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00:00:10And on piano, the legendary Nicky Hopkins.
00:00:25It was this unique marriage of the rawness of the electric guitars and the rhythm section
00:00:32and then the wider palette of the piano.
00:00:36The piano says, has all the colors, can say everything.
00:00:39And a guy who's as talented as Nicky can take a simple song and fill it with all kinds
00:00:46of extra meaning and feeling.
00:00:48Nicky could do the absolute incredible, you would believe that Otis Spam was in the room,
00:00:54which for a white English kid in the 1960s was absolutely amazing.
00:00:58He didn't even realize how amazing he was until you would take his contribution out.
00:01:02And then he realized, oh man, that's, you know.
00:01:04He's adding stuff in there that broadens and deepens the songs, or he's like right
00:01:11out front.
00:01:12He got entranced.
00:01:13He could play just about anything.
00:01:17It was inspiring, he was talented, he was invisible.
00:01:23It's an instinct, it's an art form being a good session man.
00:01:28It absolutely blew my mind to see this list of such classic songs that are still being played
00:01:36today.
00:01:36And he performed on those.
00:01:38I started listening for what he's added and it's like, it's genius, absolute genius.
00:01:44Over a 30 year period, Nicky Hopkins would play on over 250 albums.
00:01:53In the golden age of rock and roll, bands consisted of guitar and drums until they realized that
00:02:01the piano added harmonic richness and melodic flair.
00:02:06Then along came the legendary pianist, Nicky Hopkins.
00:02:27And he was able to play on over 200 albums.
00:02:29You know the story, it was when I was a little kid and I was tall enough to reach up
00:02:33to play
00:02:34this, well, I didn't know what was up there, it was just this table thing and all of a sudden
00:02:37these things on the top, which were the keys, right, started making a noise and I got into
00:02:43it.
00:02:43Mum lifted me up, helped me for about three years and I picked it up.
00:02:48So by the time you were six, you were rocking out, huh?
00:02:52Almost.
00:02:53Yeah.
00:02:54He learned classical music to start with.
00:02:57He went to the Royal Academy of Music and then discovered rock and roll when he was in
00:03:02his teens.
00:03:02So he had both these strands, which is what I think one of the things that makes him unique.
00:03:08And so he could play very melodic semi-classical parts, but he also could play very beautiful
00:03:15gospel parts and very good blues playing.
00:03:19Nicky left the Royal Academy and its emphasis on classical music when he was 16 years old
00:03:25and joined three other aspiring musicians.
00:03:28They became the Savages.
00:03:32For Nicky, it was a raw entry into the world of rock and roll, boozy venues and shady nightclub.
00:03:39The 60s, if you were a teenager in the 1960s, you believed you could do anything.
00:03:49It was a land of opportunity then.
00:03:52It was fantastic to be in London in the 1960s.
00:03:56Well, at 16, yeah.
00:03:58We played local cinemas.
00:04:00Back in those days, they'd have a little group on before the movie, you know?
00:04:05We had so much great music coming from America, and unfortunately, you couldn't always see
00:04:10these artists, so that led to a great boom in British artists.
00:04:15The first pro gig I did was with this bizarre character called Screaming Lord Saj.
00:04:20Oh, yes.
00:04:21I remember Screaming Lord Saj.
00:04:23It was, you know, basic.
00:04:26It was very basic, very cheap, and none of us had any money.
00:04:30So you used to turn up, and sometimes you had to look for a poster, see where we were
00:04:34playing, and then find the gig.
00:04:35And then, of course, the whole club circuit developed on pubs, and that's where the young
00:04:41British bands really learned how to play and how to perform to audiences.
00:04:45All those clubs, you know, from Soho going out, all the way down to, you know, Crawdaddy
00:04:51in Richmond, or Eelpie Island in Twickenham, or the Rikki-Tikki in Windsor, they're all
00:04:56in the area where I lived.
00:04:58One of my favourite places was Eelpie Island on the Thames, where you had to cross a little
00:05:02bridge, and you had to pay tuppence to a little old lady.
00:05:06It was a toll.
00:05:12In November 1961, Nicky joined the legendary Cyril Davis.
00:05:20Cyril was a blues guy, a phenomenal blues harmonica player, who was with Alexis Kortner,
00:05:27and decided to leave Alexis to form his own band.
00:05:29And I understood why, because Alexis was playing the right material, but very insiditably.
00:05:33Cyril went off on his own, and made his own band, which was called the Cyril Davis All-Stars,
00:05:40and this included, amongst some other great players, Nicky Hopkins, a very young piano player.
00:05:47Cyril was a very aggressive guy who wanted an authentic Chicago blues band, and he actually
00:05:53took Such's band.
00:05:54We had gotten pissed off with Such for some reason, and left Such about a month before,
00:06:00and then all of a sudden the entire band, except for Such, was backing Cyril, and we filled
00:06:05out the marquee every Thursday night to capacity and then beyond.
00:06:10Nick and I were down at the club, and we went to see Cyril, you know, to see what his
00:06:14new
00:06:15band was like, and the piano player, he just blew us away.
00:06:21There's this little white kid, and he's sounding like he's in the back room of somewhere in
00:06:26Mississippi, or Chicago, or he's phenomenal, you know, and that was my first.
00:06:34Nick and I looked at each other, and I go, whoa, you know, where did Cyril find this guy?
00:06:40Star, he had a special star, which was this combination of gospel and classical that I'd never heard anyone else
00:06:46do.
00:06:46Seriously enough, it was during that period of doing the marquee every week that I met
00:06:51up with the Stones.
00:06:53Mm-hmm.
00:06:54That was what year now, Nicky, that you met up with the Stones?
00:06:56That's still the tail end of 62.
00:06:59Oh, wow.
00:07:00That early then.
00:07:01Oh, yeah.
00:07:01I see.
00:07:03In fact, they were just starting, and we were just starting.
00:07:05We already had our audience.
00:07:08Mm-hmm.
00:07:09They didn't, so they were our support back.
00:07:12When I first met him, when he was playing with Cyril Davis at the marquee, because we
00:07:17were opening for Cyril Davis for about five shows until we started to get a bit more applause
00:07:23than expected, and then we got fired because he didn't like the competition.
00:07:35In May 1963, Nicky was rushed into King Edward's Hospital in Park Royal with internal trouble
00:07:43and was put on the critical list.
00:07:45He was later diagnosed with Crohn's disease, which was complicated by losing his gallbladder,
00:07:52his left kidney, and suffering a collapsed lung.
00:07:55Crohn's disease is something where the guts effectively become very inflamed because the
00:08:04immune system isn't working properly.
00:08:06And, as one young musician will testify, Crohn's is no fun.
00:08:11It kind of came out of nowhere.
00:08:13I had symptoms for about three months of vomiting, diarrhoea, loss of weight, fatigue, and then
00:08:20it got to the point where I was rushed to hospital, and then I was quite quickly diagnosed with Crohn's.
00:08:26But then, certainly, very little was known and understood, and how to treat it even less.
00:08:33Trying to navigate your way through normal life, as well as being a musician as well,
00:08:37which is, you know, rock and roll and Crohn's don't go hand in hand.
00:08:41Nicky's unexpected hospitalisation was to be the start of an illness that plagued him all his life.
00:08:50The way I ran into or found out about Nicky is there was a...
00:08:56My go-to drummer at the time was Bobby Graham, who was one of the great drummers in England.
00:09:02And he told me that he saw this kid named Nicky Hopkins playing piano, and he was terrific,
00:09:09and I should check him out, so I did, and he was absolutely correct.
00:09:15Cyril Davis came in one Sunday, and he brought this young lad with him,
00:09:19who looked terribly ill, I must say.
00:09:22The one thing I remember...
00:09:23He was so thin.
00:09:24He was incredibly thin anyway, but he...
00:09:25He turned up in clothes he'd obviously been wearing before he'd been in hospital.
00:09:30Apparently he was playing the piano, so I might...
00:09:32He started playing, and I'd never heard anything close to it.
00:09:37I know.
00:09:37So when the session finished, I went up to him and I said,
00:09:40well, give me your number, and I'm sure I can get you lots of work, and da-da-da.
