(music plays) - Reagan said, Hey guys, guess what?

- We've got a trans-plant - He was my fraternities brother's, older brother.

- Sacrifice to the American people.

- Hospice communities of healthy environments.

- Trust me she lived in trafficking for four years.

- I really felt, for a lot of reasons, I felt for them, but I didn't have the guts to standup.

- I'm seeing too many smart, I'm not disrespecting.

- Ultimately, there will be rewards.

You'll, you'll literally save lives.

- As a child.

Peter Keys would fade off to sleep, listening to his parents play their 1923 Steinway Baby Grand.

By age five, he was performing a trend that would continue through high school.

Then, he would go on to study music theory and performance at Berkeley College of Music.

While Keys may be a classically trained musician, his style is a classic all its own from psychedelic blues and Motown to hip hop and southern rock.

Keys has mastered his craft, bringing an unmistakable sound and presence to the stage.

In addition to producing other artist Keys, main job is playing piano and keyboards for the legendary southern rock band, Leonard Skynyrd.

We're proud to have Peter Keys on this edition of conversations.

Thanks for joining us.

- Thank you, Jeff.

- [Jeff] Tell me about it.

I'm talking about you falling asleep to the baby grand and then start playing of how, how did your music career get started?

- Well, I don't know.

You know, both of my parents were classically trained pianists and all of their brothers and sisters used to play music.

You know, I listened to them jamming late at night playing all kinds of like, you know, rock and roll, you know, banjos and, you know, different stringed instruments and there was always a piano around.

So I just, you know, kind of found myself playing the piano before I could kind of see the keys, you know?

- No kidding.

- [Keys] Yeah.

So you just think it was something innate that, Hey, I was just born to do this more or less.

- I guess.

I mean, I was surrounded with it enough that it just kind of came naturally to me.

You know?

I, I remember sitting down to the piano and just going, (Keys plays piano) and I thought I wrote that.

(laughter) I was like, that's cool.

What is it?

You know?

So, it's just rock and roll has kind of been in my blood since I can't remember when, you know.

- So I, I said you started performing around five, five years old.

So what, what were you performing?

What kind of looking at stuff were you doing?

- I went, my parents put me in music school when I was really young.

I think when I was four, I went to Neighborhood School of Music in New Haven, Connecticut.

And so I was playing classical stuff, you know, like Bach and Beethoven.

And my first performance, I do remember wearing a blue velvet suit and getting up in front of like, all of the parents.

And I was like, oh, this is really cool, you know?

- Yeah.

- So.

- And then you played in various bands through high school and all.

What was that like for you?

- [Keys] It was fun.

It was, you know, kind of a way to express myself, you know, differently than I guess, I don't know.

It just, it, it made, it was fun, you know?

We had a good time.

We played, we did a talent show in, I think it was seventh grade, and we beat the kids in eighth grade, and I was like, yes, we won, you know, and we played, I think we did a cover of my girl, you know?

- Okay.

- And I did like a funk arrangement of it, which was different, you know?

So it was just, I, it was a way, you know, just a way for me to get attention, I guess.

I don't know.

I've always been kind of a, that kid, you know, that wanted to be out there.

I don't know.

You'd always hear a lot of parents and teachers talk about, what if you're gonna be good?

You, you have to practice.

You gotta practice.

And so many kids, they don't want to practice.

Was that something easy for you to do?

- No, man.

I remember like, not wanting to practice.

My mom was like, you have to practice.

I'm like, but I want to go play.

I can see the kids outside the window playing.

- [Jeff] Right?

- And I was inside practicing and it felt kind of like punishment, but you know, it turned out to be the best thing that I could have done.

- Now, you went to Berkeley College of Music, studied music theory and performance.

Talk a little bit about that, because oftentimes we don't necessarily think about, you know, rock and roll or country singers being, you know, studying music theory, so to speak.

- Well, you know, I hate to burst your bubble, but I actually got thrown outta Berkeley College of Music for not practicing, for not studying.

(laughter) The, the cool thing about Berkeley was being surrounded by all of the people that were doing it and, you know, to be honest, I was terrified and really intimidated by the level, you know, that people were performing at, at, you know, at just in such a huge volume.

