Imagine playing with The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who and The Kinks, and then going on to play with all four Beatles separately — not to mention Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, Peter Frampton, Jerry Garcia, The Jefferson Airplane and more. Such was the life of piano player Nicky Hopkins, one of the most prolific and gifted session men in rock history. His story will now be told in a new documentary called The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins, which hits Amazon Prime and other platforms on Nov. 5.
The documentary features commentary and interviews by the Stones’ Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Bill Wyman, plus The Who‘s Pete Townshend, Peter Frampton, The Kinks‘ Dave Davies, E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren, Benmont Tench of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Spinal Tap‘s Harry Shearer and many more, as well as interviews with Hopkins recorded before his death in 1994 at age 50.
Hopkins, who inspired The Kinks’ song “Session Man,” was a founding member of the Jeff Beck Group and played onstage with Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock. But overall, his ill health — caused by Crohn’s disease — kept him from being able to tour regularly as a group member.
Hopkins can be heard on Joe Cocker’s “You Are So Beautiful” and The Beatles’ “Revolution.” He played on more than 250 albums in all, including such classics as The Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet, Exile on Main St. and Let It Bleed; The Who’s Who’s Next and The Who By Numbers; Jeff Beck‘s Truth; The Kinks’ Face to Face and Something Else; John Lennon‘s Imagine; Ringo Starr‘s Ringo; Rod Stewart‘s Blondes Have More Fun; Carly Simon‘s No Secrets; and Paul McCartney’s Flowers in the Dirt.
The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins will be available on DVD later this year.
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