The saxophonist Bobby Keys, who has died aged 70, played with a remarkable list of rock’n’roll greats including Buddy Holly, Eric Clapton, John Lennon, George Harrison, Carly Simon, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Warren Zevon. Most of all he will be remembered as a regular collaborator with the Rolling Stones, whom he first met when they toured the US in 1964.
Keys performed with the Stones on numerous tours and on all their major albums, beginning with Let It Bleed (1969), and was on stage with them at their Glastonbury performance last year. His saxophone solos on Brown Sugar and Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (on the album Sticky Fingers, 1971) were the most celebrated of his many recorded performances with them, but in both sound and attitude, Keys became an embodiment of the band’s hedonistic spirit.
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