

most successful session players,

and then decided

he would go back on the road

and join the Jeff Beck Group.

[Piano plays]

BOB: The Jeff Beck group

didn't ease Nicky's workload,

but it took him to America,

a country that was to have

a big impact on him.

The Truth album

would introduce the talents

of Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood,

And man, Nicky's feel,

and the notes

that pour out of his soul

and land underneath

Rod Stewart's vocal

and Jeff Beck's guitar

are absolutely perfect

for such a badass rock track.

He would use different styles

that were more heavy-handed.

He could enter

into rock and roll.

Well, now here was Nicky

with that classical training

being very soulful, bluesy,

innovative, and improvising,

but with the precision of

a classical player.

He had this,

how would you say, cachet,

he had this cachet

of information

that he could

cross-reference.

He could put classical,

Beethoven,

or whatever instances

you would use.

The way Nicky played,

there was like a,

there was a soulful precision.

So even when he was improvising

and going crazy,

it was always really kind of

in place, but very soulful.

[Music fades]

[Soul music plays]

Michael Chechik was doing

a radio documentary,

and part of it was recording

an interview with Glyn Johns.

And, uh, that took

a couple hours actually.

And, uh, Glyn and I started

talking about recording sound,

and he invited me over to

Wally Heider Recording

where he was doing sessions

with Steve Miller.

I took him to San Francisco

to do a Steve Miller album,

which he was brilliant on.

I was a sound engineer myself,

and I was picking up tips from

Glyn as I watched him, uh,

for the duration of recording

the Steve Miller album

Your Saving Grace.

And he stayed, and I think

he got hit on by

Quicksilver Messenger Service

- and he played with them.

- Yeah he did, yeah.

I was blown away by

his keyboard, um, playing.

I saw that he was

above and beyond

just about anybody

I'd ever heard.

After working a long day,

we were listening to

an old Steve Miller band album,

and we were listening to

Your Saving Grace , which is,

um, has a song on it, "Baby's

House", which Steve Miller, um,

had Nicky Hopkins

on piano and organ,

and it's my favorite performance

of Nicky's.

People were desperate to try

and follow in the footsteps of

Sergeant Pepper,

really, I suppose

that's what started it all.

And of course, an album by

then could sell him millions.

That's why it was so important

to spend a lot of time

in the studios

with the best musicians

available

to produce the finest album

you could do.

[Piano fades]

BOB: Nicky was still playing

with the Jeff Beck Group,

but internal friction

within the band

had reached breaking point

with the departure of

Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart.

So he stayed in Mill Valley,

um, north of San Francisco.

Immediately, having now played

with the Stones

on Famous Records

and the Beatles,

he immediately was, um,

embraced as rock royalty.

You know, the, the San Francisco

bands were basically,

it was kind of like Motown.

I mean, they were a family.

Now, all the San Francisco bands

at this time

were recording

at Wally Heider Studio,

which was still moderately new

down on Post Street.

And, and people were just

hanging out all the time.

Usually, if somebody

came to town

like Nicky did for Steve Miller,

he would get with this family

and was meeting members

of the Dead

and members of Quicksilver

and the Airplane.

And he ended up just, I think

he fell in love with the town

and, um, decided to stay

for a while.

[Rock music plays]

Now, I wish that I could say

who it was

that got Nicky involved

in this,

but whoever it was:

good thinking,

because he did some incredible

playing on that record.

JACK: Nicky's left hand

would just solidify us,

like putting pinpoints of

foundations around a building

as he'd fill in

other harmonic aspects to it.

It wasn't a left hand

playing rhythm

then the right hand

doing melody.

He would work truly like a,

a concert pianist,

like a classical musician.

And he, and

with all of his training,

the rest of us would

just fall right in line.

Before, as we'd work on

the songs, Nicky would come in

and put that, just the,

the solidness into the track.

He should have played

at Woodstock

with the Jeff Beck group.

But Jeff Beck sulked

and went home.

But Nicky still played

at Woodstock

because he was on stage

with the Jefferson Airplane.

JACK: Woodstock

at the beginning of the tour

was just another gig we had.

We had to be somewhere else

a couple of days later.

I don't think anybody had an

idea what was gonna happen.

And I remember that when we,

when the Airplane,

everybody's got their own story

about this, but,

but we went on

about 18 hours late.

If we were to do a festival

like that today, it would be,

I hope I never work this gig

again as long as I live.

I mean, for a lot of reasons.

Even though the world was really

in a really bad state,

we were going through

the Vietnam w*r, civil rights,

but the youth were

bringing it all together.

We were trying to change things.

So it was a time of change

for humanity.

I will never play for a crowd as

big as this, as long as I live.

And when we actually see that

it defies description.

BOB: Woodstock would later

be regarded as a pivotal moment

in popular music history.

And the "Volunteers" song

played at Woodstock

by Jefferson Airplane

has been described as

"One of the great anti-w*r

protest songs of the '60s."

[Fast piano plays]

Nicky had, by this time,

met up with John Cipollina,

founder member of

Quicksilver Messenger Service.

John and David Freiberg from

Quicksilver came up to see me,

and they said that, uh,

they were short one guy

because Gary Duncan had left,

and it was just those two

and Greg Elmore.

Um, so they needed a fourth

for the album.

I said, would I stay on?

Like many of

the San Francisco groups,

Quicksilver Messenger Service

with John Cipollina, was...

a little bit more freewheeling

than, uh, groups in the UK.

