![\"Keith](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Keith-Richards-The-Rolling-Stones-2023-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n
Wed 12 November 2025 18:00, UK <\/p>\n
\u2018No Stones without Jones\u2019 \u2013 that became the protesting slogan as The Rolling Stones<\/a> tried to pick up and start again after firing Brian Jones, growing even louder when they simply kept on going after his death.<\/p>\n It all comes back to a debate of who really started the Stones. The official line is that it was Brian Jones. He was the one who put an ad in the papers looking for members, and he was the one who named the group. However, any biography of the band starts earlier than that, beginning instead with the friendship between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and their shared inspirations.<\/p>\n Most begin with Jagger and Richards\u2019 shared love for blues<\/a>, rather than with Jones\u2019 mission to find more men for his group, suggesting that, really, the Stones had begun long before. Then, given that the band was quickly shaped into the two friends\u2019 image with their songwriting and Jagger\u2019s leadership, does the issue of founding really come into it?<\/p>\n It draws a dividing line between fans. Some argue that without Jones, the band as we know it today would never exist. However, others dare to suggest that had Jones survived,\u00a0he would have only held them back,<\/a>\u00a0so they likely would exist in the same form today anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a delicate line of questioning given the tragedy of Jones\u2019 death and the involvement of addiction. But the band themselves were never really all that delicate. Even in 2002, decades on from Jones\u2019 death, Richards wasn\u2019t shy about delivering some critique about their old bandmates\u2019 skill.<\/p>\n \u201cBrian was not a natural songwriter,\u201d he said to Rolling Stone, adding, \u201cHis mind was too confused.\u201d <\/p>\n In the artist\u2019s final years, that definitely would have been the truth. Part of the reason why Jones had to be fired was that he\u2019d become so lost to drugs and booze that he couldn\u2019t even be trusted to play his instruments right. The skills and talent he\u2019d honed were lost under the weight of his addictions, and so they had to call in a replacement in order to get anything done. If he couldn\u2019t even play his guitar, there was no hope that any song he wrote would come out clear.<\/p>\n But for Richards, it was more than that. He simply didn\u2019t think Jones was cut out to be a songwriter. \u201cHe could talk his head off, but he couldn\u2019t write well. He was an interpreter more than a writer,\u201d he said, claiming that he simply didn\u2019t have the knack for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s half talent and half dedication, and to Richards, it was himself and Jagger who had both. \u201cI stumbled into songwriting; so did Mick. You know the story: Andrew Oldham locked us in the kitchen and forced us to do it,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cYou either find you\u2019ve got it or not.\u201d To him, Brian Jones did not. <\/p>\n However, what Jones did have a knack for was riffs and melodies. For so many of their early hits, the foundation of the song first came from an idea the guitarist had, like the riff of \u2018Paint It Black\u2019. So while Richards might have a point that Jones didn\u2019t have the words, he did have songwriting skills in a different lane, and that can\u2019t be discredited. <\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still) Wed 12 November 2025 18:00, UK \u2018No Stones without Jones\u2019 \u2013 that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[25719,96,25721,128,15747,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-259074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-brian-jones","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-keith-richards","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-the-rolling-stones","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}