Hopkins, Nicky (24th
February 1944-6th September 1994)
Described as one of the most important session
musicians in rock history, he was a keyboardist born Nicholas Hopkins in
Ealing, West London, England.After learning to play the piano and organ he became a pianist for
Screaming Lord Sutch's Savages in the early 1960s where one of his band-mates
was Ritchie Blackmore, who would later go on to found Deep Purple.He then moved onto to joining one
of the earliest british R&B bands, The Cyril Davis All Stars.Unable to tour much because of
health problems with Crohn's Disease he opted to become a session musician
and because he was so adept and had such an individual playing style he
became sought after by producers and appeared on many of the major British
albums of the time by groups such as The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who
and The Beatles.The album Jamming
With Edward by the Rolling Stones was written using "Edward" as an
alias for Nicky Hopkins and The Kinks song "Session Man" was dedicated to
him.He would later travel to
America and joined Quicksilver Messenger Service as well as worked with Jefferson
Airplane, The Steve Miller Band and New Riders of the Purple Sage.He became a member of the Jeff Beck
Group in 1967 and would later also join the line up of the group Sweet
Thursday and the Rolling Stones for their Good-Bye Britain and North
American tours in 1971 and 1972. After these tours his health had worsened again and
although he would carry on recording with them as a group and individual
artists until 1991, he would never appear with them on stage again.In 1973 he released a solo album
called The Tin Man and the Dreamer which featured George Harrison
who used the alias of George O'Hara, Mick Taylor who had been with the Rolling
Stones and Prairie Prince. He was involved as a performer and
music arranger for The Who's 1975 film Tommy, he was given "Special
Thanks" on the 1985 The Compleat Beatles, and he made appearances in
the movies The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, Ladies and
Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones,
Cocksucker Blues, Did Somebody Drop His Mouse?, Sympathy for the Devil and
Gimme Some Truth: The Making of John Lennon's Imagine Album. He died
after complications of surgery that had been done previously in September
1994 in Nashville, Tennessee.He was 50 years old.
