Hargus “Pig” Robbins, a session player who performed on some of the biggest country hits ever, died Sunday at 84.
A cause of death was not disclosed in the announcement from the Country Music Hall of Fame, which inducted him in 2012.
Robbins played piano on thousands of recordings from the late 1950s until the mid-2010s, including Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” and Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces.”
He also played on Bob Dylan’s 1966 album Blonde on Blonde, which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Robbins’ work can be heard on albums by several Canadian artists, including Shania Twain’s The Woman in Me, Gordon Lightfoot’s Summer Side of Life, Paul Anka’s Both Sides of Love, Neil Young’s Old Ways and k.d. lang’s Shadowland.
One of the last albums on which he played piano is Miranda Lambert’s 2016 collection The Weight of These Wings.
Among those paying tribute on social media is Travis Tritt, who said Robbins played on many of his early albums. "A truly legendary musician and a gentleman," he wrote.
"I did an uptempo, rockin version of 'Winter Wonderland' on my 1992 Christmas album. On that track you can hear me yell, 'Burn it up, Pig' right before the piano solo. Hargus 'Pig' Robbins was playing that solo."
Robbins also released several studio albums of his own.
Robbins, who lost his vision in an accident when he was a young boy, learned piano at age seven. He earned the nickname “Pig” while studying at the Tennessee School for the Blind because he was known to sneak in through a fire escape to play when he was not supposed to. “I’d get dirty as a pig,” he told the Encyclopedia of Country Music.