00:09:44And he said, well, I'm not available at the moment,
00:09:46because I'm still not recovered from these operations I've had.
00:09:50So I said, well, here's my number, you ring me when you're feeling up to it,
00:09:54and now I can get you lots of work.
00:09:56Which he did, and I did.
00:09:57I know.
00:09:58Yeah.
00:09:58Lynn, who was a producer and engineer, recognised instantly
00:10:02that this guy was going to be an important session player,
00:10:05because he covered so much, so many basses.
00:10:08And that's where Nicky Hopkins could come in,
00:10:10and as a classically trained pianist,
00:10:13who also, miraculously, could play in so many different styles,
00:10:16whether it was Boogie Woogie, The Blues, Rock and Roll, he could do it all.
00:10:23Ray wrote a poignant kind of bit of a dig, but respectful song called Session Man.
00:10:31Nicky plays this incredible Bach-esque type intro on the harpsichord.
00:10:37I first saw Nicky's name playing harpsichord, I think, on a Kinks record.
00:10:43And, you know, from day one, he was a guy that you would know that's him,
00:10:49and you'd pay attention, because he always brought something beautiful out of the song.
00:10:58At Play Studios, they had a harpsichord for orchestras,
00:11:04and we used to double with it, and instead of having Nicky,
00:11:07and they were able to play the thing.
00:11:09So it became integrated because it was there, and Ray liked the sounds,
00:11:14and I loved the sounds.
00:11:16Because the bands wanted keyboards on their records,
00:11:19but actually, in most cases, they were known as guitar bands.
00:11:22It was simple, basic, and what we wanted, sexually driven kind of aggression.
00:11:31Nicky had the ability to meld things together without getting in the way.
00:11:36And, of course, he was technically brilliant anyway.
00:11:39These are people who, you know, worked every day.
00:11:42This was their job, is to make great music, and to make good music better.
00:11:46And I think Nicky was a prime member of that fraternity.
00:11:51And I think he worked very well with Ray, and extending Ray's vision of what to play on a piece.
00:11:58If he took Nicky away, it was like the magic disappeared.
00:12:03You don't know what the magic is, but something was missing if he took his performance away from the recording.
00:12:16So if we look back at some of those early Who records, we can see, like, evidence of Nicky's musicality.
00:12:22I had no idea what he was going to do, or how he was going to do it, or what
00:12:27Sheltame expected of him, how he was going to fit in.
00:12:31But, of course, I did know who he was. He'd played on Country Line Special.
00:12:36And really not get a sense of where this incredible blues, high-speed blues piano came from.
00:12:45He would just be in the background, and Pete would say,
00:12:48OK, we need some piano, we need this. And Nicky would just get up and play.
00:12:51So there's no clash of egos going on, and The Who had massive clashes of egos in that band.
00:12:58Not bad, but that's why I think Nicky probably fitted in.
00:13:03Later, on Who's Next and Who by Numbers, Nicky's contributions were very different.
00:13:09They were very creative. He was much more rounded, much more straightforward to work with.
00:13:15He didn't fall back into just doing his party pieces. He was really quite brilliant.
00:13:25And what he's doing is, he's sort of, he's adding tension.
00:13:30Because most blues songs are kind of like that, medium tempo.
00:13:33But then he'd sort of double it up, you know.
00:13:35So instead of playing the same rhythm as the guitars, which could be, you know...
00:13:43And Nicky might do...
00:13:53And especially on numbers like the Ox, which is an instrumental by The Who.
00:13:58And just in the background, you can hear this frantic piano going in.
00:14:11Going about halfway through the tune, there's a piano break, and it's very clearly this kind of thing.
00:14:22Which, you know, he runs this riff throughout the whole tune with, you know, a few little variations as well.
00:14:28And, you know, this sounds very much like a jam, and they sort of do sort of merge into a
00:14:3212 bar.
00:14:39Nicky's there with these crazy...
00:14:47You know, in dispersing it with the original riff.
00:14:49You know, in 1967, I was doing Cat Stevens' first album, Matthew & Son.
00:15:02And Nicky turned up and did the album, along with the other musicians.
00:15:07And Nicky was fantastic.
00:15:10There's one track on the Cat Stevens' album, Matthew & Son, called Granny.
00:15:14And he just played a great piano on that. It's piano heavy.
00:15:19He did a fantastic job.
00:15:21Nicky added to the mix.
00:15:24I mean, in other words, he wasn't just an ancillary.
00:15:27I mean, what you have with most session musicians, they come in, they do their job for three hours, they
00:15:32disappear.
00:15:34Nicky wasn't like that. Nicky did want to do it again if he felt he could make it better.
00:15:40P.P. Arnold, Pat Arnold was one of the Iquettes, Ike and Tina Turner's backing group, three girl singers.
00:15:47And I had a phone call from Andrew Lou Goldham, who was the Stones' manager.
00:15:52And he said, I've signed this girl from the Iquettes, and we're going to call her P.P. Arnold.
00:15:57We were brainstorming what material I would record for the first album.
00:16:03I was called the first lady of immediate records.
00:16:10So Mike Hurst, who also produced Cat Stevens, brought this great song to the meeting, which was the first cut
00:16:20is the deepest.
00:16:20If people ask me what I'm proudest of, probably there are two records.
00:16:26One's a Cat Stevens track, I Love My Dog, strangely enough, the first one.
00:16:31The other one is the first cut is the deepest.
00:16:34When I came into the studio and I met Nicky, he was this really lovely, sweet guy, you know, very
00:16:42quiet, very calming.
00:16:44So I felt really this calming effect from him that helped me to relax because I was kind of shy
00:16:55and introverted as well.
00:16:57So, and then, that isn't until he started playing the piano, you know, and I realized this guy is there,
00:17:06this beautiful, sweet guy, no ego coming off of him.
00:17:11And he's like the real deal, you know.
00:17:23Was it serendipity that their paths crossed in those early days at the Marquee Club?
00:17:28Who knows?
00:17:29For Nicky, the Rolling Stones would become a big part of his life.
00:17:35When Nicky came into the Rolling Stones scene and all of a sudden this guitar band had this whole other
00:17:43color to it, or a bunch of colors.
00:17:45We were coming up with songs that are absolutely beyond Stu's, let alone capability, dreams.
00:17:54He didn't want to know.
00:17:55So I think that Stu said, the only guy that can handle this is Nicky Hopkins.
00:18:01She's a Rainbow, absolutely classic Stones song, with some beautiful piano from Nicky on it.
00:18:07This great introduction, which really sets up the song.
00:18:10And again, you know, hugely identifying part of the song.
00:18:15So the intro's got this very elegantly, beautifully played piano.
00:18:21She was quite happy not to be playing what Nicky was on the songs that Nicky was.
00:18:26And he said, you know, if you ever did a major or minor, you went through minor chords.
00:18:31He said, I don't play any of those Chinese shit.
00:18:34And I remember hearing that piano, and it was this haunting intro, and then it was anticipated.
00:18:40And it kind of like didn't follow a click.
00:18:44It was just like this free form thing.
00:18:46And it got my attention as a musician early on.
00:18:53He had an intuitive feeling of where the piano should sit and where it should be.
00:19:02Because you're playing with two other stringed instruments, and in a way you're a bridge, you know, between the rest
00:19:09of the band being on piano.
00:19:12I don't think Nicky knew how, you know, good he was.
00:19:16Or just, you know, his instincts for the right note at the right place.
00:19:23So how could I not do justice by mentioning Sympathy for the Devil and Nicky's contribution to that?
00:19:32Very simple on the intro, block chords, but he does one very cool thing.
00:19:36And so you got...
00:19:45He just does that little lift to bring it back to the tonic of the chords.
00:19:51So...
00:19:58He does that as you go through the song.
00:20:00And then by the get to the end, and he's doing this great figure using a seven chord like this.
00:20:24You know, Nicky's just playing this piano part that sits nicely with the band, doesn't stick out too much, but
00:20:30you know he's there.
00:20:31So we've got this.
00:20:33But whenever you sort of started on a track and sort of just put some basics on, suddenly Nicky had
00:20:39just come out with a riff or a melody line or something, which completely changed the song.
00:20:47I felt this thing between Nicky and me, because I'm churning out songs, you know, and they're only half written,
00:20:56half made, and we're boiling it in the studio kind of thing, cooking it up.
00:21:03And the way that Nicky would come on to what I was just sort of barely laying down.
00:21:10Nicky and I would look at each other and go, because it was the other part that was in my
00:21:15head, but I couldn't put my finger on.
00:21:20Just always adding that textural thing and then sort of popping out of the texture when called upon.
00:21:26The way that Nicky plays that and swings it and voices it and chooses to play these chords here and
00:21:33his just incredible rhythm, yeah, that's what drives the track to me.
00:21:38That and Keith's bass, Keith's bass playing on that is insane.
00:21:42And somehow, nearly with every other song, Nicky would find that part.
00:21:47And so we also had this sort of strange partnership between ourselves, you know, because I would count on him
00:21:53sometimes and say, I've got a half a song here, Nicky.
00:21:57Yeah, find me the other part, you know, yeah. And every time he'd come up with it, incredible player.
00:22:02No, he was stunning, stunning player. I've never...
00:22:05I think it's particularly underlined in the period of time with the Rolling Stones, where he was featured, pretty much.
00:22:15Yeah, yeah. When McTally was in the band.
00:22:17Yeah.
00:22:17Those albums, which you'll, you'll quote.
00:22:20Trega's Band Quits, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Let It Bleed.
00:22:24Yeah.
00:22:25All those four were stunning albums.
00:22:27Right.
00:22:28One of my favourite Stones songs, Monkey Man, I just, I played that till the cows come home.
00:22:34His introduction on that song, it's like a, you know, it's like a, a great movie scene. The first shot
00:22:40you see is like, you know, wow, this is going to be great.
00:22:44Just very distinctive chords.
00:22:54You know, Nicky plays them great. And I'm sure he came up with that arpeggio idea rather than just, you
00:23:00know, he could have played them as, played them as chords.
00:23:03Or even down here.
00:23:06But he chose to play them like that. And it adds an instant atmosphere to the song.
00:23:13It's so iconic what he's doing there. You know, you think of iconic guitar riffs. Well, he was the master
00:23:18and the creator of a lot of iconic piano riffs.
00:23:21And outside blues piano, you can't think of a lot of other people whose riffs just hang in your mind
00:23:29the way Nicky's do.
00:23:31In total, Nicky would contribute to 14 Rolling Stones albums.
00:23:41I remember listening to Revolution from the Beatles as a kid. And I just remember hearing that crazy, crazy, you
00:23:49know, electric piano solo and what he did at the end of the song.
00:23:53And I thought that was really cool because, you know, understanding that the Beatles were a quartet with two guitars,
00:23:59bass and a drum.
00:24:00They didn't have a keyboardist. So it's like, well, who is that?
00:24:03And what do you do when the Beatles call you in to play on something?
00:24:06I mean, Nicky walked in and played this solo, which is an absolutely killing solo. It's got some really cool
00:24:12ideas in it.
00:24:13It goes something like this.
00:24:34Again, it's an absolutely rollicking solo. And it's got these kind of cool ideas.
00:24:42Just kind of a Nicky Hopkins trademark in the sense that he's got that kind of movement, that voicing that
00:24:50is changing.
00:24:51It's not just he's actually got some inner voice movement in that.
00:24:58The remarkable thing about playing on a Beatles album was that it gave Nicky his first grand slam.
00:25:04It meant that he'd now recorded with the Kinks, the Who, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.
00:25:14Nicky was not the star. He was the sideman. His job was to make the records better and not to
00:25:19go, look, look at me.
00:25:20And I think that as in that role, he was much more purely and essentially a musician.
00:25:34I couldn't employ him full time. And he was too good to sit around and do nothing.
00:25:39So I knew all those guys and I said, you know, I've got a great piano player for you to
00:25:46check him out.
00:25:47And of course, all of them wound up using them.
00:25:50Everybody would always talk about Nicky Hopkins this, Nicky Hopkins that.
00:25:54And suddenly I became very aware that he was playing on everything.
00:25:58Nicky had three years of session work in London where he played with absolutely everybody.
00:26:03Each record, each record album we did. And then it was done and then it was, oh, well, what's the
00:26:10next one going to be like?
00:26:11And we'd get on and do the next one.
00:26:13It was never with any viewpoint of having made a record that people were going to listen to 10 years,
00:26:1915 years, 20 years, 25 years in the future.
00:26:21I think most people that work with Nicky, they get him to come and do one song and then they
00:26:29suddenly realize, oh, he'd be great on that other song.
00:26:33He said to me, when he was working with Eric, he said, you go over and Eric could say, oh,
00:26:40that was wonderful.
00:26:41So do you, let me show you this one. Eric Clapton, I mean, yeah.
00:26:45He was one of the busiest and most successful session players and then decided he would go back on the
00:26:51road and join the Jeff Beck Group.
00:26:55The Jeff Beck Group didn't ease Nicky's workload, but it took him to America, a country that was to have
00:27:04a big impact on him.
00:27:06The Truth album would introduce the talents of Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood.
00:27:13And man, Nicky's feel and the notes that pour out of his soul and land underneath Rod Stewart's vocal and
00:27:20Jeff Beck's guitar are absolutely perfect for such a badass rock track.
00:27:26He would use different styles that were more heavy handed. He could enter into which is rock and roll.
00:27:34Well, now here was Nicky with that classical training, being very soulful, bluesy, innovative and improvising, but with the precision
00:27:41of a classical player.
00:27:43He had this, how would you say, cachet. He had this cachet of information that he could cross reference.
00:27:51He could put classical Beethoven or whatever instances you would use.
00:27:58The way Nicky played, there was like a, there was a soulful precision.
00:28:03So even when he was improvising and going crazy, it was always really kind of in place, but very soulful.
00:28:17Michael Czecik was doing a radio documentary and part of it was recording an interview with Glenn Johns.
00:28:24And that took a couple of hours actually. And Glenn and I started talking about recording sound and he invited
00:28:33me over to Wally Heider recording where he was doing sessions with Steve Miller.
00:28:38I took him to San Francisco to do a Steve Miller album, which he was brilliant on.
00:28:45I was a sound engineer myself and I was picking up tips from Glenn as I watched him for the
00:28:53duration of recording the Steve Miller album, You're Saving Grace.
00:28:57And he stayed and he, I think he got hit off by Quicksilver Messenger Service and he played with them.
00:29:03Yeah, he did, yeah.
00:29:04I was blown away by his keyboard playing. He was, I saw that he was above and beyond just about
00:29:12anybody I'd ever heard.
00:29:13After working a long day, we were listening to an old Steve Miller band album.
00:29:17And we were listening to You're Saving Grace, which is, has a song on it, Baby's House, which Steve Miller
00:29:23had Nicky Hopkins on piano and organ.
00:29:27And it's my favourite performance of Nicky's.
00:29:29People were desperate to try and follow in the footsteps of Sergeant Pepper, really, I suppose.
00:29:34That's what started it all. And of course, an album by then could sell in millions.
00:29:38That's why it was so important to spend a lot of time in the studios with the best musicians available,
00:29:42to produce the finest album you could do.
00:29:46Nicky was still playing with the Jeff Beck Group, but internal friction within the band had reached breaking point with
00:29:53the departure of Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart.
00:29:56So he stayed in Mill Valley, north of San Francisco.
00:30:01Immediately, having now played with the Stones on Famous Records and The Beatles, he immediately was embraced as rock royalty.
00:30:09You know, the San Francisco bands were basically, it was kind of like Motown. I mean, they were a family.
00:30:16Now, all the San Francisco bands at this time were recording at Wally Hyder's studio, which was still moderately new
00:30:22down on Post Street.
00:30:23And people were just hanging out all the time.
00:30:27Usually, if somebody came to town, like Nicky did for Steve Miller, he would get with this family and was
00:30:34meeting members of the dead and members of Quicksilver and the airplane.
00:30:39And he ended up just, I think he fell in love with the town and decided to stay for a
00:30:46while.
