Session musician Nicky Hopkins is the subject of the film
Prolific virtuoso session pianist Nicky Hopkins will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2025. Hopkins will receive the Musical Excellence Award, which is given to artists, musicians, songwriters, and producers whose originality and influence have had a dramatic impact on music. The induction ceremony is set for November 8th in Los Angeles. Hopkins, who helped to craft classic songs by the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Kinks, the Who, Jeff Beck Group, Steve Miller Band, and Jefferson Airplane, was one of the most in-demand session musicians in rock and roll for more than three decades.
The 2024 documentary The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins, featuring commentary from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Peter Frampton, Pete Townshend and more, explores the legendary 30-year career of Nicky Hopkins and his contributions to over 250 albums, including John Lennon’s Imagine, The Who’s My Generation, and countless iconic songs like “You Are So Beautiful” by Joe Cocker, “Sympathy For The Devil” by The Rolling Stones and “Revolution” by The Beatles.
The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins was written, produced and directed by Mike Treen, who sadly passed away in April 2025 just weeks before the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class of 2025 was announced. Producer John Wood will carry the film forward and continue to educate the world about the legendary work of Nicky Hopkins.
“I am extremely proud, as producer of The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins, to think that the documentary may have contributed towards Nicky receiving rock’s highest honour: his induction into the Rock Hall, which he so deserves, and I know Mike Treen would have felt the same,” says producer John Wood.
Classically trained at The Royal Academy of Music, London, Hopkins could play rock and roll piano like nobody else. His legendary piano riffs and dazzling musical motifs helped ordinary tracks become iconic. With a career spanning 30 years until his tragic early death at age 50, he played with some of the greatest bands and artists in the world including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Steve Miller Band, Joe Cocker, Jerry Garcia, Art Garfunkel and many others.
By the late 1960’s, Nicky was one of the busiest and most successful session players in London. He then joined the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, which took him to America. He settled in Mill Valley enjoying the free-wheeling San Francisco ‘Bay Area Bands’ and playing at Woodstock with Jefferson Airplane. The 1970’s were his most successful period, commuting across The Atlantic to play with The Stones, John Lennon, and on countless sessions in Los Angeles.
Living with Crohn’s disease since his teens, his ability to tour was limited, although he would manage tours with The Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker and Art Garfunkel. But it was in the recording studio where he became a legend amongst his peers. As Keith Richards recounts, “We were coming up with songs that [were] absolutely beyond Stu’s- let alone capabilities-his dreams! He didn’t want to know! So, I think that Stu called and said, ‘The only guy that can handle this is Nicky Hopkins.’” Nicky ended up playing on a total of 14 Stones albums.
Nicky’s story is told in the film by Albert Lee, Antonia Cipollina, Arthur Rochester, Benmont Tench, Bill Wyman, Billy Nicholls, Bro Paul Brown, Chris Kimsey, Chris Welch, Chuck Leavell, Dave Davies, Glyn Johns, Graham Parker, Gray Levett, Greg Phillinganes, Harry Shearer, Helen O’Hara, Jack Casady, Jim Keltner, Joe Tansin, John Goddard, Jorma Kaukonen, Julian Dawson (Nicky’s biographer – author of And on Piano… Nicky Hopkins), Keith Richards, Merrell Fankhauser, Mick Jagger, Mike Hurst, Mike McCartney, Moira Hopkins (Nicky’s widow), Morgan Fisher, Nils Lofgren, Paddy Milner, Pete Edmonds, Pete Sears, Pete Townshend, Peter Frampton, PP Arnold, Rory Kaplan, Sarah Sleet (CEO of Crohn’s & Colitis UK), Shel Talmy, Slim Jim Phantom, Terry Reid and Tom Speight.
The film’s narrator, Bob Harris, former presenter of the BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test, had no hesitation in confirming that, “His contributions on their records made him Rock and Roll’s greatest Session Man.”
The film is available digitally and on DVD.