I ended up playing with a bunch of people, you know, kind of cutting class and going out to play in the bars and clubs while people were back at school studying.

So, you know, it was, that's kind of my story.

- Well talk a little bit about though, but, but you do kind of have a background of being classically trained.

How has that helped you as you've even into the, into the rock and roll and Motown and hip hop?

- Well, the classical training, you know, it just got my technique together as a child, right?

And it's really about being comfortable on your instrument, you know, so that I can hear something and convey it without having to think about it.

And that was, you know, very much about having that technique, you know, get, getting your finger, getting your fingerings right, and, you know, knowing where to put your hands down to make that sound and to kind of get rid of the body and become part of the instrument, you know?

So that's, that's a, you know, that is all about practice and familiarity with your instrument.

And that's what the training, the classical training really gave me.

The, the music theory and, you know, the math behind all of that stuff is how I can convey that to another musician, right?

Like charting things out, saying, okay, we're, this is the key.

This is the chord, these are the changes, you know?

So it's, it's really about just how we communicate musically.

- [Jeff] Right?

Has it made it easier?

So if I, if I, if I walked in here today and I said, okay, here's a, here's a piece of music I want you to be able to play in an hour or so.

I mean, would that classical training help you being able to adapt quickly like that.

- Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, again, I'm not the best site reader in the world.

I, you know, I've, I've played by ear pretty much my whole life.

I remember my first teacher was like, okay, cool, can you play this?

I said, well, can you play it for me first?

- [Jeff] Oh, okay.

- And he'd play it, and I'd just kind of pretend to look at the page and play along and remember what I heard.

So, yeah.

- Neat.

Well, what about, what's your approach when you write, when you sit down and write a song or write music?

How, what's your, what's your approach to doing that?

- It, it varies.

You know, sometimes I'll have an idea, like a lyrical idea or a melodic idea, or sometimes I'll just sit down and play something and see what speaks to me.

It's, you know, really depends kind of emotionally and just kind of what's going on in the, in my world as to how I, you know, write really.

- Are, are you one of those writers who is, um shall I say, somewhat structured?

In other words, you say, okay, at 10 o'clock on Monday morning, I'm gonna block 10 to noon and, and I'm gonna write songs.

Or are you one of those guys that you go by a road sign and something sparks and you - More like the second?

I'm definitely not at all structured in, you know, kind of anything in my life, really.

(laughter) I live an improvised life.

You know.

- Okay, okay.

- Like everything is just kind of in the flow.

You know, I, I was, I'll, I'll just tell you this quick story.

I was at a concert and I'm hearing it was the, the Meters and the Neville Brothers.

And I was backstage and I'm watching them play and they'd, you know, they'd start singing and they'd say, mama, you can eat all you want.

I'm like, that's weird.

Mama, you can eat all you want And it stopped and, and Ivan Neville came out and said, cause I ain't hungry anyway.

- I was like, that's the coolest song I've ever heard.

And then I woke up.

So basically I was in a dream and this song kind of came to me.

- [Jeff] Wow.

- And I'll, Can I play a little bit of it for you?

- [Jeff] Absolutely, please do.

- So anyways.

Yeah, I woke up and I just like wrote that down cause I didn't want to forget it.

And the rest of it just kind of came to me and - Yeah, please do.

- Went like this.

(Keys plays piano) ♪ Mama you can eat all you want, ♪ ♪ mama you can eat all you want.

♪ ♪ Go ahead and eat all you want.

♪ ♪ Cause I ain't hungry anyway.

♪ ♪ Mama you can sleep all you want, ♪ ♪ Mama you can sleep all you want.

♪ ♪ Go ahead and sleep all you want.

♪ ♪ I ain't tired anyway.

♪ ♪ Anytime you feeling lonely ♪ ♪ And if you find you're feeling down ♪ ♪ when you think you can't take anymore.

♪ ♪ Know, I'll be around ♪ ♪ and I'll say, mama, you can talk all you want ♪ ♪ Mama you can talk all you want.

♪ ♪ Go ahead and talk all you want ♪ ♪ 'Cause I ain't listenin' anyway.