00:30:49Now, I wish that I could say who it was that got Nicky involved in this, but whoever it was,
00:30:56good thinking, because he did some incredible playing on that record.
00:30:59Nicky's left hand would just solidify, it was like putting pinpoints and foundations around a building.
00:31:06As he'd fill in other harmonic aspects to it, there wasn't a left hand playing rhythm and a right hand
00:31:12doing melody.
00:31:13He would work truly like a concert pianist, like a classical musician, and with all of his training, the rest
00:31:20of us would just fall right in line.
00:31:22Before, as we'd work on the songs, Nicky would come in and put that, just the solidness into the track.
00:31:28He should have played at Woodstock with the Jeff Beck group, but Jeff Beck sulked and went home.
00:31:33But Nicky still played at Woodstock because he was on stage with the Jefferson Airplane.
00:31:37Woodstock, at the beginning of the tour, was just another gig we had. We had to be somewhere else a
00:31:43couple of days later.
00:31:43I don't think anybody had an idea what was going to happen whatsoever, and I remember that when we, when
00:31:49the airplane, everybody's got their own story about this, but we went on about 18 hours late.
00:31:54If we were to do a festival like that today, it would be, I hope I never work this gig
00:32:00again as long as I live. I mean, for a lot of reasons.
00:32:02Even though the world was really in a really bad state, really, like we were going through the Vietnam War,
00:32:12civil rights, but the youth were bringing it all together. We were trying to change things. So it was a
00:32:22time of change for humanity.
00:32:24I will never play for a crowd as big as it is, as long as I live. And when you,
00:32:28when we actually see that, it's a, it just, it defies, it defies description.
00:32:33Woodstock would later be regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history. And the volunteer song played at Woodstock
00:32:40by Jefferson Airplane has been described as one of the great anti-war protest songs of the sixties.
00:32:49Nicky had by this time met up with John Cipollina, founder member of Quicksilver messenger service.
00:32:56John and David Freyberg from Quicksilver came up to see me and they said that, uh, they were short one
00:33:05guy because Gary Duncan had left.
00:33:08And it was just those two and Greg Elmore. Um, so they needed a fourth for the album. I said,
00:33:14would I stay on?
00:33:15Like many of the San Francisco groups, Quicksilver messenger service with John Cipollina was, um, a little bit more freewheeling
00:33:26than the groups in the UK.
00:33:29They went off on tangents sometimes. And Nicky being an improvisational piano player loved that. He loved doing things off
00:33:38the cuff.
00:33:39John and Nicky, uh, realized very soon that they had very much in common.
00:33:45And ended up staying at his house and, uh, they became extremely close.
00:33:50Nicky recorded Shady Grove with, uh, Quicksilver. When Quicksilver had kind of changed slightly.
00:33:59More than anything, I just enjoyed having John as a friend more than anything.
00:34:05Nicky hadn't just found a friend. He was welcomed and truly embraced by John Cipollina's wider family.
00:34:13They loved him because they get, you know, it was a musical family. Um, John's mother Evelyn had been a
00:34:19concert pianist.
00:34:20She was a protege of Jose E. Turby and she was a piano teacher for decades.
00:34:26And, um, like minds attracted. And, and, you know, Nicky could go up there and just sit and play piano.
00:34:33And, and he fit, he fit right in with what was a musical, a totally musical family. He was one
00:34:41of the family.
00:34:59I know John knew Terry from before. And at some point, when, when Quicksilver was kind of winding down,
00:35:07John and Terry started doing things together. And by that time, Nicky was, like I said, one of the family.
00:35:13I remember Nicky inviting me down to play bass on a track called Rainbow.
00:35:18He was producing in San Francisco for a Terry Dolan album for Warner Bros.
00:35:23Nicky produced side one of the project, but he had to go off on a long stones tour.
00:35:28So they asked me, Terry and Nicky asked me to produce side two.
00:35:33I like working with Terry. I found, I found that to be a real fun gig to do.
00:35:38And we do actually did quite a few gigs. I just fly up there for the weekend, do a gig
00:35:43with Terry and come back again.
00:35:46We should do that umpteen times.
00:35:47And with Terry and the Pirates, while they were together so long, Nicky played many, many sessions through the years
00:35:55with Terry.
00:35:56And Terry had many, many musicians.
00:36:00Often described as a Marion County's boy club of professional players.
00:36:05Led by Terry Dolan, Terry and the Pirates had become a kind of revolving door for musicians who were between
00:36:12jobs.
00:36:18Then we did the gig in Hamburg, which was a television show, and then slept about six hours.
00:36:23And then the next morning came back to the States. I couldn't believe it.
00:36:26It's like we were in Europe for about three days and did three gigs.
00:36:30In three different cities, hundreds of miles apart. It was nuts.
00:36:34But I know that Nicky enjoyed playing with both Quicksilver and Terry Dolan.
00:36:40And there were a couple of other groups that he played with in San Francisco that were essentially anchors for
00:36:48him to give him reason to stay in his home in Mill Valley.
00:36:59It was great to come to somewhere like the Bay Area and find some people who weren't into all this
00:37:05being all this self-important crap.
00:37:09I mean, one could just be oneself. I thought it was great. Kindred spirits and all that.
00:37:16Jerry Garcia was best known as guitarist with the Grateful Dead, who were part of the counterculture of the 1960s.
00:37:27Nicky was a rock and roll player. And I mean, aside from everything else he could do, he could play
00:37:32rock and roll piano like like nobody else.
00:37:35I mean, I think his major God was Jerry Lewis more than Chopin. And he brought that rock and roll
00:37:43sensibility, which Jerry loved.
00:37:47And it was just it was something different. You know, Jerry was always looking for something different, whether it was
00:37:55his bluegrass band or his Jerry Garcia band or the Saunders Garcia band.
00:38:01And he was just looking for something different and Nicky wasn't was there.
00:38:12In 1976 when Starsky and Hutch was a huge television hit David soul recorded an album entitled David soul.
00:38:23I don't know David soul. I know what he did with Starsky and Hutch and I know that David soul.
00:38:30Did his own solo album, which actually was pretty popular.
00:38:34And Nicky played on that.
00:38:36Nicky Hopkins playing on David souls. So this is something I didn't know about. This is a revelation.
00:38:42And I find the thought incredibly entertaining.
00:38:45You know.
00:38:47It's so funny that a guy who would be like a famous actor. Well, I want to be a rock
00:38:51star.
00:38:52Or whatever, you know, it was all wanted to have more exposure and music was one way to do it.
00:38:57He was a guitar player from what I understand. And he had a good voice and he wanted to use
00:39:06it.
00:39:06I don't know that he and David soul had any kind of relationship.
00:39:10I don't know if Nicky had any relationship with David souls producer or where that came from.
00:39:14But he was just, he was just the gold star session piano player.
00:39:19I don't hate you.
00:39:22Tell me how do you sleep at night.
00:39:31Hit it.
00:39:43Jumping up.
00:39:44Jumping up.
00:39:45Tell you anything.
00:39:50So it was really the Beatles and quickly the stones that had melody with the soul of the old blues
00:39:57guys.
00:39:57That was like an explosion and a revelation, an emotional revelation.
00:40:02It was like a possession.
00:40:04And I fell in love with rock and roll through the Beatles and stones.
00:40:07The other side of Nicky was that he could be quite delicate as well.
00:40:10I mean, I wasn't involved in the Lennon stuff.
00:40:13But I want to imagine if you listen to actually what he's actually playing, it's very delicate.
00:40:17You just have to pick it out.
00:40:19Nicky had crossed paths with John Lennon a few times over the years.
00:40:23It came as no surprise to Nicky when John invited him to be a part of the sessions for his
00:40:29Imagine album.
00:40:30Looking around, you know, I saw Klaus.
00:40:33I already knew obviously who he was.
00:40:35And so I was very, it just added to the, to the other worldly feeling that I had being there
00:40:43in John Lennon's little studio with John and Phil.
00:40:48Well, the, the track I think that Nicky liked the most was, uh, Jealous Guy.
00:40:54You couldn't go wrong.
00:40:55You know, it was John and his song and he's singing and he loved the song obviously.