They went off

on tangents sometimes,

and Nicky, being

an improvisational piano player,

loved that.

He loved doing things

off the cuff.

John and Nicky

realized very soon

that they had

very much in common.

And ended up staying

at his house.

And, uh, they became

extremely close.

Nicky recorded "Shady Grove"

with, uh, Quicksilver

when Quicksilver had kind of

changed slightly.

More than anything,

I just enjoyed...

having John as a friend

more than anything.

BOB: Nicky hadn't

just found a friend.

He was welcomed

and truly embraced

by John Cipollina's

wider family.

They loved him because they get,

it was a musical family.

John's mother, Evelyn,

had been a concert pianist.

She was a protg

of Jos Iturbi,

and she was a piano teacher

for decades.

And, um, like minds attracted,

and, and you know,

Nicky could go up there

and just sit and play piano and,

and he fit, he fit right in

with what was a musical,

a totally musical family.

He was one of the family.

[Rock music plays live]

I know John knew Terry

from before.

And at some point when,

when Quicksilver

was kind of winding down,

John and Terry

started doing things together.

And by that time, Nicky was,

like I said, one of the family.

I remember Nicky

inviting me down

to play bass on a track

called "Rainbow"

he was producing

in San Francisco

for a Terry Dolan album

for Warner Brothers.

Uh, Nicky produced

side one of the project,

but he had to go off

on a long Stones tour.

They asked me, Terry and Nicky

asked me to produce side two.

I like working with Terry.

I found that to be

a real fun gig to do.

And we do, I actually did

quite a few gigs.

I'd just fly up there for the

weekend, do a gig with Terry,

and come back again.

We used to do that

umpteen times.

And with Terry and the Pirates,

they were together so long.

Nicky played many, many sessions

through the years with Terry.

And Terry had many,

many musicians.

BOB: Often described as

a Marin County's Boy Club

of Professional Players

led by Terry Dolan,

Terry and the Pirates had become

a kind of revolving door

for musicians

who were between jobs.

[Rock music continues]

Then we did the,

the gig in Hamburg,

which was a television show,

and then slept about six hours.

And then the next morning

came back to the States.

I couldn't believe it.

It's like we were in Europe

for about three days

and did three gigs...

in three different cities

hundreds of miles apart.

It was nuts.

But I know that Nicky

enjoyed playing with

both Quicksilver

and Terry Dolan,

and there were

a couple other groups

that he played with

in San Francisco

that were essentially anchors

for him to, uh,

give him reason to stay

in his home in Mill Valley.

[Music fades]

[Upbeat fast piano plays]

It was great to come to

somewhere like the Bay Area

and find some people

who weren't into all this being,

all this self-important crap.

And one could just be oneself.

I thought it was great.

Kindred spirits and all that.

BOB: Jerry Garcia

was best known as guitarist

with the Grateful Dead,

who were part of

the counterculture of the 1960s.

Nicky was

a rock and roll player,

and I mean, aside from

everything else he could do,

he could play rock and roll

piano like, like nobody else.

I think his major God

was Jerry Lee Lewis

more than Chopin.

And, um, he brought that

rock and roll sensibility,

which Jerry loved.

And, uh, it was just,

it was something different.

Jerry was always looking

for something different,

whether it was his bluegrass

band or his Jerry Garcia band,

or the Sanders-Garcia Band.

And he was just looking

for something different.

And Nicky was, was there.

[Music fades]

[Slower piano music plays]

BOB: In 1976,

when Starsky & Hutch

was a huge television hit,

David Soul recorded an album

entitled David Soul.

I don't know David Soul.

I know what he did with

Starsky and Hutch ,

and I know that David Soul

did his own solo album,

which actually

was pretty popular.

And Nicky played on that.

Nicky Hopkins playing

on David Soul's album.

This is something I didn't know

about, this is a revelation.

And I find the thought

incredibly entertaining.

It's so funny that a guy who

would be, like, a famous actor,

well, "I want to be a rock star"

or whatever, you know.

David Soul wanted

to have more exposure,

and music was one way to do it.

He was a guitar player,

from what I understand,

and he had a, a good voice

and he, um, wanted to use it.

I don't know that

he and David Soul

had any kind of relationship.

I don't know if Nicky

had any relationship

with David Soul's producer,

or where that came from,

but he was just the gold-star

session piano player.

[Music fades]

[Sings]: Tell me

how do you sleep at night?

[Melodic rock music plays]

Hit it.

Jump when your momma

tell you anything

So it was really the Beatles

and quickly the Stones

that had melody with the

soul of the old blues guys.

That was like an expl*si*n

and a revelation,

an emotional revelation that,

that was like a possession.

I fell in love

with rock and roll

through the Beatles and Stones.

The other side of,

of Nicky was that

he could be quite

delicate as well.

I mean, I wasn't involved

in the Lennon stuff,

but I would imagine

if you listen to actually

what he's actually playing,

it's very delicate.

You just have to pick it out.

BOB: Nicky had crossed paths

with John Lennon

a few times over the years.

It came as no surprise to Nicky

when John invited him

to be a part of the sessions

for his Imagine album.

Looking around,

you know, I saw Klaus.

I already knew obviously

who he was.

And so I was very, uh...

it just added to the, uh,

to the otherworldly feeling

that I had been there in

John Lennon's little studio

with John and Phil.