♪ - All Right.

- But anyways, that's, you know, kind of how songs come to me.

Sometimes they come in my sleep, sometimes I'll stop by a sign and go, oh my gosh, there's a really cool line.

- Right.

- And, you know, sometimes I'll write it down, sometimes I won't.

But yeah, it's, it's kind of a magical thing, just the moment when it strikes you.

You know?

- [Jeff] Yeah.

Do you always write with piano or is there any other instruments you might use?

- Yeah, I'd say 99% of the time I write with piano.

Sometimes when I get bored or, or you know, stuck, I'll pick up a guitar because it's a completely different, you know, process and different instrument and different feel.

- Had a writer, tell me one time and tell me what you think about this.

It's more difficult to write with piano than it is say, a guitar.

- Definitely not for me, 'cause - Okay.

- I mean, I, I've been playing piano since I was four, so.

- Right, right.

So it's just kind of a natural thing.

- Yeah.

- Do you co-write with anybody or are you solo?

- I, I do, I co-write with a lot of people.

In fact, one of my co-writers is here, Dana Berkowitz.

- My bad, with the.

- We've written a bunch of stuff for TV and film.

- Okay.

- I co-write with a bunch of people in Nashville.

You know?

Just, you know, really depends on who calls and what's going on.

- Do you enjoy doing that more than doing it solo, or it doesn't matter?

- It, it kind of doesn't matter.

I, I, I do enjoy having input from another person, like bouncing ideas back and forth.

Sometimes, you know, you can get stuck with one idea and get yourself into a corner and somebody else can just say, you know, like a really quick phrase and help you out.

Or, you know, that sometimes I can see, you know, what somebody else's writing see something that they're not seeing.

- Right.

You know, so yeah, co-writing is definitely a benefit.

- Do you write for a genre?

I mean, do you say, I'm gonna sit down and write a rock song, or a country song, or a blue song, or.

- Pretty much No.

- No, no.

- Yeah, I just kind of write what comes to me, at the time, yeah.

- Do you have a favorite genre?

- Music.

- Just anything?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Do we, do we box ourselves in with genres?

You think too much?

- I think so, yeah.

Absolutely.

- 'Cause you hear a lot of things that, you know, that may get, you know, boxed in the country or rock or whatever, that could really easily cross over.

It's just a, I mean, good songs, good song, right?

- Yeah.

That's, you know, for me it's about what is the emotion, what is the idea, what is the main concept?

You know?

What are you feeling and how do you convey that?

- [Jeff] Right.

You know, and you can take a song from one genre and turn it into another genre and it may say something completely different using the same words and quotes.

You know?

- Yeah, yeah.

Did you have a favorite or someone you looked up to as when, in your younger days that you said, wow, I, I wanna be like this person, you know, or?

- Oh, yeah.

There's, you know, a ton of influences.

I mean, I think, you know, it was The Beatles and then it was the Rolling Stones, and then it was Frank Zappa, and then it was Jimmy Hendricks, and then it was The Beatles again.

You know, it's just, it changed all the time.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Tell me a little bit about your career after you left Berkeley and you were out in Northern California for a while, and tell me kind of the progression of that.

- So basically when I left Berkeley, I went back to San Francisco and a good friend of mine who I met at Berkeley, Jay Lane got, he got thrown outta Berkeley, or left Berkeley like two weeks before I did.

And he was playing in a couple bands in the Bay Area and he said, Hey man, you should come back to San Francisco.

We're doing all these gigs.

So I went and played in the, in the underground music scene of San Francisco from like the late eighties through the early nineties, you know, hooked up with old Blues guy in West Marin, Chuck Day.

And he took me under his wing and I learned the blues from him, played with him.

Blue Mondays was a, you know, a residency he had at this bar called 19 Broadway and we did every Monday night for about three or four years.

And I think I got paid $12 and 50 cents a night to do that.

Probably drank 50.

So I went, ran a deficit, but that's what the blues was all about, you know?

- [Jeff] That's neat.

You ended up in Detroit for a while, right?

