Session Players For Jesus

Mr. Hargus “Pig” Robbins died over the weekend.

You have probably never heard of him, but if you listened to any country music (or even some pop) in the last 50 years you have heard him play piano.

I found out who he was around 1972 when I was listening to my latest haul from the Capitol Music Club that had arrived in the mail.

On top of the stack was the newest Jerry Lee Lewis album and my excitement was akin to what normal people feel on Christmas morning.

My excitement soon turned to confusion as I heard what few others could…that was not Jerry Lee playing piano.

I played it for the family and they all said it sounded like The Killer to them, but I knew better…they thought I was nuts…or more nuts than usual.

Then I looked at the credits…there it was on the back of the album cover …”Pig Robbins-Piano.”

I would learn later in life that this was a bad season for my hero and he would just show up and do vocals over instrumental tracks others had already cut.

Pig Robbins was the only pianist that Lewis would allow on his recordings…the only one who could come close to his sound.

Then I noticed that every single album that came that day had the same name in the credits.

Pig Robbins was the piano session player in Nashville…and he was responsible for some of the most recognizable licks in some of the greatest songs of all time.

Like Jerry Lee, Charlie Rich was a great pianist, but the piano you hear on his platinum selling recordings is Robbins.

I starting going through all my albums to see if he was on them…and he was on about 75% of them.

This fascinates me…he played on albums that sold hundreds of millions of copies and no one knew who he was, but without him, none of them would have sounded the same.

Robbins and the other session players had to subjugate their own egos…they were often part of something special, but they would never get the recognition the stars received.

So it should be in the church…we’re all just session players for Jesus.

His is the only name that should matter…and we should be thrilled that we’ve been asked to play a part in the great work He’s doing…whether anyone recognizes us or not.

We should all be Pigs…

Make your own application…