Billy Preston Receives Musical Excellence Award From Rock Hall Of Fame

Well-Deserved

The 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland honored Billy Preston, Randy Rhoads, nd LL Cool J with the Musical Excellence Award.

Ringo Starr announced Preston’s award via a recorded message.

“I like to say that Billy never put his hands in the wrong place,” Starr said. “He was an amazing singer, songwriter and human being.”

“He was a Beatle – and a Rolling Stone,” Starr noted. “He was like a part of the band and that’s why he played on a couple of tracks because he was Billy and he gave us a different feeling.”

In the 1960s, Preston an in-demand session keyboardist. He backed some of the biggest names in rock ‘n roll including The Beatles, Little Richard, The Rolling Stones, and the Everly Brothers to name a few. He was the only musician to receive credit on a Beatles record – 1969’s “Get Back” was credited as “The Beatles with Billy Preston”.

He then went on to pursue a solo career and he found success with a series of classic hits such as “That’s the Way God Planned It”, “Outa-Space” (which won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1972), “Will It Go Round in Circles”, “Space Race”, “Nothing from Nothing”, and “With You I’m Born Again”.