The track I think that

Nicky liked the most

was "Jealous Guy".

You couldn't go wrong.

It was John and his song

and his singing, and he loved

the song, obviously.

And, and it was,

uh, about, you know,

one of the people

he loves most in the world.

And, you know,

and the whole thing was set up

to just move you, the listener.

People who have heard that song

over the years, you know,

they, they hear it and they,

they feel that that

wonderful little kind of vibe.

And Nicky Hopkins, to me,

was a huge part of that.

Nicky's sound

on the piano was like

that of an English garden to me.

So, for example,

in Nicky's music,

I would say something like

"Jealous Guy" and "Angie",

would be good examples of where

he will repeat little patterns.

And it's quite subliminal,

I think, for the listener.

I could feel John responding,

um, to our playing.

And I love that.

I've always loved that.

When you're in the studio

and you're making a record,

you, you can't help

but feel everybody's vibe.

Nicky had such respect for John

and his abilities, you know.

And, um, I know that he enjoyed

working on the Imagine album.

BOB: There's been

a lot of speculation

that John played

the piano on Imagine

and not Nicky;

Moira Hopkins sees it

as making perfect sense.

MOIRA: You know, that

was such a big song

that John should be playing the

piano for that particular song,

because it was like the name

of the album as well, wasn't it?

It was very important.

So I'm on piano on most of

the rest of that album,

which was great.

And, uh, of course, John

was such a unique character.

I found that John was

very into him being,

just being himself anyway,

and getting things done.

John was brilliant because

he could get things done

very quickly,

which was why,

'cause I asked him once,

why move to New York?

He said, because it's the only

place that can keep up with him.

I thought, yeah, okay,

well that makes sense.

[Music fades]

BOB: Nicky was well-liked

by all of the ex-Beatles.

And Paul McCartney

was no exception.

So I used to drive him places,

you know,

and, um, so I, he said,

uh, oh, well, he said, um,

"Paul wants me to go down

to Winchelsea."

"He wants me to come down

to the studio."

So I, I drove him down and, um,

you know, went in with him.

And, uh, when Paul, uh,

saw that Nicky had arrived,

he came up and hugged him.

And over his shoulder,

he said to me, oh, he said,

"It's been so long

since I've seen him."

He's a, and he was so very happy

to see him, you know.

BOB: Despite Paul McCartney's

admiration for him,

Nicky was asked to audition

for Paul's Wings.

He'd known Paul

for over 20 years.

He didn't join Wings.

I actually have no proof of it,

but I think that

because, uh, you know,

Linda was, was playing, that...

maybe she didn't feel

so comfortable

with Nicky being there on the,

you know, on piano.

BOB: In 1989, Paul invited Nicky

to play on his album

Flowers In The Dirt,

almost 18 years on

from playing on

the Imagine album in 1971,

Nicky achieved

his second Grand Slam.

He'd now played on the solo

albums of all four Beatles.

[Guitar plays]

First of all,

the thing you want to do,

if you're a person

that plays on records,

the thing you pray for is that

it's a great song

to be able to play on.

BOB: Different

from the production

of his previous albums,

George Harrison carefully chose

a small core of musicians

to support him.

He included Nicky Hopkins.

But George, when I heard

that little song,

"Give Me Love",

it just did the same thing,

only in a little bit

of a different way than

John's "Jealous Guy" did.

It was, it just, you just knew

exactly what to play.

And with, with Nicky

playing those chords,

the way he would play

those chords,

and with the touch

that he played them,

it wasn't anything

you could do wrong.

You couldn't go wrong.

He had this invaluable

ability to realize

where to start playing

in the song.

You don't have to play

from the top.

And where to play

in relation to the melody

and just what

can break your heart

with a few notes up high.

You know, those guys had him on

their records for that reason,

because he could elevate,

uh, a song

to a place that it might not

have gotten to.

Nicky would come up

with these little vignettes

that were so memorable,

you know,

you would hear it and you'd say,

wow, that, that makes that song,

BOB: That creativity,

that ability

to come up with vignettes

effortlessly added to

and made songs better.

Something another

ex-Beatle understood.

I'm choosing "Photograph"

from Ringo Star, because...

Yes, because, no, it's,

it's a beautiful song.

It's certainly one of

the more obscure ones.

Nice simple pop song,

the essence of that song, again,

you'd have to point to Nicky.

I would have to, anyway.

[Upbeat piano plays]

[Fades to "Photograph"

by Ringo Starr]

The arrangement

was great overall,

everything about all

the playing and everything,

but Nicky's touch, you know,

it's just another example

of having Nicky Hopkins

and a Beatle together,

and I'm in the room with 'em.

That's just a great, great--

It doesn't get any better

than that for me, personally.

[Music fades]

[Low piano plays]

So I have two favorite

Nicky Hopkins tracks.

The first one is called

"A Dreamer" off the album

The Tin Man was a Dreamer ,

and man,

his piano playing

and the way he's playing

feels next to the orchestra

is absolutely exquisite.

BOB: Nicky was working

with George Harrison

during the week,

and at weekends,

he recorded his own solo album

The Tin Man was a Dreamer ,

helped, of course, by some of

his mates, including George.

Every piano player that

I've known since those days,

and I've talked about Nicky,

they, they all bow,

uh, you know, he just was one

of those unusual beauties

that comes around

once in a while.

I didn't know it at the time.

Why was he called the Tin Man?