00:40:59And, and it was, uh, about, you know, one of the people he loves most in the world.
00:41:05And, you know, and the whole thing was set up to just move you.
00:41:09The listener, people who have heard that song over the years, you know, they, they hear it and they, they
00:41:15feel that, that wonderful little kind of vibe.
00:41:17And Nicky Hopkins to me was a huge part of that.
00:41:24Nicky's sound on the piano was like that of an English garden to me.
00:41:31So for example, in Nicky's music, I would say something like Jealous Guy and Angie would be good examples of
00:41:42where he will repeat little patterns.
00:41:44And it's quite subliminal, I think, for the listener.
00:41:47I could feel John responding, uh, to our playing.
00:41:53And I love that. I've always loved that.
00:41:56Uh, when you're in the studio and you're, and you're making a record, you, you, you can't help but feel
00:42:02everybody's vibe.
00:42:04Nicky had such respect for John and, and his abilities, you know.
00:42:09And, um, I know that he enjoyed, uh, working on the Imagine album.
00:42:18There's been a lot of speculation that John played the piano on Imagine and not Nicky.
00:42:24Moira Hopkins sees it as making perfect sense.
00:42:29You know, that was such a big song that John should be playing the piano for that particular song.
00:42:36And because it was like the name of the album as well, wasn't it?
00:42:40It was very important.
00:42:43So I'm on piano on the, on most of the rest of that album, which was great.
00:42:50And, uh, of course, John was such a unique character.
00:42:53I found that John was very into him be just being himself anyway and getting things done.
00:42:59Uh, John was brilliant because he could get things done very quickly, which was why.
00:43:04Because I asked him once why he moved to New York.
00:43:07And he said, because it's the only place that can keep up with him.
00:43:09I thought, yeah, okay, well, that makes sense.
00:43:16Nicky was well-liked by all of the ex-Beatles and Paul McCartney was no exception.
00:43:21So I used to drive him places, you know, and, um, so I, he said, uh, oh, well, he said,
00:43:29um, Paul wants me to go down to Wintersy.
00:43:33He wants me to come down to the studio.
00:43:37So I, I drove him down and, um, you know, went in with him.
00:43:42And, um, when Paul, uh, saw that Nicky had arrived, he came up and hugged him.
00:43:48And over his shoulder, he said to me, oh, he said, it's been so long since I've seen him.
00:43:54He's a, and he was so very happy to see him, you know.
00:43:57Despite Paul McCartney's admiration for him, Nicky was asked to audition for Paul's Wings.
00:44:04He'd known Paul for over 20 years.
00:44:07He didn't join Wings.
00:44:09I, I actually have no proof of it, but I, I think that because, uh, you know, Linda was, was
00:44:19playing, um,
00:44:21that, uh, maybe, maybe she didn't feel so comfortable with Nicky being there on the, you know, on, on piano.
00:44:33In 1989, Paul invited Nicky to play on his album, Flowers in the Dirt.
00:44:39Almost 18 years on from playing on the Imagine album in 1971, Nicky achieved his second Grand Slam.
00:44:48He'd now played on the solo albums of all four Beatles.
00:44:54First of all, the, the thing you want to do if you're, uh, a person that plays on records,
00:45:00the, the thing you pray for is that it's a, it's a great song to be able to play on.
00:45:06Different from the production of his previous albums,
00:45:09George Harrison carefully chose a small core of musicians to support him.
00:45:15He included Nicky Hopkins.
00:45:16But George, when he, when I heard, uh, that little song, Give Me Love,
00:45:24it just did the same thing only in a little bit of a different way than John's, uh, Jealous Guy
00:45:30did.
00:45:31It was, it just, you just knew exactly what to play.
00:45:35And, uh, and with, with Nicky playing those chords the way he would play those chords, and with the touch
00:45:48that he played them, it just, it wasn't anything you could do, uh, uh, wrong.
00:45:55You, you couldn't go wrong.
00:45:57He had this invaluable ability to realize where to start playing in the song.
00:46:04You don't have to play from the top, and where to play in relative, in relation to the melody, and
00:46:11just what can break your heart with a few notes up, notes up high.
00:46:16You know, those guys had him on, uh, on their records for that reason, because he could elevate, uh, a
00:46:24song to a place that it might not have gotten to.
00:46:27Nicky would come up with these little vignettes that were so memorable, you know, you would hear it and you'd
00:46:33say, wow, that, that makes that song.
00:46:36That creativity, that ability to come up with vignettes effortlessly added to and made songs better.
00:46:44Something another ex-Beatle understood.
00:46:47I'm choosing Photograph from Ringo Starr because...
00:46:51Really?
00:46:52Yes.
00:46:53Because, no, it's, it's a beautiful song.
00:46:56It's certainly one of the more obscure ones.
00:46:58Nice, simple pop song.
00:47:00The essence of that song, again, you'd have to point to Nicky.
00:47:04I would have to, anyway.
00:47:17The arrangement was great overall.
00:47:20Everything about all the playing and everything.
00:47:22But Nicky's touch, you know, it's just another example of having Nicky Hopkins and a Beatle together and I'm in
00:47:33the room with them.
00:47:33That's just a great, great, it, it doesn't get any better than that for me, personally.
00:47:46So I have two favorite Nicky Hopkins tracks.
00:47:49The first one is called Dreamer off the album, The Tin Man Was a Dreamer.
00:47:54And man, his piano playing and the way he's playing feels next to the orchestra is absolutely exquisite.
00:48:04Nicky was working with George Harrison during the week and at weekends, he recorded his own solo album, The Tin
00:48:12Man Was a Dreamer.
00:48:13Helped, of course, by some of his mates, including George.
00:48:18Every piano player that I've, I've known since those days, and I've talked about Nicky, they, they all bow.
00:48:29You know, he, he just was one of those unusual beauties that comes around once in a while.
00:48:36I didn't know it at the time. Well, why was he called the Tin Man?
00:48:41He collected tea tins, English tea tins, you know, because some of the artwork on these things, especially when you,
00:48:48it was pretty incredible.
00:48:49But also on The Tin Man Was a Dreamer is this, is this version of his, of his song, Edward,
00:48:55The Mad Shirt Grinder.
00:49:16The 70s were his most successful period in his life.
00:49:20He was commuting across the Atlantic to play with the Stones and with John Lennon.
00:49:26And countless sessions in Los Angeles.
00:49:30Nicky had returned to London to be part of the Rolling Stones' latest album, Let It Bleed.
00:49:35Bill Wyman picks up the story.
00:49:38Yeah, we all arrived at the studio and Rykuda came and hung out.
00:49:43And Keef didn't like that, so Keef went home, I think.
00:49:46And it just, it just, just us, wasn't it?
00:49:49And we didn't know what to do, so we just, Nicky just started jamming.
00:49:53And then we just sort of jammed and fooled around, didn't we?
00:49:58And Mick just threw in bits and pieces and...
00:50:00It was completely spontaneous.
00:50:03And it was just a laugh.
00:50:04And I realised that something unusual could happen, so I, I ran, I started running the tape.
00:50:09It was a very stoned thought was the title.
00:50:14Um, I had become Edward on some stone sessions, um, because Keith, it was at Olympic, which was a huge
00:50:23area, huge floor area.
00:50:25Keith was tuning his guitars up and he was yelling at me because the, the headphones weren't working.
00:50:32And so it was hard to hear and he said, Nicky, give me an E.
00:50:35I said, what?
00:50:36He said, give me an E.
00:50:37I said, can't hear you.
00:50:38Give me an E for Edward.
00:50:39So I became Edward.
00:50:44The first time I met Nicky Hopkins, I believe was on the sessions for Harry Nilsson for the Son of
00:50:52Schmilson record.
00:50:53Son of Schmilson was an eclectic mixture of styles.
00:50:58It accentuated Nilsson's reputation for producing anarchic and eccentric work.
00:51:05Yeah, that was a, that's a good way to describe, uh, Harry Nilsson.
00:51:09He was an anarchist, uh, to some degree, but you know, you're breaking my heart.
00:51:14That's typical, uh, Harry Nilsson, fun and, uh, speaking his mind and, uh, you know, little, little dirty words here
00:51:22once in a while.
