John "Rabbit" Bundrick was born on November 21, 1948, in Baytown, Texas. His long association with The Who put him alongside Pete Townshend, whose musical changes he learned to follow closely. By the time that partnership began, Bundrick had already encountered very different ideas about what a keyboard player could bring to a band.
He started piano lessons at seven in Houston’s Northshore neighborhood. Country music was part of his upbringing, but his listening also took in blues, gospel and classical music. Working with singer Johnny Nash eventually took him to Sweden, where he shared a house with Nash and Bob Marley in 1971 while they wrote music for a film starring Nash. In a 2021 interview with It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine, Bundrick recalled that reggae was unfamiliar to him. Marley demonstrated the rhythm on guitar and showed him how the organ should answer it. Those lessons happened at home as well as in the studio.
After moving to England in October 1971, Bundrick played on Nash’s 1972 album I Can See Clearly Now. His connection with Marley continued on the Wailers’ Catch a Fire, released in 1973. The band had recorded in Jamaica before further work took place in London, where producer Chris Blackwell developed arrangements aimed at reaching rock listeners. Bundrick added organ and clavinet to those recordings.
Free also gave him room to develop his ideas. He joined their lineup in 1972, and later told interviewer Tom Guerra that the band had invited him into jams without preconceptions about what he would bring. The sessions became a place to try ideas and learn from his bandmates. On Heartbreaker, Free’s final studio album, released in 1973, two of the eight songs were his compositions: “Muddy Water” and “Common Mortal Man,” both sung by Paul Rodgers.
Bundrick first recorded with Townshend on Rough Mix, the guitarist’s 1977 collaboration with Ronnie Lane. In 1979 he joined The Who’s live lineup, and his keyboards also appeared on their 1981 album Face Dances. The record included “You Better You Bet,” whose promotional film featured Bundrick alongside the band. His work with Townshend had moved from an album made outside The Who into both the group’s concerts and its studio recordings.
His older instruments stayed close. Speaking to Sound on Sound in November 1995, Bundrick said he still owned the Wurlitzer piano he had used with Free and the clavinet from Catch a Fire. “They all mean something special to me,” he said.
For The Who’s stage, those keyboard sounds could take on a harder edge. In a 2003 interview with Con Moerenhout, Bundrick described following Townshend’s playing so he could support each musical move. His setup included a Hammond B3 fitted with a wah-wah and routed through a Line 6 guitar processor for added distortion. Alongside a stage piano and sound modules, it gave him ways to push the organ beyond a clean accompanying sound.
The studio partnership continued on Endless Wire in 2006, The Who’s first album of new material since It’s Hard in 1982. Bundrick played Hammond organ on “Sound Round,” “Pick Up the Peace” and “Mirror Door.”