He collected tea tins,

English tea tins, you know,

'cause some of the artwork

on these things,

especially when you...

was pretty incredible.

Also on The Tim Man

was a Dreamer is this,

is this version

of his, uh, of his song "Edward

the Mad Shirt Grinder".

[Plays dramatic piano]

[Piano fades]

The '70s were his most

successful period in his life.

He was, um, commuting

across the Atlantic

to play with the Stones

and, um, with John Lennon

and countless sessions

in Los Angeles.

BOB: Nicky had returned

to London

to be part of the

Rolling Stones' latest album,

Let It Bleed.

Bill Wyman picks up the story.

Yeah, we all arrived

at the studio,

and Ry Cooder came and hung out,

and Keith didn't like that.

So Keith went home,

I think, and it just,

it was just, just us, wasn't it?

And, uh, we didn't know

what to do, so we just,

Nicky just started jamming.

Then we just sort of jammed

and fooled around, didn't we?

And Mick just threw in

bits and pieces.

- It was completely spontaneous.

- And it was just alive.

And I realized that something

unusual could happen.

So I started running the tape.

It was a very stoned thought,

was the title.

Um, I had become Edward

on some Stones sessions, um,

because Keith,

it was at Olympic,

which was a huge area,

huge floor area.

Keith was tuning his guitars up,

and he was yelling at me

because the,

the headphones weren't working.

And so it was hard to hear.

And he said,

"Nicky, gimme an E."

I said, what?

He said, "Gimme an E."

I said, "Can't hear you."

"Gimme an E for Edward."

So I became Edward.

[Rock music plays]

The first time

I met Nicky Hopkins,

I believe was on the sessions

for, uh, Harry Nilsson,

for the Son of Schmilsson

record.

BOB: Son of Schmilsson was

an eclectic mixture of styles.

It accentuated

Nilsson's reputation

for producing anarchic

and eccentric work.

That was, uh, that's a good way

to describe Harry Nilsson.

He was an anarchist,

to some degree.

Uh, but, you know,

"You're Breakin' My Heart",

that's typical Harry Nilsson.

Fun, and, uh, speaking his mind

and, uh, you know,

little dirty words here

once in a while.

It's not really

a dirty word anymore, is it?

I mean, Nilsson is not only

a great singer and composer,

but he's an excellent pianist.

And he played

on several tracks by Nilsson.

I think it was probably

during that time in LA

when there was

a lot of partying going on,

like the Hollywood Vampires

and John Lennon

and Keith Moon

going a bit nuts in the studio.

And I imagine Nicky

was part of that party,

and maybe that night,

Nilsson was too drunk.

So he said, you play the piano.

BOB: Harry Nilsson

thoroughly enjoyed

and appreciated

what Nicky brought

to the recording sessions.

The end result? Nicky played

on nine out of the 11 tracks.

[Music fades]

He was a white man from

Sheffield, uh, England, right?

And, but he sounded like

a Black man

that had maybe been born

in Mississippi.

And he was just extraordinary,

Joe, just incredible.

BOB: Nicky's friendship

with Joe c*ck

was, from the outset, unlikely.

The wild party man

from Sheffield

and the quiet

retiring piano player.

It's not so much

Nicky Hopkins' intro

to, um, "You Are So Beautiful",

which is, um, genius.

But it's his touch in general.

Um, his sense of melody.

But he, I didn't even think

his fingers were moving.

He had such a beautiful touch.

There's "You Are So Beautiful",

and there's

"Bridge Over Troubled Water",

Larry Knechtel on piano, and I,

I put them on the same level.

It's a song that Nicky

was particularly proud of.

Um, and you can see why,

it's a beautiful piano part.

It has different textures in,

he varies which register he's in

to bring different weight

into different sections.

Uh, and it really sort of

shows the,

the kind of sensitivity

and vulnerability of the lyrics.

But Nicky's playing on

"You Are So Beautiful" is just,

I mean, I get goosebumps

when I listen to it every time.

You know, to this day,

it's one of the most beautiful

backing tracks for any person.

And of course,

it was Joe c*ck.

BOB: In 1976, Joe, who'd been

struggling with debts,

agreed on a tour of New Zealand,

Australia, and South America.

They got along really well.

I think when Joe decided to go

back out on the road again,

he wanted Nicky

and Bobby Keyes with him.

And, uh, they had

all sorts of adventures.

This was before Nicky

actually went to rehab.

[Music fades]

[Piano plays]

There's a track on the Airwaves

album called "The Dreamer",

and that's probably

the outstanding piano track.

Uh, at one point, the song

reverts back to the intro,

which is just acoustic guitar

and little sprinkles

of piano on,

and then me playing guitar

with the volume knob.

I listen to it to this day,

and it's just tears.

BOB: Badfinger

originated from the UK,

but had morphed into

a West Coast band.

Joe tells us about recording

their album Airwaves.

So, uh, we discussed

Nicky and Joe

and Tom had run into 'em

at Abbey Road,

or working with the Beatles

a few times.

And, uh, the name came up

and me, I went, "twist my arm".

It was a dream come true.

Having him play piano.

Uh, I don't know what it

is about English guys.

They don't drive.

None of 'em drove at the time.

They were like, "We don't drive.

We get driven around."

Okay.

"Go pick Nicky up."

He's living in, uh, Canoga Park.

I get the address

and bring him to rehearsal.

Showed up at the front door

and knock on the door.