- Yeah, so I, I moved from San Francisco to Atlanta, just kind of, I had a, another friend was like, Hey, I got a couple sessions in Atlanta, you want to go there?

I was like, great.

I went there for two weeks.

I ended up staying three years and that's where I hooked up with the, the people from the original P, the original Parliaments Parliament Funkadelic.

- [Jeff] Okay.

Toured with them for several years actually ended up moving to Detroit while I did that gig and stayed in Detroit for several years and then moved down to Nashville, which is where I lived now.

Yeah.

- What took you to Nashville?

- Music.

Yeah, I mean, music.

- I mean it's music city, obviously.

- Nashville is Music City.

So you know what happened in Detroit around 2007, 2006, I partnered with some people and bought an old church and turned it into a recording studio.

And then 2008 came around and the bottom fell out of the housing market and the whole, you know, economy went in the tank and it was really difficult to make any money there.

And I'd been doing, you know, various gigs with this group out of Nashville called The Music Mafia.

- Mhm.

- So I kind of took a chance and came down to Nashville for an audition with another band that I will not mention.

(laughter) And I got the gig and they put me on salary.

So I was able to move down to Nashville, which is where I, you know, I was, I moved there in October, November, December, January.

Billy Powell passed away from Skynyrd.

Then I got a call in March asking me if I was in Nashville and they said, we'd like you to learn, Give Me Three Steps, Call Me The Breeze, Sweet Home Alabama, and Freebird note for note.

It was a friend of mine, a guitar player.

And I was like, well, sure, but why?

He's like, well, I got you an audition with Leonard Skynyrd.

I was like, oh my gosh.

So that's how I got the Skynyrd gig.

Yeah.

- What was the audition like?

How intimidating was that?

- It was terrifying.

My knees were shaking, just thinking about it, you know, they called me in and they said, learn these note for note, you'll be up against a bunch of other keyboard players.

So I showed up at the audition and they sat me down at the piano and it's like the band sat up, set up around me, all looking at me.

- Oh, wow.

And I'm like, oh my gosh, there's Gary Rossington and Johnny Van Zant and Ricky Medlocke, and they're all looking at me.

Ah.

And there's a camera like, you know, all up on my face and stuff.

But, you know, I did, I did the work.

I practiced a lot and learned the songs note for note and played the songs.

And I said, thank you very much for the opportunity and walked out and kind of like scared.

And they were like, what was that?

And you know, they called me back later that evening and they said, thank you for being prepared and my thought was like, well, who comes unprepared?

And apparently everybody else.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- So, you know, they called me back and I came back the following week and they said, what do you wanna play?

And I said, let's run the set.

And they're like, what?

You know, we can't run the set.

We're auditioning bass players.

I said, well, cool.

What do you wanna play?

So, you know.

- Okay.

And, and at that point they said, you're our guy.

- At the end of the, actually at the end of that audition, Gary Rossington handed me a set list.

He said, make sure you know all of this.

And I was like, okay, I think I got the gig.

(Jeff laughs) And then they called me later that night and said that I got the gig, yeah.

- So what's it like the first, the first big show?

- It was absolutely terrifying, but you know, it was amazing in every kind of way.

We, you know, we play through the set and we get to Sweet Home Alabama and before the show, Johnny Van Zant said, okay, so here's what's gonna happen.

We're gonna play the set.

We're gonna do Sweet Home Alabama, we're gonna come off the stage, then we're gonna come back on the stage and I'm gonna ask the crowd, do they want to hear one more song?

The crowd's gonna gonna say, yeah, I'm gonna say, what songs did you want to hear?

And they're gonna say, Freebird.

And then you start, because Freebird starts on the piano, right?

- Right.

- So we get off the stage and Ricky Medlocke looks pats me on the shoulder, he's like, great job.

Here comes the important one, don't mess this up.

And I was like, oh, great.

So now I'm like really freaking out 'cause you know, this is, you know, Freebird, it's like that big song.

And Johnny gets on the stage and he says, you guys want to hear one more song?

And they said Yes.

And I went and he turns around, he is like, what song is it you want to hear?

(laughter) And I was already playing it.

Right.

But I knew if I didn't start at that exact moment, I would've completely messed it up.

