Neil Young Steel Player Ben Keith Dead

2 years ago by Jeff Woods | July 28, 2010 12:22 pm

Not great news, that Ben Keith – the legendasry steel guitar played who worked with Neil Young for nearly 40 years – has died, apparently from a heart attack, at the age of  73.

Neil himself broke the news onstage Monday night, at a show in Winnipeg, dedicating the classic “Old Man”, from the 1972 album Harvest, to his long-standing collaborator: "This is for Ben Keith. His spirit will live on. The Earth has taken him."

The filmmaker Jonathan Demme – who directed Young’s concert films Heart Of Gold (2006) and this year’s Neil Young Trunk Show – confirmed Keith’s death in the Los Angeles Times yesterday (July 27).

Demme called Keith “an elegant, beautiful dude, and obviously a genius. He could play every instrument. … Neil has all the confidence in the world, but with Ben on board, there were no limits. Neil has a fair measure of the greatness of his music, but he knew he was even better when Ben was there.”

Keith had already made a name for himself as a major session musician in Nashville, playing on a string of hits including Patsy Cline’s “I Fall To Pieces”, before hooking up with Young in February, 1971 for the Harvest sessions.

Back in March 2009, Ben Keith remembered his first meeting with Young. “He wanted a steel guitar player and I lived a couple of blocks from the studio. He’d already started the sessions, and I slipped in as quiet as I could and started playing along, and we cut five songs before I really met him. I didn’t even know who he was. I’d heard of CSNY, but I didn’t know he was doing a solo LP. He seemed like a good guy, as he did music like I do it – spontaneously.”

Neil was similarly impressed with Keith, as he recalled on an interview in 2005: “Ben and I developed the style during those sessions. When we did ‘Old Man’ and talked about what he could play, I said, ‘Try to play those single notes and make it sound doubled. Just ride those babies all the way through there, that’s a great sound.”

The respect Neil had for Ben, was so evident, when the two appeared on stage together, and in-studio.  Keith went on to play on over a dozen Young albums, including On The Beach, Tonight’s The Night, Comes A Time, Prairie Wind, Chrome Dreams II, and became a mainstay of Young’s touring bands, excluding Crazy Horse.

Keith also worked with Todd Rundgren, Lonnie Mack, The Band, J.J. Cale, Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Willie and Waylon and Ringo Starr.

Rest in peace, Ben Keith.

jw

 

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add a comment 2 Comments
  • alisa
    July 29, 2010 at 1:11 am

    As a devout Neil fan, I have witnessed Ben Keith on stage with Neil on many many gigs here and around Ontario over the years. Absolutely brill! R.I.P. Ben Keith!

    (Reply)
  • Emily
    August 1, 2010 at 11:06 pm

    It was awful to read about the loss of Mr. Keith. He was also a terrific talent in live performances. When I read about him this past week, I didn’t realize that he had this career with all these other greats. [The Band, J.J. Cale, Linda Ronstadt, & Bob Dylan.] I hope that he gets the recognition that he so deserves.
    Rest in Peace, Mr. Keith.

    (Reply)

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