Guy's standing there

in his underwear,

got messing around with his eyes

and his hair's all messed up,

and there's Joe c*ck

opening the front door.

And he looked like John Belushi

imitating Joe c*ck.

Apparently they'd been up having

too much fun the night before,

and they were sharing a place

together at the time.

That was the first time

I'd ever met Nicky.

[Music fades]

I'll tell you what impressed me

about Nicky the most was

after working with the Rumour,

who it was a bit painstaking

getting them to learn my songs,

and they generally

deconstructed them

and tried to do something else

with them

before coming back to the song.

But Nicky, um,

he'd listened to the song once

and play through with a,

you know, a take.

We'd do a take

with Nicky playing.

He'd play through it once,

and that was all.

I didn't have to tell him

anything after that.

He'd learned it.

Well, bands couldn't live

in the studios forever.

They were expected to go out

and entertain all the people

that bought their albums.

And, uh, it was the biggest

money spinner, really.

It was to go on a major epic

tour of Europe or America,

or even to Japan.

[Crowd applauds]

BOB: Graham Parker

and The Rumour

had a big following

in Germany.

When they were invited to play

one of the Rock Palace concerts,

Nicky decided to accompany

his friend.

[Sings]: All sensation

So get them, get them

But don't get me

Can't hear, your cries

So don't get me to fill up

your empty lives

Your empty lives

Your empty lives

Your empty lives

[Music fades]

[Solemn piano plays]

BOB: For Nicky, whose health was

fragile at the best of times,

the Rolling Stones' 50-show

schedule was grueling

to the point that it had become

a dangerous factor.

There was a lot of downtime

doing nothing.

You know, to be honest,

they had their,

their bit on stage was fantastic

for that two hours.

It was fantastic,

and they wanted to carry

that on, really, afterwards.

Crohn's can be very challenging,

especially when you're on a long

tour and you're not eating well.

He physically wasn't very well,

but, you know, he had a lot of

problems all through his life

with his, uh, health.

And so he was ill a lot.

So when I first came into

the position with the Stones

and Stu and I became good

friends, I asked him, I said,

Stu, look, I'm real happy to be

here, don't get me wrong,

but where's Nicky?

Why isn't Nick Hopkins here?

And they said, with Nicky,

bless his heart,

he always had health problems.

And so the band was scared

that'd be on tour,

and that, you know,

a major date coming up,

and he'd have

some kind of attack

and couldn't make the show.

[Music fades]

Like many of us back in the day,

uh, Nicky did have a bit of

a drinking problem, I guess.

Mostly a problem

because of his ill health

and frail constitution.

I know that Nicky took drugs.

He was, uh, in pain, and

he took to drugs for his pain.

I doubt that he was an addict,

in the classical sense.

The medical profession

defines an addict

as someone who has a disruption

in their psychosocial,

um, functioning.

And Nicky had none of those.

With me, however,

it grew so out of control.

I mean, I was doing

pretty much every drug,

every existing drug to the max

and then beyond.

He had about a 10 year bout,

more or less,

with drugs and alcohol.

He was the wrong person

to be living that lifestyle.

He wasn't strong enough for it,

and he got...

It took him to a very, very

bad place eventually.

I mean, he would,

he would talk to me about it.

He would talk to me about

the stupid things that he did.

And, um, you know,

and of course he'd,

he'd suffered physically

for a number of years with,

I think it was Crohn's disease.

So I think the combination

of Crohn's disease

and the other excesses

of being on the road

at that particular period, um,

weren't helpful to him.

I was working with Chick Corea,

and I got a call from

Artist Relations at Moog,

a friend of mine,

Robbie Konikoff,

and he said, "Rory,

I have a favor of you."

I said, what's that? He goes,

"Do you know Nicky Hopkins?"

And I, I went,

yeah, of course I do.

And I lit up because I was like,

where's this going?

I get to meet him, you know?

And he said, "Well,

he really wants to meet Chick.

Can you set that up?"

And I said, of course. You know.

So I asked Chick, I said,

Chick, I know we're rehearsing,

but Nicky Hopkins is in town

and would really like to

meet you.

Can we make this happen?

He goes, "Absolutely,

and bring him in."

So Chick comes out

very cordial and happy,

and, you know, he's rehearsing,

this is going great.

Nicky said, "Chick,

what a pleasure to meet you."

And puts his hand out,

shakes his hand.

He goes, "How are you doing?"

And Chick said,

"Great man, great."

He goes, "How are you doing?"

And it got really quiet

and Nicky looks at Chick

and said, "Not so good."

Chick goes,

"Well, what's wrong?"

Goes, "Uh, doctor told me

I have two weeks to live

unless I quit heroin."

And Chick said,

"I'm gonna get you into rehab."

And Chick called a few phone

numbers, got him into rehab,

and that probably saved his life

at that moment.

I went in pretty negatively.

I didn't think it would work,

I didn't think anything

could work.

I thought, well,

it's the only thing I know.

It's like a last ditch effort.

And much to my surprise,

it did work.

I mean, which amazed me.

[Electric guitar plays]

I first met Nicky Hopkins

in 1985,

and it was for a session

when I,

The Stray Cats

were taking a break,

and we all made solo records.

And Lee Rocker and myself

teamed up with Earl Slick.

And like I said, Earl Slick

knew Nicky from the past.

We were

at the point of the record

where we needed the piano,

Slick called Nicky.

Nicky came to Capital Studios.

