More horns.

It’s a mantra that probably began when, at about age 12, he heard “The Grand Ole Opry” on his grandparents’ radio in his hometown of Slaton Texas, and it certainly manifest itself when he was smacked in the musical face with the sounds and experience of rhythm and blues that he heard in the alleys and back roads of “The Flats,” the poor, mostly black part of that town.

More horns.

It may have been somewhere in the back of his mind when, less than a block from his grandparents’ home, he first saw a performance by Buddy Holly, way before Holly joined up with the Crickets, playing on the back of a flatbed wagon at a store opening, and he was first intoxicated by the power of rock ‘n’ roll.

More horns.

More than anything, it has been the life blood through the incredible career of saxophonist Bobby Keys, who, in addition to being the leader of the Rolling Stones’ horn section for over 40 years, has brought his plan for “more horns” to recording sessions and concerts with a virtual “who’s who” of rock ‘n’ roll, including Buddy Knox, Delaney & Bonnie, Joe Cocker, Joe Ely, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Etta James, Sheryl Crow, Carly Simon and Eric Clapton, among scores of others.

“You know, I said that (‘more horns’) in a whimsical way, to open doors for me to get gigs, but there is some basis of truth to it, all my favorite bands, Otis, Aretha, Wilson, they all had horns,” the 68-year-old legend said in a recent interview with Sound Waves from near his current home in Nashville, “It is certainly the way I feel.”

The remarkable musical life and journey of Keys, and his horns, has now been compiled in his recent released memoir, “”Every Night’s A Saturday Night,” the amazing tale of a man who has put his musical stamp on so much great music for the last four-plus decades.

“I found that had a lot of time on my hands, that’s how this (book) all got started,” Keys said with a laugh in his still-prevalent Texas drawl. “I started the book project about 15 or 20 years ago, and it did not work out well; the author had one idea of where she wanted to take it and it wasn’t the direction that I wanted to take it.

“Then, I talked to (co-author) Bill Ditenhafer, a former musician here in Nashville, about putting down some notes of my life experiences,” he added. “We got together, had a conversation, we broke out the tape recorder, he wrote out a treatment, the publisher thought it was a good idea, and here we are.”

Yet, it remains clear to Keys that that small Texas town of Slaton, near Lubbock-the hometown of Buddy Holly- is where it all began.

“Buddy was the first guy I ever heard play electric guitar, the first rock and roll I ever heard played live in Slaton,” he recalled. “There was just a feeling that I got from hearing that live music; it turned my life around.

“It was funny because you have to remember that Elvis was the guy at the time, and Buddy didn’t look anything like Elvis,” Keys said. “Today, I guess you’d describe him (Holly) as being kind of on the geeky side, but he was a fella who had a hell of lot of feeling.”

Despite being mesmerized by Holly’s guitar, it was an instrument that Keys tried, but could never master.

“Man, I wanted to play guitar so bad I couldn’t stand it,” he laughed. “I stood in front of the mirror, man, and I tried a couple of times, and I just could not get it to do what I wanted it to do. I had little short stubby hands anyway, which were a lot better suited for the saxophone.”

It was, as Keys tells it in the book, the very last instrument left unclaimed in his school’s band. And, although he’s become a master of it, he still doesn’t read music.

“I’m what they call a ‘feel player,’” he explained. “The people who I work with, who hire me, if they want somebody who is just part of a horn section, reading charts, there’s about a million people who can do that, and that’s not what I go for.

“I try to find the handle of the feel of the music. I might get a call to go down and put down a solo for someone I’ve never met before, and I’ll put as much effort into that as I would for Mick and Keith,” he explained. “I just listen for something inside the music that I can augment. I’ve got sort of an ability to feel music and hear what is going to happen slightly before it happens. I try to anticipate it. I don’t read music. I play strictly by ear. ”

It’s certainly an approach that has been successful for Keys, who got a somewhat ironic break into recordings, playing the original sax solo on Dion’s classic “The Wanderer,” but which, as he explains the book, was slightly out of tune and dropped from the seminal recording, something he didn’t find out for about 45 years.

“Dion, man, the quintessential teenage idol, the bad boy of rock at the time,” he remembered. “My first impression of him was thinking, ‘how does he get his hair to stay in place so good?’”

Keys certainly made an impression himself, though, ending up on an Elvis Presley recording date and then touring with Dick Clark’s “Caravan of Stars,” where he worked with Bobby Vee. It was a time, Keys said, that he developed his playing as a “rock ‘n’ roll saxophonist,” mastering an instrument that then, and now, is more associated with jazz.

The difference? Keys said it goes back to those rhythm and blues songs he first heard on the radio back in Slaton.

“Really the one, rock ‘n’ roll, is what I play and the other one, jazz, is what I don’t play, that’s all there is to it,” he said. “All music that is worth any credibility is about feeling, with some degree of emotion in it. Rock n’ roll and jazz both have that, but rock n’ roll just comes more naturally to me. I got it first listening to the old R&B stations. On those early R&B records the saxophone was king.”

