Keith Emerson was an English musician and composer.  He died in March 2016 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 71.

Emerson played keyboards in a number of bands before he found his first commercial success with the Nice, formerly P. P. Arnold’s backing band, in the late 1960s. He became internationally famous for his work with the Nice, which included writing rock arrangements of classical music. After leaving the Nice in 1970, he was a founding member of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), one of the early progressive rock supergroups. Emerson, Lake & Palmer were commercially successful through much of the 1970s, becoming one of the best-known progressive rock groups of the era. Emerson wrote and arranged much of ELP’s music on albums such as Tarkus (1971) and Brain Salad Surgery (1973), combining his own original compositions with classical or traditional pieces adapted into a rock format.

The group disbanded in 1979.

In the early 80’s Emerson lived in the US and then later Bahamas before returning to the UK.

In this conversation recorded in 1983 he explains his reasons for leaving the West Indies and returning home.