00:51:23It's not really a dirty word anymore, is it?
00:51:26I mean, Nilsson is not only a great singer and composer, but he's an excellent pianist.
00:51:30And he played on several tracks by Nilsson.
00:51:33I think it was probably during that time in L.A. when there was a lot of partying going on,
00:51:38like the Hollywood vampires and John Lennon and Keith Moon going a bit nuts in the studio.
00:51:44And I imagine Nicky was part of that party.
00:51:47And maybe that night Nilsson was too drunk.
00:51:50So, Zebra, you play the piano.
00:51:51Harry Nilsson thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated what Nicky brought to the recording sessions.
00:51:58The end result? Nicky played on nine out of the 11 tracks.
00:52:08He sounded, he was a white man from Sheffield, uh, England, right?
00:52:14And, but he sounded like a black man that had maybe been born in Mississippi.
00:52:19And, uh, and he was just extraordinary, Joe.
00:52:25Just incredible.
00:52:27Nicky's friendship with Joe Cocker was, from the outset, unlikely.
00:52:32The wild party man from Sheffield and the quiet, retiring piano player.
00:52:37It's not so much Nicky Hopkins' intro to, um, You Are So Beautiful, which is, um, genius.
00:52:47Um, but it's his touch in general.
00:52:51Um, his sense of melody.
00:52:54But he, I didn't even think his fingers were moving.
00:52:57He had such a beautiful touch.
00:53:00There's, You Are So Beautiful, and there's Bridge Over Troubled Water.
00:53:05Larry Nectar, on piano.
00:53:08And I, I put them on the same level.
00:53:12It's a song that Nicky was particularly proud of.
00:53:15Um, and you can see why.
00:53:16It's a beautiful piano part.
00:53:18It has different textures in.
00:53:20He varies which register he's in to bring different weight into different sections.
00:53:25Uh, and it really sort of shows the, the kind of sensitivity and vulnerability of the lyrics.
00:53:31But Nicky's playing on You Are So Beautiful.
00:53:35It's just, I mean, I get goosebumps when I listen to it every time.
00:53:41You know, to this day, it's one of the most beautiful backing tracks for any person.
00:53:47And, of course, it was Joe Gaga.
00:53:49In 1976, Joe, who'd been struggling with debts, agreed on a tour of New Zealand, Australia, and South America.
00:53:58They got along really well.
00:53:59I think when Joe decided to go back out on the road again, he wanted Nicky and Bobby Keys with
00:54:07him.
00:54:08And, uh, they had all sorts of adventures.
00:54:11This was before Nicky actually went to rehab.
00:54:20There's a track on the Airwaves album called The Dreamer.
00:54:24And that's probably the outstanding piano track.
00:54:27At one point, the song reverts back to the intro, which is just acoustic guitar and little sprinkles of piano
00:54:35on.
00:54:36And then me playing guitar with the volume knob.
00:54:40I listen to it to this day and it's just tears.
00:54:45Badfinger originated from the UK, but had morphed into a West Coast band.
00:54:51Joe tells us about recording their album, Airwaves.
00:54:54So, uh, we discussed Nicky and Joe and Tom had run into him at Abbey Road or working with the
00:55:03Beatles a few times.
00:55:04And, uh, the name came up.
00:55:06And me, I went twist, twist my arm, you know.
00:55:09It was a dream come true having him play piano.
00:55:13Uh, I don't know what it is about English guys.
00:55:16They don't drive.
00:55:18None of them drove at the time.
00:55:20They were like,
00:55:22Uh, well, we don't drive.
00:55:24We get driven around.
00:55:27Okay.
00:55:27Go pick Nicky up.
00:55:29He's living in, uh, Canoga Park.
00:55:31I get the address and bring him to rehearsal.
00:55:36Showed up at the front door and knock on the door.
00:55:40Guy standing there in his underwear.
00:55:46Guy messing around with his eyes and his hair is all messed up.
00:55:51And it's Joe Cocker opening the front door.
00:55:55And he looked like John Belushi imitating Joe Cocker.
00:55:59Apparently they'd been up having too much fun the night before.
00:56:03And they were sharing a place together at the time.
00:56:05That was the first time I'd ever met Nicky.
00:56:14I'll tell you what impressed me about Nicky the most.
00:56:17Was after working with the rumor who it was a bit painstaking getting,
00:56:21getting them to learn my songs.
00:56:23And they generally deconstructed them and tried to do something else with them
00:56:27before coming back to the song.
00:56:30But Nicky, um, he'd listen to the song once.
00:56:34And play through with a, with a, you know, a take.
00:56:39We'd do a take with Nicky playing.
00:56:41He'd play through it once.
00:56:42And that was all.
00:56:44I didn't have to tell him anything after that.
00:56:46He'd learnt it.
00:56:48Well, bands couldn't live in the studios forever.
00:56:50They were expected to go out and entertain all the people that bought their albums.
00:56:54And, er, it was the biggest money spinner, really,
00:56:57was to go on a major epic tour of Europe or America or even to Japan.
00:57:08Graham Parker and the rumor had a big following in Germany.
00:57:11When they were invited to play one of the Rock Palace concerts,
00:57:16Nicky decided to accompany his friend.
00:57:18the South,
00:57:19Yan' barks and sesssies.
00:57:21So get your,
00:57:23get them.
00:57:25So don't get me.
00:57:27I can't hear,
00:57:29your cries.
00:57:31So don't get me,
00:57:33so throw up your empty lies.
00:57:37Your empty lies.
00:57:40Your empty lies.
00:57:43Your empty lies.
00:57:44Your empty lies.
00:57:45Your empty lies.
00:57:45Your empty lies.
00:57:46.
00:57:52for nikki whose health was fragile at the best of times the rolling stones 50 show schedule
00:57:58was grueling to the point that it had become a dangerous factor there was a lot of downtime
00:58:04doing nothing you know to be honest they had their their bit on stage was fantastic for that
00:58:09two hours it was fantastic and they wanted to carry that on really afterwards crones can be
00:58:14very challenging especially when you're on a long tour and you're not eating well he physically
00:58:19wasn't very well but you know he had a lot of problems all through his life with his health
00:58:25and so he was ill a lot so when i first came into the possession with the stones and stew
00:58:30and i
00:58:31became good friends i asked him i said stew look i'm real happy to be here don't get me wrong
00:58:37but
00:58:37where's nikki why isn't nikki hopkins here and they said with nikki bless his heart he always had health
00:58:44problems and so the band was scared they'd be on tour and then you know a major date coming up
00:58:50and he'd
00:58:50have some kind of attack and couldn't make the show
00:58:56like many of us back in the day nikki did have a bit of a drinking problem i guess
00:59:04mostly a problem because of his ill health and frail constitution
00:59:08i know that nikki took drugs he was uh in pain and he took the drugs for his pain
00:59:14i doubt that he was an addict in classical sense the medical profession defines an addict as
00:59:21as someone who has a disruption in their psychosocial um functioning and nikki had none of those
00:59:29with me however it grew so out of control i mean i was doing pretty much every drug every
00:59:36every existing drug to the max and then beyond he had a about a 10 year about more or less
00:59:44with
00:59:44drugs and alcohol he was the wrong person to be living that lifestyle he wasn't strong enough for
00:59:51it and he got it it took him to a very very bad place eventually i mean he would he
00:59:57would talk to
00:59:58me about it you know he would talk to me about the stupid things that he did and you know
01:00:06and of course
01:00:07he he'd suffered physically for a number of years with i think it was crohn's disease so i think the
01:00:13combination of crohn's disease and the other excesses of being on the road at that particular period
01:00:19um weren't helpful to him i was working with chick korea and i got a call from artist relations at
01:00:26moog a friend of mine robbie konikoff and he said rory i have a favor of you and i said
01:00:30what's that he
01:00:31goes do you know nikki hopkins and i went yeah of course i do and i lit up because i
01:00:36was like where's
01:00:37this going i get to meet him you know and he said well he really wants to meet chick can
01:00:41you set that
01:00:41up and i said of course you know so i asked chick i say chick i know we're rehearsing but
01:00:48nikki hopkins is in town and would really like to meet you can we make this happen he goes
01:00:53absolutely bring him in so chick comes out very cordial and happy and he's you know he's rehearsing
01:00:58they're going great nikki said chick what a pleasure to meet you and puts his hand out shakes his hand
01:01:03he goes how are you doing and chick said great man great he goes how you doing and it got
01:01:09really
01:01:10quiet and nikki looks at chick and said not so good chick goes well what's wrong goes i'm doctor told
01:01:17me i have two weeks to live unless i quit heroin and chick said i'm going to get you into
01:01:21rehab
01:01:23and chick called a few phone numbers got him into rehab and that probably saved his life at that
01:01:31moment i went in pretty negatively i didn't think it would work i didn't think anything could work i
