{"id":238890,"date":"2025-10-25T09:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T09:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/238890\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T09:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T09:10:09","slug":"bill-wyman-on-the-rolling-stones-jimi-hendrix-and-keith-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/238890\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Wyman on The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Keith Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Rolling Stones<\/a> bassist Bill Wyman<\/a> was the heartbeat of The World\u2019s Greatest Rock\u2019N\u2019Roll Band for more than 30 years, an integral part of the line-up as they rose scrappy British R&B rebels to become one of the most successful and recognisable groups on the planet.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He may have left the band in 1993, but Wyman remained active in music with his passion project Bill Wyman\u2019s Rhythm Kings, the band he founded in 1997 and featured guitar hero Albert Lee, American R&B king Gary U.S. Bonds and British pianist Georgie Fame, among others.<\/p>\n

During his decades in music, Wyman crossed paths with countless musical icons and notched up numerous great stories. In 2009, Classic Rock sat down with the bassist at Sticky Fingers, his American-style bistro in West London, to get his memories of some of rock\u2019s greatest names.<\/p>\n

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Unsurprisingly, Sticky Fingers\u2019 walls were decked out in glorious Stones memorabilia, including the fretless bass Wyman invented in 1961 and his old mate Brian Jones\u2019s gold Gibson guitar. \u201cIt\u2019s the only thing I\u2019ve got of Brian\u2019s and it\u2019s worth an awful lot of money,\u201d he said wistfully. \u201cIt\u2019s my little treasure.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Classic\n<\/p>\n

Jimi Hendrix<\/p>\n

I first saw him at a club in Queens in New York in 1966, when he was known as Jimmy James. He did things the average person wasn\u2019t doing, though I knew they\u2019d been done before \u2013 playing guitar round the back of your head and biting strings. Jimi<\/a> was a nice guy and all the Stones got on very well with him.<\/p>\n

When we got back from America, I bumped into The Animals at the Scotch Of St James<\/a>. Chas [Chandler, bassist] said to me: \u201cWe\u2019re off to the States next week.\u201d I said: \u201cIf you\u2019re in New York, go and see this guy called Hendrix. He\u2019s fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

So they went, Chas met him and then signed him and brought him over. I was one of the first people to see him here, when he played a club in Bromley [The Bromel Club, in 1967]. It might have been the first gig he did. There was hardly anyone else there. But he still poured lighter fuel on his guitar and set fire to it that night.<\/p>\n

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The Yardbirds<\/p>\n

In the last month or two that the Stones were playing the Station Hotel in Richmond we kept getting these young kids coming up to us. They\u2019d ask us things like: \u201cWhat key do you play that Jimmy Reed song in?\u201d or \u201cHow does the middle section of that Slim Harpo song go?\u201d<\/p>\n

I had one guy who kept questioning me as to where I got my strings from, and it was [Yardbirds bassist] Paul Samwell-Smith. And the rest of the guys turned out to be Yardbirds, too. They were learning from us the rudiments of blues<\/a> riffs. And when we left they took over the venue, but though they never got the same audiences or adulation that we did.<\/p>\n

But then Eric [Clapton] joined and it became a different kind of band. I\u2019ve been mates with Eric ever since that time. Jimmy Page was the same. He used to come and watch the Stones play in those little venues in \u201963 when he was just a session guitarist.<\/p>\n

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\"The\n<\/p>\n

The Rolling Stones in the mid-60s: (l-r) Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman (Image credit: Hulton-Deutsch Collection\/CORBIS\/Corbis via Getty Images)Brian Jones<\/p>\n

Whenever the Stones would go on tour, me and Brian would always share a room. He could be really sweet and lovely and was more intelligent than any of the others. He was very articulate. But he could also be a little bastard sometimes. He had an evil streak which a lot of people only remember him for.<\/p>\n

Brian would do nasty things, like steal my girl or something one night. So he\u2019d do the dirty, then you\u2019d end up forgiving him because he\u2019d have that little innocent, angelic smile: \u201cSorry, man. I didn\u2019t mean it.\u201d So you\u2019d love him and hate him.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always said good things about him because he was the creator of The Rolling Stones. I don\u2019t care what you say about Mick and Keith, if it hadn\u2019t have been for Brian they probably would have had a different band in Dartford, out in the sticks where they lived. They weren\u2019t Londoners, though Mick always tries on his cockney accent, which he doesn\u2019t deserve, really. The only working-class ones in the Stones were me and Charlie.<\/p>\n

The Rolling Stones<\/p>\n

Keith still sends me scented candles at Christmas. We all send each other birthday and Christmas presents. It\u2019s still a family thing, social not business, and it works really well. It\u2019s like distant relatives \u2013 you\u2019ve got an Auntie Elsie and an Uncle Fred who are really charming but you don\u2019t want to see them all the time.<\/p>\n

When I first left the Stones it took a few months to rebuild that relationship with them. It was quite stressful and they didn\u2019t want me to leave. So they became bitchy. Instead of being nice and saying: \u201cGreat 30 years. Cheers mate,\u201d Mick would say the most absurd, stupid things, with that spoilt attitude he had. He\u2019d say things like: \u201cOh well, if anybody has to play bass I\u2019ll do it. It can\u2019t be that hard.\u201d And Keith said: \u201cNo one leaves this band unless they\u2019re in a wooden box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyway, they left the door open for me for two years. Charlie and Mick would phone and say: \u201cYou\u2019re not really leaving are you? Have you re-thought it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Then when it came time for them to do the \u201994\/\u201995 tour they had to make a final decision. Mick and Charlie came over and spent the evening with me, trying to talk me into staying. Have I had any regrets about not going back? None whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Peter Frampton<\/p>\n