So that, that's what that first show was like.

- Where was the first show?

- It was in Biloxi, Mississippi.

- [Jeff] Okay, okay.

Actually not too far.

- At the beau rivage.

- Okay.

Actually not too far from here.

- Yeah.

- Tell me a band like that, what's it like when you're getting ready to go on tour, leading up to that tour, how much do you rehearse and practice?

What's it like?

- Well, funny story, I think we practiced four, maybe five times before we left on that first world tour.

- [Jeff] Mhm.

- So it's, you know, it's really about doing your work at home.

- [Jeff] Okay.

- We practiced the show together just to make sure that we have all the transitions together.

Everybody does their work at home.

You know, you have to know all of your parts, obviously.

So, you know, practicing the show is really just about the run through to get, you know, all of the different parts and whatever choreography together.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

You sit down after the show and break it down, or - No, I did, you know, I did study a lot of the video that I found from our first shows.

You know, a lot of times I used to play with my mouth open and I was like, okay, that's gotta stop.

- Right, right.

- You know?

But, you know, pretty much it's just about getting up there and doing it, you know, playing off the crowd, playing off the band, you know?

- Just, just having fun more or less.

- Pretty much, yeah.

- [Jeff] But, but you're prepared when you go into it.

It's not just like I'm - Oh, yeah.

- [Jeff] Winging it.

Now, now that you've been with the band for, for a given period of time now, do you still, I mean, as you get ready to go on tour again, do you still do a lot of rehearsing?

- We don't do a lot of rehearsing.

We'll do a couple days just to run through, you know, if they change the set.

But I, I definitely practice this stuff.

- [Jeff] So you're just constantly, so it just becomes kind of part of you, I guess - Yeah, I mean, I've, you know, I've played, you know, I don't know, over a thousand shows with them, so pretty much every song I've played a few thousand times.

- [Jeff] Right.

- You know, so it, it's kind of muscle memory at this point.

- [Jeff] Right.

- And everything's pretty comfortable.

We, uh we'll interject different songs from the back catalog from time to time in, you know, in that case I'll go ahead and go back and study and, and relearn, you know, just kind of knock the rust off.

- Right.

Do you have a favorite?

- Oh my gosh.

You know, Freebird is my favorite just because it's such a huge song and it closes every show and people just lose their minds over it.

And it's, you know, it's got a huge piano intro and a huge piano solo, and it's, you know, it's Freebird.

I mean, come on.

- Yeah, absolutely.

What was the magic about that band?

- Oh my gosh.

The music, you know, the, the songs, you know, the, the legend behind it, the mystery, everything, you know, the, you know, Skynyrd's built on, you know, today it's built on just overcoming obstacles, you know, like, you know, just the way the whole band came together.

You know, they came out of not far from here, right?

Jacksonville, Florida.

- Yeah, Jacksonville, Florida.

Yeah.

Just down, down Interstate 10 here.

Yeah, absolutely.

- But, you know, they, they had, they wanted to get outta Jacksonville, so they had to put a band together and do the work and practice and get really good and put music together.

That kind of took them well.

I mean, we're about to celebrate 50 years of Leonard Skynyrd music, which is, you know, it's amazing for a band to be relevant for that long.

- Yeah, yeah.

- For music to be relevant for that long so - Yeah, it really is.

And everybody knows the songs.

- Right.

Everybody knows I'm finally in a band that everybody knows the name of.

It's pretty amazing.

- Yeah, that's awesome.

Talk a little bit about you do some producing for other artists.

What, what's the story there?

- You, you know, I've just, I've been playing and writing music for so long, it's just kind of part of what I do when I'm at home.

You know, I've got a studio at the house and, you know, the music community is a lot smaller than you'd think, right?

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- It's, you kind of know everybody, especially in a town like Nashville, you know, they're just people that are constantly doing it.

So, you know, when we're playing, it's, we play 90 minutes a night, so that leaves like 21 and a half hours a day to do other stuff, you know, and then when we're not on the road, it's, you know, 24 hours a day.

