eJazzNews Archive

Billy Preston’s Family Appeals for Access to His Bedside (2006)

Originally published on eJazzNews ·

On March 29, 2006, eJazzNews posted an open letter from Lettie Preston, a younger sister of keyboardist and singer Billy Preston, written while he lay critically ill in a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona. She asked for public help in a dispute over the family’s access to his bedside. Preston, who had been in a coma since November 2005, died in Scottsdale on June 6, 2006, at the age of 59.

What the 2006 letter said

Lettie Preston, who lived in Houston, wrote that her brother had been in hospital in Scottsdale for months and that she had made three trips from Texas to be with him. Each time, she said, hospital administrators refused family members access because his business manager had provided a medical power of attorney that kept relatives away from his bedside. She wrote that the family had obtained a temporary conservatorship from the Los Angeles Superior Court, but that a hospital attorney told her the California order had no force in Arizona. According to the letter, only one sister had been allowed to see him, and she found him unresponsive. Lettie Preston asked the media to make the family’s situation known.

The letter is one side’s account of a family and business dispute, published by eJazzNews as it was sent. It also contained personal accusations against the manager and private details about Preston’s life, which are not repeated here. Later reporting describes Lettie and Rodena Preston as his half-sisters and Gwen Gooden as his sister.

Who Billy Preston was

William Everett Preston was born in Houston on September 2, 1946, and grew up in Los Angeles. By the age of ten he was playing keyboards for Mahalia Jackson. He met the Beatles in Hamburg in 1962 while touring with Little Richard, and in January 1969 joined their Get Back sessions and rooftop concert. The single “Get Back” was credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston,” a rare shared credit on a Beatles record. He recorded for the Beatles’ Apple label with George Harrison producing, played on Rolling Stones albums including Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St., and had his own hits: the Grammy-winning instrumental “Outa-Space” and the number one singles “Will It Go Round in Circles” and “Nothing from Nothing.” He co-wrote “You Are So Beautiful,” a hit for Joe Cocker. For the organ’s place in jazz, see our guide to jazz instruments.

What happened next

Preston had lived with kidney disease for years and received a kidney transplant in 2002. In November 2005 pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac around the heart, led to respiratory failure and left him in a coma. He died at a Scottsdale hospital on June 6, 2006; NPR and Courthouse News Service reported the cause as kidney failure. At his funeral later that month at Faithful Central Bible Church, Joe Cocker sang “You Are So Beautiful,” Little Richard spoke, and letters from Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton were read. He was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery.

Courthouse News Service reported in 2011 that Lettie and Rodena Preston had sued Kindred Hospital in Scottsdale for wrongful death and negligence, and that the Arizona Supreme Court had ruled their case could go to trial. Preston was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 with its Award for Musical Excellence. A documentary directed by Paris Barclay, Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It, premiered at SXSW in 2024 and opened in North American theaters on February 20, 2026, starting at New York’s Film Forum.

Sources

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here. You can read the original as it appeared on eJazzNews via the Internet Archive.
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