He was in the Rhythm Kings for the first year. Pete and I go back to when he was about 14 and used to come round to my house. He had this little band at that time. I\u2019m like his mentor, his confidante.<\/p>\n

I helped get him into the studio for the first time. Whenever he has any decisions to make, he always calls and asks for advice. When he got invited to join Ringo\u2019s band he phoned to say: \u201cDo you think it\u2019s a good move? \u201cHe was always highly talented and could do all these great improvised solos.<\/p>\n

Pete blew me away, actually. After I joined the Stones in December \u201962, drummer Tony Chapman \u2013 who\u2019d been in my first band, The Cliftons \u2013 got fired a month later. Tony then bought my old equipment and formed The Preachers. And when their guitar player was killed in a car crash in \u201964 he was replaced by Peter Frampton. So you can trace him back to my original band.<\/p>\n

Paul Rodgers<\/p>\n

The Rhythm Kings were invited to play on the same bill as Led Zep at the Ahmet Ertegun tribute show [December 2007]. At the aftershow party we did six songs each \u2013 with Solomon Burke, Ben E King, Percy Sledge, Sam Moore \u2013 over two hours for 3,000 people, with my band supporting them. And all those artists bloody loved the Rhythm Kings.<\/p>\n

When we played with Paul Rodgers at rehearsal, he said: \u201cI want this band!\u201d I said: \u201cPiss off, Paul. You\u2019re not having mine, get your own bloody band!\u201d Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler and Peter Green play with us too.<\/p>\n

We played with Knopfler at the Royal Albert Hall, he turned to the audience and said: \u201cThis band know my music better than I do.\u201d It\u2019s wonderful.<\/p>\n

Jeff Beck<\/p>\n

Even though Jeff grew up with the blues, his bands have all been quite abstract and a little jazzy. I mean, what he said when he auditioned for the Stones [in 1975] was exactly what I\u2019d told them myself in 1963: \u201cYou can\u2019t play slow, 12-bar blues all bloody night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff was just one of the guitarists the Stones auditioned when Mick Taylor left. There was Rory Gallagher, Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel, the guy from Canned Heat. They all sort of came around and played for a couple of evenings. Jeff was good, but Harvey Mandel had too many effects, echoes and foot pedals.<\/p>\n

Keith ended up saying: \u201cBollocks to all that, just play the fucking thing!\u201d We weren\u2019t a gimmicks band. We were just messing with people to see how they fitted, really. And no one quite did. Then we ended up with Ronnie Wood.<\/p>\n

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\"Bill\n<\/p>\n

The Rolling Stones\u2019 Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts with Keith Moon of The Who (Image credit: Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)Keith Moon<\/p>\n

I used to stay at Moonie\u2019s house a lot. Keith was a wonderful guy but god he did overindulge. The doctor would come round and give him so much bloody stuff, then three days later Keith would\u2019ve taken it all.<\/p>\n

There\u2019d be Valium 10s, sleeping pills, wake-up pills and speeding pills, and he would just down them all the time. And there\u2019d be champagne in the mornings, with brandy. I used to watch him in disbelief.<\/p>\n

Once I was making a cup of tea in the morning and his lovely Swedish girlfriend [Annette Walter-Lax] came down \u2013 I\u2019d heard them fighting upstairs \u2013 and she had scratches down each side of her face, with blood. I said: \u201cAnnette, what happened?\u201d And she went: \u201cOh, nothing. Keith just threw the cat at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019d do the maddest things. If he\u2019d be meeting me and Ringo at Tramp, he\u2019d arrive in a full hunting uniform. He\u2019d have been out and hired fox-hunting gear: hat, coat, riding crop, jodhpurs. One time he bought a cemetery in the West Country as a birthday present for [Who bassist] John Entwistle.<\/p>\n

Ringo Starr<\/p>\n

I used to see John Lennon quite a bit in America, when we\u2019d sit down and have a nice chat. I remember once, when we were out in Los Angeles, he said to me: \u201cI\u2019d love to go on tour with you and Charlie as a rhythm section one day.\u201d But of course it never happened.<\/p>\n

I used to hang out with Paul [McCartney] quite a lot too. I actually gave them a lot of Beatles memorabilia that they never had, like films of them playing Shea Stadium and one of them playing Washington [February 1964], which was the first show they ever did in America. Then I gave Ringo a load of Tony Hancock stuff.<\/p>\n

Out of all of them, I was closest to Ringo. I saw him a lot in the 70s when he lived in Monte Carlo and I lived in the South of France. We\u2019d go to clubs, get drunk, go into Monte Carlo, have dinners. Then he\u2019d come around to my house and watch music videos. They were good times. I still see him occasionally.<\/p>\n

George Harrison<\/p>\n

George played on one of the Rhythm Kings albums just before he died [2001\u2019s Double Bill]. I phoned him up and said: \u201cCan you do a guitar part on this track?\u201d He went: \u201cWhat are you calling me up for? You\u2019ve got two of the best guitarists in the world in your band \u2013 Albert Lee and Martin Taylor. What do you want me for? I only play one note.\u201d And I said to him: \u201cGeorge, that\u2019s the note I want.\u201d So he said: \u201cAlright then. Send me the tape.\u201d Which I did. And his guitar part was great.<\/p>\n

Afterwards he wrote me a lovely letter, after I\u2019d sent him a present of the [artist] Marc Chagall book I did [Chagall\u2019s World, with photographs by Wyman], thanking me for asking him to do it. He signed it \u2018Bert Weedon\u2019.<\/p>\n

This feature was originally published in Classic Rock issue 137 (September 2009)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman was the heartbeat of The World\u2019s Greatest Rock\u2019N\u2019Roll Band for more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-238890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}