He had a rock and roll style,

but very melodic and

a soft touch without tinkling.

He had a great technique

and a good pounding of the keys,

but in a melodic way.

Very, um, unusual combination

that's wanted by everybody.

So he wound up playing

on three tracks.

There was one track called, uh,

"No Regrets" that he played on.

There was another track

called "Lonely Actions"

that was almost like a ballad,

but not quite, a little bit

of a rock beat to it.

And then he played on one called

"Time Is On My Hands",

which is a, which is a

straight-up blues in appearance.

But the chord changes

are a little bit different.

It's a little, not quite as,

uh, trad blues.

And Nicky played

beautifully on it.

[Music fades]

[Upbeat piano plays]

This tribute was planned.

And then, you know, it was only

about four weeks after,

after John died that the tribute

happened at the Fillmore.

Uh, oh, bloody hell.

I, I really should be there.

Nicky, uh, heard about

John's passing

and the tribute

and was actually on tour

with Art Garfunkel in Australia.

And he got on a plane

and made sure

he was at the Fillmore

to, to memorialize

John's legacy there.

[Upbeat music plays]

BOB: And when John passed away,

he'd not only lost

a very close friend,

he'd lost a kindred spirit.

It seemed fitting that Nicky

would reunite with

Terry and the Pirates

to say farewell to John.

[Music and piano continue]

[Music fades to rock song]

There was one song called

"Don't Touch Me".

Uh, I had this kind of little

modal guitar intro

and this cool beat,

and it was,

it's just a classic Nicky thing

'cause I play a lick

and there's a hole,

play a lick

and there's a hole, play...

There's about four or five of

those before I started singing.

And right off the bat, I played

this very kind of classic,

um, I, this is a bad word,

it's not classical,

but it was a little demented.

It was off the rock path,

and instantly in the hole,

Nicky started doing

demented answering,

and it was just

completely natural,

like when we were jamming.

So Nicky was mostly on piano

all the time.

And, uh, as we went

from song to song,

Jeffrey and I would, uh,

arrange the songs

and be pretty together with

here's the arrangement,

here's the chord.

So right off the bat,

especially with Nicky,

when we started recording,

he was already, uh,

with no real direction from us

other than: "Be Nicky Hopkins".

He was already orchestrating

the music.

You know, he would do

these octave themes

and just naturally,

he would pull back

when the singing was happening.

When the singing stopped,

he'd lean into it.

But it was always very thematic

and cinematic, in a way.

And it was just, you know,

beautiful, you know,

session work, improv by Nicky.

[Music fades]

He had a famously difficult

girlfriend-wife,

his first wife Dolly,

who was very ambitious

for Nicky to be a rock star.

And probably prompted him

into a solo career,

which was not his strength.

He wasn't a front man,

he was a side man.

He was a brilliant side man,

but not a front man.

I think his wife, Dolly,

was handling most of

his business at the time.

Dolly was combination, wife,

lover, babysitter, um,

mother, all of the above.

For about three years,

everything was fine.

They got along fine.

And, um, you know,

they had fun together.

But, um, I think, uh,

something changed.

He said it was a challenging

relationship, really.

But he didn't want

to disparage her at all.

He was very gentlemanly

like that.

And, you know, it was grey.

It was faults on both sides.

They grew apart because...

well, Nicky had gone to rehab

and I believe Dolly did too,

but she didn't stick with it.

So quite honestly, she,

she was still drinking,

whereas he had stopped, you

know, but that's very difficult.

Like, if, you know,

you've just gone through rehab

and then there's somebody

living in the same household,

you know,

who is drinking every day.

It's, it's difficult.

I, yeah, when I first met,

uh, Moira with Nicky,

I thought, whoa, he's landed

on his feet with this lady.

It was instantly,

uh, the way

I'd like to see my friend

with somebody like that.

It's, it was a very nice thing.

Somebody took me up

to meet Nicky

and I was introduced to him,

and he shook my hand.

And, um, you know, uh,

I can't remember what we said,

but he was so kind and so nice

that I walked away

and I said to my friend,

I said, "Wow."

I said, I wish I could marry

somebody like Nicky Hopkins,

[She laughs]

'cause he's so nice.

You know, he was just,

just a wonderful human being.

And it,

it kind of shone through.

You know, Nicky liked Art,

and Art liked Nicky,

and he loved his work.

Nicky called me and he said,

"I'm doing this show

with Art Garfunkel

on the Tonight Show

with Johnny Carson,

and we need strings.

Will you play the strings

for us?"

I started playing these great

orchestral string sounds,

and Art was like,

"What I'm looking for is

a snowbird walking on snow.

Real thin, simple. Boom."

I'm watching Nicky

play the intro,

and he just does this simple,

beautiful-- wasn't simple.

He makes it look simple.

This beautiful intro

to this song.

Art comes in, and even

as a musician, you well up,

you get the chills,

the hair goes up,

and you're like,

this is magic.

[Sings]: Here I am

Alone on the plain

Sun's going down

It's starting to rain

Papa, we'll go sailing

[Music fades]

When Art, uh,

played the Albert Hall,

and, uh, Nicky was, you know,

not only playing the piano,

he was also his music director.

Art took a, a break,

you know, um, for his voice,

like, just for about

5 or 10 minutes,

and he introduced Nicky

as the legendary Nicky Hopkins

playing his own composition.

And, uh, it was a piece

that Nicky wrote

when he came back to Britain.

