Bobby Keys: The Sax That Defined the Stones’ 70s Sound

The most interesting part of Bobby Keys’ story isn’t just that he played saxophone on “Brown Sugar” and “Honky Tonk Women”—it’s that he was Keith Richards’ closest friend in the band’s orbit, a partnership built on bourbon, chaos, and mutual musical instinct. Keys wasn’t a hired gun in the usual sense. He was a Texan sax man who’d been on the road with Buddy Holly’s Crickets before he was twenty, and by 1969 he’d drifted into the Stones’ circle through session work in Los Angeles. Keith heard him blow and immediately knew: this