Music City lost another giant in the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 30, when legendary pianist Hargus “Pig” Robbins died in his sleep at the age of 84. According to a post on his public Facebook page, Robbins had been hospitalized twice over the past two months as he battled a bacterial infection as well as kidney and heart disease.
Robbins’ place in Nashville music history is undeniable. He was the Country Music Association’s instrumentalist of the year in 1976 and 2000 and a 2012 inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame. His peers consider him one of the greatest musicians the city has ever known.
“He’s the best session man I ever worked with,” says Charlie McCoy, who recorded extensively with Robbins beginning in the early ’60s and delivered his Hall of Fame induction speech. “He was like a computer — he heard the song one time, and he had it. He was the quickest I’ve ever seen.”
A native of Spring City, Tenn., who was blinded in a knife accident at the age of 3, Robbins entered the Tennessee School for the Blind in Nashville at the age of 7 where he studied classical piano. He began playing sessions in 1957, and his career as a studio player really took off in 1959 after he contributed the lively honky tonk piano parts to George Jones’ No. 1 country hit “White Lightning.” When pianist Floyd Cramer’s career as a solo recording artist flourished in the early ’60s, Robbins slid into his spot as first-call keyboardist with the city’s acclaimed A-team of session musicians. Robbins' work with the A-team earned him induction into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2007.
In a career spanning more than six decades, Robbins played on countless country hits. A sampling: “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by Jones, “I Fall to Pieces” and “Crazy” by Patsy Cline, “King of the Road” and “Dang Me” by Roger Miller, “Behind Closed Doors” by Charlie Rich, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” by Loretta Lynn, “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” by Tammy Wynette, “Delta Dawn” by Tanya Tucker, “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers, “I Can’t Even Get the Blues” by Reba McEntire and “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” by Crystal Gayle.
Robbins also appeared on a wide variety of pop, rock, R&B and jazz recordings, and may be best known for his outstanding performances on Bob Dylan’s 1966 album Blonde on Blonde. His work on that historic record led to sessions with a number of folk and rock artists over the next decade including Joan Baez, Gordon Lightfoot, Peter, Paul and Mary, Harvey Mandel, Loudon Wainwright III and J.J. Cale. In addition, he recorded with Arthur Alexander, Clyde McPhatter, Al Hirt, Carl Perkins, Ray Charles, Neil Young, Levon Helm, Mark Knopfler and Ween.
On top of his work as a sideman, Robbins was a recording artist in his own right and recorded albums for a number of labels, including RCA and Elektra. His 1977 Elektra album Country Instrumentalist of the Year won a Grammy in 1978 for Best Country Instrumental Performance.
For all his greatness as a musician, Robbins was equally admired as a person. “He was not only a great professional piano player, he was a great man,” says Jerry Kennedy, who worked regularly with the pianist as a session guitarist and producer in the ’60s and ’70s. “Pig was everything you would want to see in a human being.
“Four or five weeks ago, I talked with him, and we had a long conversation. I told him I loved him, and he told me he loved me back. That was the first time we’d said that. That was the last conversation I had with him, and boy, am I glad I said what I said ’cause I meant it. He was more than a friend, he was a brother.”