He was so happy to be home that

he wrote this piece of music

called "The Homecoming",

and he played it

at the Royal Albert Hall.

And that was very nice of Art

to allow him to do that.

[Soft piano plays]

JIM: Nicky Hopkins was

the kind of piano player

that you needed

if you were gonna play

with Art Garfunkel.

Artie knew that.

And, uh, to his credit,

you know,

they made

some great music together.

[Soft piano plays]

I met Nicky in February, 1987

through Gray Levett,

who was representing Nicky

at the time.

Woody Woodmansey

had introduced me to Gray

because I left

Dexys Midnight Runners

and I was forging

a new career, um,

and writing

an instrumental album.

And when I met Gray, he said,

"Nick is doing a similar project

writing instrumental music."

So he said, "Why don't

you two get together?"

And the thought of playing

with Nicky was, um,

a dream come true, really,

I suppose.

And that was the start of

a musical relationship

and our friendship.

He loved being back in,

uh, England.

He'd moved from America,

and I came over from America

and joined him.

And then we got married

at, um, Hever Castle.

It was at Hever Castle.

The special guest of honor

was Art Garfunkel,

and his, uh, his wife.

It was a great day.

It was a sunny day.

We had, you know, um,

someone playing the bagpipes,

dressed up in

the Highland attire.

We had to go back to America,

because he was missing

a lot of work.

You know, Joe c*ck

had been looking for him,

wanted to come play

on an album.

And, um, someone else,

I can't think who it was now,

but, um, so we wound up,

we, we went back to LA.

[Music fades]

[Rock music plays]

You know, we had, I think,

met with Nicky,

uh, when we were getting,

when we were looking for people

to be in the band.

I think we met with him just to

have the thrill of meeting Nicky

because he was,

I think he was busy at the time.

And so we just thought, well,

let's, let's have a meeting.

We weren't jerking him off

or anything.

We just wanted to say,

we're doing this

and you're doing that,

and how great.

But he was working.

I think he would've been

too good for us,

you know,

what we were trying to do.

We weren't trying

to do bad music,

but I mean,

Nicky was a virtuoso.

I think we would've had trouble

making that funny.

And then when,

when "Rainy Day Sun" came up,

we just thought, that's the guy.

We're not asking him to be in

something for 28 days.

We're asking him to come

to a session.

And, uh, we got it.

We got it together.

MOIRA: Well, when Nicky did

the recording with Spinal Tap,

I took him down to the studio

and he was asking

Christopher Guest

if he didn't, like, model his

part in Spinal Tap on Jeff Beck.

He said, go on, just tell me.

He goes, you were Jeff Beck,

weren't you?

[She laughs]

And he wouldn't tell him.

He wouldn't admit to it.

You know, part of the thrill

of doing that project was,

uh, either in the making

or later getting to meet people

that we really just

thought the world of.

And, uh, Nicky was absolutely

one of them.

[Music fades]

[Jazz song plays]

Back in '92, Nicky and I

played piano together

on a, a zero album,

uh, Chance in a Million

being recorded live

and, uh, at Great American

Music Hall in San Francisco.

And we just went nuts

and started trading licks

back and forth

in the, uh, piano solo.

When I grew up listening to

so many different kinds of music

that I like a lot of

different kinds of music,

and I've learned to play them

over the years too.

I mean,

I've become quite involved in,

in many different kinds

and different forms of music.

So I don't feel that it's

necessarily being a dilettante

with all, with any particular

form of music.

I think I've gotten to know

many kinds of music quite well,

or very well.

BOB: The spring of 1993 found

Nicky in an upbeat mood.

Plans had been formed

to begin recording

with Frankie Miller

and Joe Walsh.

There were discussions regarding

a tour with Harry Nilsson,

and he had his own

ongoing film projects.

And everything was actually fine

for about two or three years.

He didn't complain

of any, um, upsets.

And then sadly, um,

'93 wasn't a good year,

because he had a sudden eruption

that, um, put him in hospital.

And he was saying

that he was going in

and out of the hospital.

His Crohn's disease

was kicking in,

and they were just taking more

intestine out and doing that.

Even today,

most people after, say,

10 years of having

Crohn's disease

has had

some form of surgery.

But back in Nicky's day,

it probably was the main

form of treatment in the end,

because there were so few drugs.

He had to have one organ

or another removed.

I thought it was his kidney,

but maybe it was something else.

BOB: Moira received

many messages from friends

for Nicky's recovery,

including an unexpected one

from an ex-Beetle.

Paul happened to be in LA

when, uh,

Nicky was ill in hospital, and

he made a point of calling up

and, uh, saying to me, "Please

give all the best to Nicky

and tell him, you know,

I hope that he gets well soon,

and that, you know,

I'm thinking of him."

And that was really wonderful.

[Music fades]

We were living just up the road

from Joe Walsh in Encino

in, uh, Los Angeles.

So Nicky and Joe got together

with Terry Reid,

and they put this band together

called the Flu.

That's Joe's idea: "What are

we gonna call it? The Flu?"

I'm going, oh God, here we go.

BOB: Joe was in negotiations

for the reforming of the Eagles,

but it didn't stop these

three friends having some fun.

When you're doing gigs

as a band,

you know yourself as playing,

you know, when you're playing,

you remember those gigs.

INTERVIEWER:

That's quite a lineup, Terry.

