Hargus "Pig" Robbins

Hargus Melvin "Pig" Robbins (born January 18, 1938, in Spring City, Tennessee[1]) is an American session keyboard player. Having played on records for many artists, including John Stewart, Dolly Parton, Connie Smith, Patti Page, Loretta Lynn, Kenny Rogers, George Jones, Charlie Rich, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, John Hartford, Mark Knopfler, Ween, Alan Jackson, Merle Haggard, Roger Miller, David Allan Coe, Moe Bandy, George Hamilton IV, Sturgill Simpson, and Conway Twitty,[2] he played on Roger Miller's Grammy Award-winning "Dang Me" in 1964. He is blind, having lost his sight at age four due to an accident involving his father's knife.[1]

Robbins learned to play piano at age seven, while attending the Nashville School for the Blind. He played his first session in 1957, with his first major recording being George Jones's "White Lightning".[3] Since then, he has played keyboards for scores of country music artists.

Between 1963 and 1979, Robbins also recorded eight studio albums: one on Time Records, three on Chart Records, and four on Elektra Records, as well as an independent live album.[3] He was awarded Musician of the Year by the Country Music Association in 1976 and 2000.[4]

His 1959 single "Save It", recorded under the name Mel Robbins, was covered by The Cramps on their 1983 album Off the Bone.

Robbins joined producers Alan Autry and Randall Franks on the In the Heat of the Night 1991 Christmas Time's A Comin' CD appearing on several cuts but receiving feature credit on series star David Hart's recording of "Let it Snow".

On October 21, 2012, Robbins was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.[5]

In Robert Altman's classic, Nashville, a hippie piano player nicknamed "Frog" is fired by Henry Gibson's character (an egotistical country singer), who yells at the studio engineer: "When I ask for Pig, I want Pig!"