So, you know, I ended up just meeting people throughout, you know, throughout the tour, different bands that open up for us, and you just get to talk and it's like, Hey, you know, you find some artists that you like or you wanna work with, and you just kind of exchange numbers.

It's like, gimme a call.

Pretty much everybody lives in Nashville now, so.

- [Jeff] Right, right.

- You know, that's - You've seen a lot of the LA crowd and New York crowd come to Nashville, haven't you?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

It's just kind of, and there's a lot of talent there.

- There is.

- No question about it yeah.

- And, and again, you know, it's, it's a pretty small comm, well, not small, but a very tight knit community of people that do this for a living.

- [Jeff] Right, right.

You know, it's like you start meeting people and eventually you get, you know, one degree of separation between anybody.

So, you know, if, if you dig what somebody else does, you know there's a good chance you wanna work with them.

So.

- What advice would you give to a young artist today trying to make it?

- What advice would I give to a young artist?

Um, yeah.

You know my advice would be to do this like your life depends on it.

If you're really serious about it, you know, there's no plan B, you don't have a fallback plan.

Like really, you know, commit yourself to music and to your craft.

You know, practice, get really good, you know, learn the stuff that you don't know, challenge yourself.

Work with people that are better than you if you can.

You know, there's, you know, it's, you have to really be committed to this life and to the, you know, to the craft in order to be successful at it, because, you know, it's, it's not an easy, easy road for sure.

You know.

- You think there are more opportunities in today's world with all the technology and, you know, the YouTubes and Spotifys and all this?

- Oh, certainly.

Yeah, there's, you know, there's so many different avenues and revenue streams and way that you can make money making music.

Again, it's about finding your niche, honing your craft, and just really sticking to it, you know, being persistent.

- Yeah.

What are your, what are your goals as you look out in the next five to 10 years?

What do you hope to be doing?

- This?

You know, just playing, playing, writing, recording, producing, you know?

- [Jeff] Yeah.

I started taking a, a film scoring course, and I've been, you know, studying all of the different styles, you know, everything from Han Zimmer to, you know, doing music for picture scoring to picture into film.

You know, Donna and I have written a few really cool theme songs for TV shows and stuff like that.

- How, how is that different?

Now, that's gotta kind of be a different mindset, I would think, trying to score for a film versus writing a song that you're gonna perform.

- Yeah.

It was really surprising to me how different the music is for something like that.

Right?

Because writing songs and writing pop songs, and writing rock and roll songs, you've got a pretty similar structure to all of them.

But when composing for film or TV, you're trying to capture an emotion or a feeling, or a vibe, and it's, there's really not many rules, right?

You don't need like an intro verse, a chorus, and a bridge and a chorus out.

It's like, okay, we want this to kind of feel happy, and then we want it to be sad, and then we want it to be pensive, and then we want some mystery, and you need to stuff all of that into like a 30 second piece, right?

So you've gotta do all of these quick changes, melodically, harmonically, tempo changes, different instrumentation.

It's, it really just blows the whole thing wide open as far as the palette of sounds and, you know, musical themes that I can use.

So it's, it's a lot of fun.

- Yeah.

Is it, is, is it a difficult to transition?

I mean, from, you know, you know, one day you're maybe working on a song and then you're going into that, or is it pretty easy just back and forth?

- No, it's, it's actually quite refreshing.

- Just a change, I guess.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Because I don't have to get into that box, right?

And we were talking about getting pigeon holder into that box of a genre or a style.

It just takes away all of those barriers and boundaries.

- Peter, it was a real pleasure.

- Well, thank you sir.

- Peterkeys.com, right?

People will learn all about you.

- Yes.

That's me.

- That's it.

All right.

He is the keyboard and piano player for Leonard Skynyrd and of course, does a lot of stuff on his own.

He's a songwriter and again, you check him out at peterkeys.com.

Hey, by the way, you can see this interview and many more of our conversations online at wsre.org/conversations.

And also, I'd strongly encourage you to check out the PBS video app.

You wanna make sure you download that.

We've got a wonderful library of programs on that.

I'm Jeff Weeks.

Thank you so very much for watching.

Hope you enjoyed the show.

Take wonderful care of yourself and we'll see you soon.

(music plays)