01:01:35thought well it's the only thing i know it's like a last ditch effort um and much to my surprise
01:01:41it did work i mean which amazed me
01:01:47i first met nikki hopkins in 1985 and it was for a session when i the straight cats were taking
01:01:56a
01:01:56break and we all made solo records and lee rocker and myself teamed up with earl slick and like i
01:02:03said
01:02:03earl slick knew nikki from the past we were at the point of the record where we needed the piano
01:02:07slick called nikki nikki came to capitol studios he had a rock and roll style but very melodic
01:02:14and a soft touch without tinkling he had a great technique and a good pounding of the keys but in
01:02:23a melodic way very um unusual combination that's wanted by everybody so he wound up playing on three
01:02:31tracks there was one track called uh no regrets that he played on there was another track called
01:02:37lonely actions that was almost like a ballad but not quite a little bit of a rock beat to it
01:02:43and
01:02:44then he played on one called time is on my hands which is this which is a straight up blues
01:02:48in
01:02:51appearance but the chord changes are a little bit different it's a little
01:02:53not quite a trad blues and nikki played beautifully on it
01:03:16this tribute was planned and then you know and it was only about four weeks after after john died that
01:03:23the
01:03:23tribute happened at the film or uh oh bloody hell i really should be there nikki uh heard about john's
01:03:31passing and that tribute and was actually on tour with art garfunkel in australia and he got on a plane
01:03:41and made sure he was at the film art to to memorialize john's legacy there
01:03:54when john passed away he'd not only lost a very close friend he'd lost a kindred spirit
01:04:01it seemed fitting that nikki would reunite with terry and the pirates to say farewell to john
01:04:26john's legacy there was one song called don't touch me uh i had this kind of little modal guitar intro
01:04:37and
01:04:38this cool beat and it was it's just a classic nikki thing because i play a lick and there's a
01:04:43hole
01:04:43play a lick and there's a hole play there's about four or five of those before i started singing
01:04:47and right off the bat i play this very kind of classic um i this is a bad word it's
01:04:54not classical
01:04:55but it was a little demented it was off the rock path you know and instantly in the hole nikki
01:05:00started
01:05:01doing demented answering and it was just completely natural like when we were jamming so nikki was mostly
01:05:07on piano all the time and uh as we went from song to song jeffrey and i would uh arrange
01:05:13the songs
01:05:13and be putting together with here's the arrangement here's the chords so right off the bat especially
01:05:19with nikki when we started recording he was already with no real direction from us other than be nikki
01:05:25hopkins he was already orchestrating the music you know he would do these octave themes and just
01:05:30naturally he would pull back when the singing was happening when the singing stopped he'd lean into it
01:05:35but it was always very thematic and cinematic in a way it was just you know beautiful you know
01:05:42session work improv by nikki
01:05:50he had a famously difficult girlfriend wife his first wife dolly who was very ambitious for nikki to
01:05:57be a rock star and probably prompted him into a solo career which was not his strength he wasn't a
01:06:03front
01:06:03man he was a side man he was a brilliant brilliant side man but not a front man i think
01:06:09his wife dolly
01:06:10was handling most of his business at the time dolly was combination wife lover babysitter
01:06:21mother all of the above for about three years everything was fine they got along fine and
01:06:27and um you know they they had uh you know fun together and but um i i think uh something
01:06:36changed
01:06:37he said it was a it was a challenging relationship really but he didn't he he didn't want to disparage
01:06:45her at all he was very gentlemanly like that and you know it was great it was faults on both
01:06:52sides
01:06:52they grew apart because um well nikki um had gone to rehab and uh i believe dolly did too
01:07:07but she didn't stick with it so
01:07:13quite honestly she she was still drinking whereas he had stopped now you know
01:07:21but that's very difficult like if you know you've just gone through rehab and then there's somebody
01:07:28living in the same household you know who who is drinking every day it's it's difficult
01:07:36yeah when i first met uh moira with nikki i thought whoa he's landed on his feet with this lady
01:07:44it was instantly uh the way i'd like to see my friend with somebody like that it's it was
01:07:51a very nice thing somebody took me up to meet nikki and i was introduced to him
01:07:56and he shook my hand and um you know uh i can't remember what we said but he was so
01:08:06kind and so
01:08:08nice that i walked away and i said to my friend i said wow i said i wish i could
01:08:15marry somebody like
01:08:16nikki hopkins because he's so nice you know he was just just a wonderful
01:08:25human being i i and it it kind of shone through
01:08:33you know nikki liked art and art liked nikki and he loved his work nikki called me and he said
01:08:42i'm doing
01:08:42this show with art garfunkel on the tonight show with johnny carson and we need strings will you
01:08:48play the strings for us i started playing these great orchestral string sounds and art was like
01:08:53what i'm looking for is a snowbird walking on snow real thin simple boom i'm watching nikki play the
01:09:01intro and he just does this simple beautiful wasn't simple he makes it look simple this beautiful
01:09:08intro to this song art comes in and even as a musician you well up you get the chills the
01:09:16hair goes up
01:09:17and you're like this is magic here i am alone on the plane sun's going down
01:09:32starting to ring papa will go sailing
01:09:43when art uh played the albert hall and uh nikki was you know not only playing the piano he was
01:09:52also his
01:09:53music director he art took a a break uh you know and for his voice like just for about five
01:10:03or ten minutes
01:10:04and he introduced nikki as the legendary nikki hopkins playing his own composition
01:10:12and it was a piece that nikki wrote when he came back to britain he was so happy to be
01:10:19home
01:10:19that he wrote this piece of music called the homecoming and he played it at the royal albert hall
01:10:26and uh that was very nice of art to allow him to do that
01:10:32and he played it at the royal albert hall and he played it at the royal albert hall and he
01:10:38played it at the royal albert hall
01:10:52nikki hopkins was the kind of piano player
01:10:55that you needed if you were going to play you know with art garfunkel already knew that and uh
01:11:01to his credit you know he they they made some great music together
01:11:10i met nikki in february 1987
01:11:14through gray levitt who was representing nikki at the time woody woodmansey had introduced me to gray
01:11:21because i left dex's midnight runners and i was forging a new career and writing an instrumental album
01:11:30and when i met gray he said oh nick is doing a similar project writing instrumental music so he said
01:11:38why don't you two get together and the thought of playing with nikki was um
01:11:44a dream come true really i suppose and that was the start of a musical relationship and our friendship
01:11:51he loved being back in england he'd moved from america and i came over from america and joined him
01:11:59and then we got married at um heaver castle
01:12:03it was at heaver castle um the special guest of honor was art garfunkel and his uh his wife it
01:12:12was
01:12:13a great day it was a sunny day we had you know um um someone playing the bagpipes dressed up
01:12:19in the
01:12:20highland attire we had to go back to america and because he was missing a lot of work and you
01:12:29know
01:12:30joe cocker had been looking for him wanted to come play on an album
01:12:34and um someone else i can't think who it was now but um so we wound up we we went
01:12:42back to l.a
01:12:48you know we had i think met with nikki uh when we were getting when we were looking for people
01:12:58to
01:12:58be in the band and uh i think we met with him just to have the thrill of meeting nikki
01:13:04because he was
01:13:05i think he was busy at the time um and so we we just thought well let's let's have a
01:13:11meeting we
01:13:11weren't jerking him off or anything we just wanted to say we're doing this and you're doing that and
01:13:15how great but he was working um you know we would have i think he would have been too good
01:13:23for us
01:13:24you know what we were trying to do we weren't trying to do bad music but i mean nikki was
01:13:29a
01:13:29virtuoso and uh i think we would have had trouble making that funny and then when the when when rainy
01:13:35day sun came up we just thought that's the guy and we're not asking him to be in and it's
01:13:41something
01:13:41for 28 days we're asking him to come to a session and uh we got it we got it together
01:13:47well when nikki
