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After years spent as a session man for an astonishing roster of star names the Beatles, the Stones, Barbra Steisand, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Quincy Jones, Aretha Franklin and Sly Stone, Billy Preston is at last emerging as a superstar in his own right with a couple of American chart-topping singles.
Only now is this easy-going, pleasant young man getting the full acclaim he has always helped to provide for others.
Preston has plenty to shout about right now. He's been the hit of the Stones' tour, on stage for his own set, plus sitting in on the Stones' set, two shows a night -- that's four hours on stage with interviews in between.
"I'm used to working at a hard pace so it's o.k.," he grinned.
Was it difficult to fit in with the Stones' style? "Hell, no. See, I'm used to doing sessions with all sorts of artists so I can adapt easily, I just play along and soon slip into their groove. In any case, like the Beatles, the Stones work at a much slower, more methodical pace than I'm used to. They take their time to get it right and the results are obvious."
I asked if there was a danger that, playing with so many great artists, his own style would be sublimated to the point where he lost contact with it.
"No, not really. You see, in any case, my music will always reflect the people I've worked with because I've learned something from each of them and the sum of my own ideas plus their influence is Billy Preston."
On the tour, Preston is not only playing with the Stones but singing too, particularly on numbers like "Doo Doo Doo Doo" and "Dancing With Mr. D" from the new album, while Mick Jagger comes over to his piano for them to duet on "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
Preston played on the sessions for the new album in Jamaica.
"It was then that Mick asked me to join the tour," said Preston. "He'd wanted to ask me to work on stage with them before but thought I'd want to be more into my own thing.
"My percussionist Manuel Kellough also plays on the Stones' set and they've got two of Stevie Wonder's horn men, too."
With his current success, Preston has found himself largely priced out of the clubs: "Yeh, it's nearly all concerts now; we haven't really done any clubs in a year but I do still play gospel in church back home in LA whenever I get the chance."
His music is going in all sorts of directions too: "The new album, which we are calling Everybody Likes Some Kind Of Music, includes jazz, rock, blues, soul, gospel, classical, even country and western elements.
"Yes, we've done a country thing with banjos, tap piano and so on. It's as country as I can get -- it's hillbilly but the hill and the Billy are hyphenated.
"You can't help being exposed to country music in America. You hear it on radio and so on. I met Buck Owens once."
On a more familiar front, Preston feels there is now a massive upsurge in R&B: "Marvin Gaye's latest single sold two million in two weeks; that couldn't have happened even for a pop record a few years ago.
"Soul is now selling across the board, to whites and blacks alike, while more blacks are becoming interested in country -- both to listen to and to sing."
Preston currently spends around three months of the year in the studio. He's just completed albums with Quincy Jones, Aretha Franklin and Sly Stone.
He's hoping to do some sessions while he's here, with some big names -- and will be recording again with Ray Charles in December: "I'm planning to do an 'In Concert' for British TV and, if everything goes the way we are hoping, it will be the biggest super-star session yet."
Meanwhile, Preston is balanced between being a heavy artist hitting the rock market and an all-round entertainer who'd be at home in a Las Vegas setting: "I don't see why you have to be one or the other. Provided you keep a balance I think you can win both kinds of audience. It seems to be God's plan for me. Everything seems to fall into place."
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