Ian McLagan: Austin’s Faces Keyboardist

Today is the birthday of Ian McLagan. He would be 82 today.

Ian McLagan built two legendary rock bands. Then he settled quietly in Austin, Texas. Everyone called him Mac. His Hammond organ turned Small Faces and Faces into two of rock’s most joyful bands. He later toured with the Rolling Stones for two decades as a session keyboardist. But Austin is where he chose to grow old.

McLagan was born May 12, 1945, in Hounslow, England, west of London. He joined the Small Faces in 1965, just as British R&B was exploding. The band’s mod anthems, like ‘Itchycoo Park’ and ‘Tin Soldier,’ still get airplay today. When Steve Marriott left in 1969, the group became Faces with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood. Faces turned into one of rock’s great bar bands, sloppy and thrilling in equal measure. McLagan’s keyboard runs were the glue that held the chaos together.

A Faces Man Finds Manor, Texas

McLagan moved to Austin in the 1990s and never really left. He and his wife Kim settled in Manor, a small town east of the city. There, he built a home studio in a converted garage he called the Doghouse Studios. Local musicians packed his Monday night residency at the Lucky Lounge for over a decade. He also sat in with the Rolling Stones at Zilker Park in 2006. It meant sharing a Texas stage with the band he once backed on tour.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Small Faces in 2012. McLagan died in Austin on December 3, 2014, after suffering a stroke. He was 69, still gigging around town until the end. Manor never made him famous, but it made him happy. Read more at his Wikipedia entry.