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Keyboardist Ian McLagan Dies At 69

Ian McLagan performs at Grimey's Americanarama in Nashville, Tenn., on Sept. 20. The keyboardist for the Faces and Small Faces, who was also a sideman for the Rolling Stones, died Wednesday. He was 69.
Erika Goldring
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Getty Images for Americana Music
Ian McLagan performs at Grimey's Americanarama in Nashville, Tenn., on Sept. 20. The keyboardist for the Faces and Small Faces, who was also a sideman for the Rolling Stones, died Wednesday. He was 69.

Ian McLagan, who played keyboard for the English rock bands Small Faces and Faces and was a sideman for the Rolling Stones, died Wednesday in Austin, Texas. He was 69.

His official website listed the cause as "complications from a stroke suffered the previous day."

"I am completely devastated by this shocking news, said Kenny Jones, McLagan's bandmate in Small Faces and Faces.

McLagan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

In a June interview with NPR, McLagan said his musical road wasn't always easy.

"Well, there was a time when I gave up music," he said. "But actually what I had given up was drugs and the people I was playing with. They weren't making me happy."

In it, he credited his late wife, Kim, whom he married in 1978 and was with until her death in 2006, with helping him find his way back to music.

McLagan's death comes a day after the death of Bobby Keys, the legendary saxophonist who played for the Stones.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Krishnadev Calamur is NPR's deputy Washington editor. In this role, he helps oversee planning of the Washington desk's news coverage. He also edits NPR's Supreme Court coverage. Previously, Calamur was an editor and staff writer at The Atlantic. This is his second stint at NPR, having previously worked on NPR's website from 2008-15. Calamur received an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri.