How John Lennon's Legendary 'Jealous Guy' Pianist Almost Ended Up in Spinal Tap: 'Too Good for Us' (Exclusive)

The fictional heavy metal band courted esteemed sideman Nicky Hopkins, Spinal Tap's Harry Shearer reveals in the documentary 'The Session Man'

From Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis to Billy Preston, Elton John and Billy Joel, piano men have made incredible contributions to the history of rock and roll. But as the genre's essential piano men go, one MVP, in particular, generally gets overlooked.

That's all about to change with The Session Man, a 90-minute documentary about the legendary-but-undersung pianist Nicky Hopkins that will premiere Nov. 5 on Amazon Prime. If you haven't heard of Hopkins, you're not alone. But you've definitely heard him.

Once one of the most in-demand session men in the business, Hopkins, who died in 1994 and age 50, played piano on such classics as "She's a Rainbow," "Sympathy of the Devil," "Gimme Shelter" and "Angie" by the Rolling Stones, "Matthew and Son" by Cat Stevens, "You Are So Beautiful" by Joe Cocker, "Photograph" by Ringo Starr and "Jealous Guy" by John Lennon.

In fact, the British pianist contributed to solo albums by all four former Beatles, including Lennon's Imagine, Starr's Ringo, George Harrison's Living in the Material World and Paul McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Peter Frampton and The Kinks' Dave Davies all pop up in the doc to sing the praises of their late colleague. Richards and Jagger were first introduced to Hopkins' prowess on the piano as teens during a night out at the Marquee in 1962.

"Nicky could do the absolute incredible — you would believe that [Chicago blues great] Otis Spam was in the room, which for a White English kid in [the] 1960s was absolutely amazing," Richards says in the documentary. adding, "He could play just about anything."

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But for all his serious credentials, Hopkins almost ended up being part of one of rock music's most enduring jokes. In The Session Man, Harry Shearer, a founding member of Spinal Tap, reveals that at one point he wanted Hopkins to be member of the mockumentary band. That's right — the guy responsible for the gentle piano melodies on "Jealous Guy" and "You Are So Beautiful" could have ended up in Spinal Tap.

“You know, we had, I think, met with Nicky when we were getting, when we were looking for people to be in the band," Shearer, 80, reveals in the doc. "And, um, I think we met with him just to have the thrill of meeting Nicky because he was…. I think he was busy at the time. And so, we just thought, well, let’s have a meeting."

Though the group was launched by Shearer, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest for the 1984 satirical film This Is Spinal Tap, they were dead serious about their interest in Hopkins.

"We weren’t jerking him off or anything," Shearer continues. "We just want to say, ‘We’re doing this, and you’re doing that, and how great.’ But he was working. Um, you know, we would’ve… I think he would have been too good for us, you know, what we were trying to do. We weren’t trying to do bad music, but, I mean, Nicky was a virtuoso. And, uh, I think we would have had trouble making that funny.”

Hopkins didn't end up joining Spinal Tap, but he did play on the song "Rainy Day Sun." a track from their 1992 album, Break Like the Wind — which also featured musical contributions from Cher, Slash and Jeff Beck.

The latter, Hopkins' widow, Moira, reveals in the doc, was the focus of a funny exchange during the making of the album. At the recording studio, Hopkins asked This Is Spinal Tap director Christopher Guest if he had modeled his Spinal Tap alter ego, Nigel Tufnel, on Jeff Beck. "He said, 'Go on, just tell me,' " she recalls. "He goes, 'You were Jeff Beck, weren’t you?' He wouldn’t tell him. He wouldn’t admit to it."

But all joking aside, Shearer was proud to be associated with one of rock most undersung talents via Spinal Tap.

"Part of the thrill of doing that project," he says, "was, uh, either in the making or later getting to meet people that we really just thought the world of, and, uh, Nicky was absolutely one of them."

The Session Man will be available to stream Nov. 5 on Amazon Prime.