b. Rhea County, Tennessee, January 18, 1938

Nashville Cat

Pig Robbins earned his stripes by creating the rocking piano on George Jones’s “White Lightnin’.” Over the ensuing decades, his integral role on Music Row recording sessions earned him membership in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2012.

Blinded in a knife accident at age three, Robbins took piano lessons at the Tennessee School for the Blindwhere he earned his nickname after sneaking onto a fire escape and coming back covered in dirt.

After succeeding Floyd Cramer as Music Row’s most prominent session keyboardist in the 1960s, Robbins created several of the most storied piano parts in country music history. Those include his contributions to such classics as Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors” and Crystal Gayle’s “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.”  Robbins also played on hits by fellow Country Music Hall of Fame members Bobby Bare, Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Ernest Tubb, and Tammy Wynette.

After gaining notice for his work on Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, Robbins appeared on albums by Joan Baez, the Sir Douglas Quintet, Neil Young, John Denver, and Ween. Robbins also recorded several solo albums and toured as a member of Neil Young’s International Harvesters band in the 1980s.

Robbins played on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, 1966

Robbins played on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, 1966

Listen to Hargus "Pig" Robbins

Now Playing
Anna (Go to Him) – Arthur Alexander

Selected Songs

Bob Dylan, “Temporary Like Achilles” (Bob Dylan)
Among the musicians featured on this recording are Pig Robbins, piano; Wayne Moss, guitar; Joe South, guitar; Robbie Robertson, guitar; Henry Strzelecki, bass; Kenny Buttrey, drums.
From the album Blonde on Blonde, 1966. Produced by Bob Johnston at Columbia Studios, Nashville.

Leon Russell (as Hank Wilson), “She Thinks I Still Care” (Dickey Lee)
Among the musicians featured on this recording are Pig Robbins, piano; Pete Drake, pedal steel guitar; Weldon Myrick, pedal steel guitar, Pete Wade, guitar; Billy Sanford, guitar; Harold Bradley, bass guitar.
From the album Hank Wilson’s Back Vol. I, 1973. Produced by Leon Russell, Denny Cordell, J.J. Cale, and Audie Ashworth at Bradley’s Barn, Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.

John Stewart, “You Can’t Look Back” (John Stewart)
Among the musicians featured on this recording are Pig Robbins, piano; Lloyd Green, pedal steel guitar; Fred Carter Jr., fretted dobro; Norbert Putnam, bass; Kenny Buttrey, drums.
From the album California Bloodlines, 1969. Produced by Nik Venet at RCA Studios, Nashville.

Gordon Lightfoot, “Cotton Jenny” (Gordon Lightfoot)
Among the musicians featured on this recording are Pig Robbins, piano; Red Shea, guitar; Charlie McCoy, harmonica; Richard Haynes, bass.
From the album Summer Side of Life, 1971. Produced by Joe Wissert at Woodland Sound Studios, Nashville.

Arthur Alexander, “Anna (Go to Him)” (Arthur Alexander)
Among the musicians featured on this recording are Pig Robbins, piano; Kenny Buttrey, drums; Charlie McCoy, bass; Jerry Carrigan, drums.
Single, 1962. Produced by Noel Ball, Nashville.

Charlie Rich, “Behind Closed Doors” (Kenny O’Dell)
Among the musicians featured on this recording are Pig Robbins, piano; Pete Drake, pedal steel guitar.
From the album Behind Closed Doors, 1973. Produced by Billy Sherrill at Columbia Studios, Nashville.

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