Goodbye Ben Keith
I was upset to hear today that Ben Keith, the man who played beautiful pedal steel on so many classic Neil Young albums and toured with him on almost every non-Crazy Horse tour, has passed away at the age of 73. That’s him above playing with Neil during the Harvest sessions in 1972.
Aside from his work with Neil, he started out in the country world as a Nashville session musician playing with the likes of Faron Young, Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson (you can hear him on Patsy Cline's iconic hit I Fall To Pieces). He got together with Neil while Young was in Nashville making an appearance on the Johnny Cash show and, going into the studio to start work on what would become Harvest, needed a pedal steel player and Neil’s drummer, Tim Drummond, an old friend of Ben’s, recommended him for the job. His success with Neil Young led him to work with a host of other rock (and country) musicians over the years including The Band, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon, Todd Rundgren, Ringo Starr, Emmylou Harris among others. He also produced Jewel’s massive selling first album Pieces Of You, still one of the biggest selling debuts for a female artist.
I was lucky enough to see him play with Neil (and Pegi Young) many times and it really is a huge loss to the music world. So RIP Ben Keith, you will be missed greatly.
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