Oh, it's a hell of a, oh, no,

oh, the rehearsals!

INTERVIEWER: I 'd like

to be a fly on the wall.

Oh, God, I felt like we were

flies on the wall.

Now when,

when you're doing rehearsals,

you never knew

what was gonna happen.

I mean, with Joe, everything,

every, I dunno, I love Joe.

He is the funniest guy I think

I've ever met in music.

They had a great concert,

and he was hoping to do more.

And actually, um,

Nicky did do more with Joe

and a Scottish singer

called Frankie Miller.

They recorded about four

or five pieces of music

in this little recording studio

in, uh, Georgia.

BOB:

1994 began badly for Nicky.

The Northridge earthquake

occurred in the early hours

in the San Fernando Valley

region of Los Angeles.

The northern half, which is the,

posher half is built on rock,

and rock communicates these

vibrations very thoroughly.

It's a good conductor.

So if you lived in the northern

half of Santa Monica,

your house did like that,

and the southern half of

Santa Monica is built on sand,

which doesn't conduct it

nearly as well.

All of a sudden,

the entire room started going

four feet in each direction.

The earth was like,

for a lack of a better word,

screaming and moaning

like these giant sounds

of, like, the earth grinding.

It was the strangest earthquake

because not only was it like,

you had to be walking

uphill almost

that the earth was, I mean,

it was moving in chunks,

and also it was going

from side to side as well.

The whole city's been decimated.

Power's out everywhere

and days of, you know,

reconstruction, if you will,

putting your life back together.

We could see fires starting up.

I mean, it was really scary.

And it was like being

on board ship all that night.

The aftershocks

just kept rolling through.

He had enough,

he said, "No, that's it.

I can't do this anymore."

And, uh, and he picked up

and, uh, moved to, to Nashville.

[Slow piano plays]

I'm sure that, um,

Nicky moving to Nashville

was the best thing for him.

It definitely was

the best thing for me.

There were people in Nashville

that were excited

that Nicky Hopkins

had moved to town.

I think we got there about,

um, in March of, um, '94.

BOB: Just as they were settling

into life in Nashville,

Nicky started to feel unwell.

He asked me

to take him to a chiropractor

because he had lower back pain,

and he never had

lower back pain.

And, and, um, he said that

the chiropractor said,

"I think that perhaps you might

want to make an appointment

to see your doctor"

because, uh, he suspected

something was wrong.

BOB: Two days later,

Nicky and Moira

celebrated Labor Day together.

I was feeling tired. I said,

I'm going to go up to bed.

And, uh, he said, "Well,

I'm just gonna stay down

for a little while.

I'm, you know..."

and, uh, so I went up to bed

and it was about,

I guess I, I don't know,

I'd fallen asleep, but I,

I heard him yell out,

and I went running downstairs,

and he was in excruciating pain.

And, um, I called, uh,

an ambulance.

I got him to the hospital,

and they wouldn't give him

anything to k*ll the pain.

They said they had to wait

for his doctor to arrive,

and he took his time.

And so, it was too late.

You know, Nicky couldn't

take it. His heart gave out.

I just thought I was so lucky,

you know,

um, to have the marriage I had.

I had a very,

very happy marriage.

And I shared my life

with a wonderful,

wonderful person, you know.

[Nostalgic music plays]

Being, you know, a young guy

at the top of his game

also battling this, you know,

chronic illness that

no one knows anything about.

And it's invisible, it's that

people don't really understand.

And I think that is, you know,

it's kind of heartbreaking

that, you know, he probably

should be still alive right now.

It's important

to remember people

who made music popular

and, uh, long lived

with their prowess

on an instrument

that really does take, uh,

some work

and some major talent to master.

And he, he certainly

was a master of it.

I think everyone remembers him

really fondly, and always have.

And, you know,

I miss Nicky a lot.

I can't, I can't really explain

just how brilliant he was.

But the reason why

we're sitting here today

is because he was

an astonishing musician.

The like of which

I've never come across since.

And if you are

musically inclined

and he had a piano around,

he could...

he could entrance you.

We became friends so easily.

It's hard not to be

a friend of, of Nicky's.

Nicky was a pure musician,

and his contributions

are purely musical.

And I think that

that deserves remembering.

I was talking to him

about his playing

and, uh, how detailed it was

and how precision he was.

And he says, well,

I'm Chopin.

And I said, "What?"

He said, "Yes,

I'm a reincarnation

of Frederick Chopin."

And I said, "Okay..."

And he did more than believe

that he was Frederick Chopin.

He knew that he was

so positive about that fact

that I just had to believe him.

Nicky did believe, um, that

he was Chopin in another life,

and he used to play, um,

he listened to a lot of Chopin

and he used to, you know,

play on the keyboards,

um, and piano.

If there was a piano around,

he'd play Chopin.

And I think that that

could very well be the case,

because he was just that talent,

talent on that

high spiritual,

uh, classical level.

I think he was.

Reincarnation is to do

with human beings.

So it's quite possible

what Nicky said is, is true.

But I would've thought

that if he was,

if he was Chopin

in his last lifetime,

he'd be a bit sick of

playing the piano.

I think he'd probably try

and be doing something else.

Um, you know.

[Laughs]

BOB: Nicky's musical career

spanned just over 30 years,

and during that time,

he played with some of

the greatest bands in the world.

His contributions

on their records

made him rock and roll's

greatest Session Man.

[Upbeat piano plays]