It was while he was playing with Vee that, in San Antonio in 1964, he found himself rooming next to an English band in the midst of their first American tour. That, of course, was the Rolling Stones, and the beginning of a long, important musical friendship for Keys.

“You know, time brings a lot of change,” Keys recalled, “but it has always seemed to me that both Mick and Keith have, personality-wise, remained on a pretty even keel (since then).”

Keys’ significant musical contributions to the Stones’ music would have to wait, though, as he then found himself in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and later, Los Angeles, playing with Leon Russell, Delaney & Bonnie and Joe Cocker.

“Delaney, he was a good old boy from the south, man, a good looking guy, and a hell of a singer, real friendly,” Keys said. “I first knew him when he was in the Shindogs band, on ‘Shindig,’ on ABC. I liked him right off the bat. Bonnie, man, she knocked my socks off. She was the first white girl that I ever heard could sing that like.”

It was also a time when Keys developed perhaps, outside of the Stones, his most important professional, and personal, relationship, with Jim Price, a trumpet player with Delaney & Bonnie. Together, the two cemented the “more horns” concept that got them work along the road.

“Jim Price did more good for me, musically, then anybody else,” he said. “He was the knowledgeable one between the two of us; he actually had the degree in music.

“Jim had perfect pitch, and I used to drive him nuts because I play a little bit sharp,” he added. “Jim had a good ear for voicing parts. He knew more about music than I did. He was the best thing that happened to me.”

Their partnership, and friendship, led beyond Delaney & Bonnie to the legendary “Mad Dogs & Englishmen,” the two parts circus, one part band put together at literally the last minute, by Leon Russell, to back Joe Cocker on a tour.

“Leon Russell, whew, man, he was the mad professor,” Keys said, laughing. “He was legendary in Tulsa, and the first guy to leave for LA. He was just non-stop music and playing.

“Leon was definitely in control with ‘Mad Dogs,’” Keys recalled. “He took a whole bunch of people who had never played together before; he put a whole lot of stuff together, in a very short period of time. He had the talent to do it, but, because of who he was, he also had the respect of the people involved to pay attention.

“And, we, and he, had a great singer and performer in Joe Cocker,” he added. “Joe was, and is, a gentle, beautiful soul, with such a voice and presentation. He has literally never, ever short changed an audience.”

That madcap tour opened a number of doors for Keys, who along with Price, then played on countless recording sessions, with the likes of John Lennon and George Harrison, among many others.

“George was a very gentle soul, all about music and peace, and a very, very generous fella,” Keys said. “John was a very honest man, totally convinced of his beliefs, and willing to go to any length to make other people aware that it was better to have love in the world than war.”

Yet, despite all the unbelievable work he’s done with all those artists, it is clear that Keys has cemented his place in rock’ ‘n’ roll history with his over 40 years of work, on the road and in the studio, with the Stones, adding “more horns,” and his stellar, singular sax sound, to such classics as “Live With Me,” “Bitch,” “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?”, and, of course, “Brown Sugar.”

“I’m very proud of the stuff I’ve done with the Stones, because we (Keys and Price) came in at a time when they were looking for a little transition,” Keys said. “It started again when I ran into Mick in London while they were working on ‘Sticky Fingers.’ He was a fan of Otis, Aretha, Wilson, all of them. Jim (Price) and I were in town working on George Harrison’s record, and we started working with the Stones, bringing another element to their sound.”

And, having played with the Stones far longer than any of their other band members, Keys has a unique perspective on them.

“I’m probably closer friends, hell, he’s my pal even more than my friend, with Keith than I am with Mick, but that doesn’t mean Mick doesn’t like me and I don’t like him,” Keys said. “Far from it. Mick is one of the most talented people I’ve ever been on a stage with; I’m never less than amazed to watch him work, how he handles himself, how he plays to the audience, he’s the consummate professional.

“Keith is, simply, the best son of a bitch I ever met in my life. Period. I’ve just been very blessed to have played with them,” he added. “It’s an inspiration to me to be able to play with musicians whom I respect so much.

And, it seems, like everyone else, Keys awaits word on the band’s 50th Anniversary tour plans this year.

“I’ve been contacted (about the tour), by not by anybody with the Stones, unfortunately,” Keys said. “I hope it will happen, but I’m superstitious, so if I count on it, and say it’s going to happen, it probably won’t happen.”

Regardless, it has been amazing musical journey for Keys, and it’s all there in his book. . After all the tours, the sessions, the madcap hubbub, and the craziness, just how does this incredible musician, the one who always wants “more horns,” want to be remembered? He has a simple answer.

“Hey,” he laughed, yet again. “I’m the guy that kept Keith Richards alive for a long, long time.”