01:13:48did the recording with spinal tap i took him down to the studio and he was asking christopher guest
01:13:56if he didn't like model his part in spinal tap on jeff beck he said go on just tell me
01:14:04because you
01:14:05were jeff beck weren't you he wouldn't tell him he wouldn't admit to it you know part of the thrill
01:14:12of
01:14:12of doing that project was uh either in the making or later getting to meet people that we really just
01:14:19thought the world of and uh nikki was absolutely one of them
01:14:29back in 92 uh nikki and i uh played piano together on a zero album uh chance in a million
01:14:38being recorded
01:14:39live and uh the great american musical in san francisco and we just went nuts and started
01:14:46trading licks back and forth in the piano solo when i grew up listening to so many different
01:14:51kinds of music that i like a lot of different kinds of music and i've learned to play them over
01:14:57the years too i mean i've become quite involved in many different kinds and different forms of music
01:15:04so i don't feel that it's necessarily being a dilettante with with all with any particular form of
01:15:12music i think i've gotten to know many kinds of music quite well or very well the spring of 1993
01:15:20found nikki in an upbeat mood plans had been formed to begin recording with frankie miller and joe walsh
01:15:27there were discussions regarding a tour with harry nelson and he had his own ongoing film projects
01:15:34and everything was actually fine for about two or three years he he didn't complain of any um upsets
01:15:44and then sadly um 93 uh wasn't a good year um because he had a sudden eruption that um put
01:15:55him in
01:15:55hospital and he was saying that he was going in and out of the hospital his his crohn's disease was
01:16:01kicking in and they were just taking more intestine out and doing that and that even today um most
01:16:07people after say 10 years of having crohn's disease has had some form of surgery but back in nikki's day
01:16:15it probably was the main form of treatment in the end because there were so few drugs he had to
01:16:22have
01:16:22one organ or another removed i thought it was his kidney but maybe it was something else moira received
01:16:29many messages from friends for nikki's recovery including an unexpected one from an ex-beetle paul
01:16:37happened to be in la when nikki was ill in hospital and he
01:16:44he made a point of calling up and uh saying to me please give all the best to nikki and
01:16:53tell him
01:16:54you know to get i hope that he gets well soon and that you know i'm thinking of him and
01:17:00that was really
01:17:07wonderful
01:17:09we were living just up the road from joe walsh in encino in los angeles
01:17:16so nikki and joe got together with terry reed and they put this band together called the flu
01:17:23well that's joe's idea what are we going to call it the flu i'm going oh good here we go
01:17:28joe was in
01:17:28negotiations for the reforming of the eagles but it didn't stop these three friends having some fun
01:17:35when you're doing gigs as a band you know yourself is playing you know when you're playing you you
01:17:41remember those gigs that's about a lineup terry oh it's a hell of a oh no that's oh the rehearsals
01:17:47it was the rehearsals you apply on the wall oh god i felt like we were flies on the wall
01:17:53now when
01:17:53you're doing rehearsals you never knew what was going to happen i mean with joe everything everything
01:17:59i don't know i love joe dude he is the funniest guy i think i've ever met in music they
01:18:04had a great
01:18:04concert and he was hoping to do more and actually um nikki did do more with joe and a scottish
01:18:15singer
01:18:16called frankie miller they recorded about four or five pieces of music in this little recording studio
01:18:23in georgia 1994 began badly for nikki the northridge earthquake occurred in the early hours in the san
01:18:35fernando valley region of los angeles the northern half which is the posher half is built on rock and rock
01:18:44communicates these vibrations very thoroughly it's a good conductor so if you lived in the northern
01:18:50half of santa monica your house did like that and the southern half of santa monica is built on sand
01:18:54which doesn't conduct it nearly as well all of a sudden the entire room started going four feet in
01:19:00each direction the earth was like for a lack of a better word screaming and moaning like these giant
01:19:09sounds of like the earth grinding it was the strangest earthquake because not only was it
01:19:17like you had to be walking uphill almost that the earth was i mean it was moving in chunks
01:19:27and also it was going from side to side as well the whole city's been decimated powers out everywhere
01:19:34and days of you know reconstruction if you will putting your life back together we could see fires
01:19:41starting up i mean it was really scary and it was like being on board ship all that night the
01:19:50aftershocks
01:19:51just kept rolling through he had enough he said no that's it i can't do this anymore and uh and
01:19:59he picked up
01:20:00and uh moved to nashville i'm sure that um nikki moving to nashville was the best thing for him it
01:20:11definitely was the best thing for me there were people in nashville that were excited that nikki
01:20:15hopkins had moved to town i think we got there about um in march of um 94. just as they
01:20:26were settling into
01:20:27life in nashville nikki started to feel unwell he asked me to take him to a chiropractor because he
01:20:34had lower back pain and he never had lower back pain and and um he said that the chiropractor said
01:20:42i think that perhaps you might want to make an appointment to see your doctor because uh he suspected
01:20:50something was wrong two days later nikki and moira celebrated labor day together i was feeling tired
01:20:57i said i'm going to go up to bed and he said well i'm just going to stay down for
01:21:03a little while and
01:21:04you know and uh so i went up to bed it was about i guess i i don't know i'd
01:21:13fallen asleep but i i heard him
01:21:16yell out and i went running downstairs and he was in excruciating pain and um i called
01:21:27an ambulance i got him to the hospital and they wouldn't give him any anything to kill the pain
01:21:36they said they had to wait for his doctor to arrive and he took his time and so
01:21:49it was too late you know nikki couldn't take it his heart gave out
01:22:00i just thought i was so lucky you know um to have the marriage i had i had a very
01:22:09very happy marriage
01:22:12and i shared my life with a wonderful wonderful person you know
01:22:25being you know a young guy at the top of his game also battling this you know chronic illness
01:22:31that no one knows anything about and it's an invisible and it's that people don't really
01:22:34understand and i think that is you know it's kind of heartbreaking that you know he probably
01:22:39should be still alive right now it's important to remember people who made music popular and
01:22:45uh long lived with their uh prowess on an instrument that really does take uh some work and some major
01:22:56talent to master and he he certainly was a master of it i think everyone remembers him really fondly and
01:23:03always have and you know i miss nikki a lot i can't i can't really explain just how brilliant he
01:23:11was but
01:23:11the reason why we're sitting here today is because he was an astonishing musician the the like of which
01:23:16i've never come across and if you're musically inclined and he had a little piano around he could
01:23:26he could entrance you we became friends so easily it's hard not to be a friend of of nikki's nikki
01:23:33was a
01:23:33pure musician and his contributions are purely musical and i think that that deserves remembering
01:23:41i was talking to him about his playing and how detailed it was and how precision he was and he
01:23:49says well i'm i'm a chopin and i said what he said yes i'm a reincarnation of frederick chopin
01:23:59and i said okay and he did more than believe that he was frederick chopin he knew that he was
01:24:05he was so positive about that fact that i i just had to believe him nikki did believe
01:24:12um that he was chopin in another life and he used to play um he listened to a lot of
01:24:21chopin and he used
01:24:23to you know play on the keyboards um and piano if there was a piano around he'd he'd play chopin
01:24:31and i think that that could very well be the case because he was just that talent talent on that
01:24:43high spiritual uh classical level i think he was
01:24:51reincarnation is to do with human beings so it's quite possible what nikki said is is true but i would
01:24:56have thought that if he was if he was show playing his last lifetime he'd be a bit sick of
01:25:00playing
01:25:01the piano i think he probably trying to be doing something else um you know nikki's musical career
01:25:08spanned just over 30 years and during that time he played with some of the greatest bands in the world
01:25:15his contributions on their records made him rock and roll's greatest session man
01:25:21so
01:25:47so
01:25:57so
01:25:59so
01:25:59so
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