6 minute read
American influences
Bill Wyman
MICK JAGGER SHOOK HIS BUM. KEITH RICHARDS sucked on his cigarette. Bill Wyman smirked — as he traded sidelong glances with Charlie Watts. It was a smirk that seemed to say: “There they go again.”
This occurred with comforting frequency during three decades of Rolling Stones concerts. In 1992, Wyman became the first original Stone to willingly walk away from the band. (This triggered verbal floggings from Jagger and Richards in the media). I spoke with the Stones’ founding bassist during telephone interviews conducted in 1999, 2001 and 2005.
Q: It seemed like yours and Charlie’s lives were a bit more, shall we say, “on track” than the other guys when you two joined up.
WYMAN: Oh, totally. When I joined the band in early December 1962 — the 8th, I think it was — my son was 8 months old. I’d been married since 1959. I had responsibilities at home. I had a steady job. I couldn’t piddle about in some band that wasn’t going to make any money, really. When I joined those guys, Charlie was still at work. He was still quite smart. (Pianist) Ian Stewart was still at work. We were the three. And the other three weren’t. Brian and Keith were practically a couple of what we would term “beatniks” in those days. They didn’t do any work. They stayed in bed all day. They smelled. It was disgusting, actually.
Q: Sounds precarious. Why did you, a family man, take the risk?
WYMAN: You know, I really liked the music when I first played it. And they received me quite warmly — after the first evening, anyway, when Brian and Keith hardly spoke to me. But Mick did, and Ian Stewart. They made me feel at home. They liked my equipment. And then it just all fell into place after a week, and I was playin’ the way they wanted. They fired their drummer and got Charlie. That was it. As soon as Charlie came in the band, we had a solid foundation to build with. We never looked back.
Q: You had an especially close relationship with Brian Jones.
WYMAN: I used to hang out with Brian for most of the ’60s, you know, after Mick and Keith and (manager) Andrew Oldham kind of didn’t. It was mostly me and Brian that hung out. We shared rooms in the hotels right through the mid and late ’60s. I probably saw more of him, then, than any of the others.
Q: What do you say to fans who think Brian Jones was “just” an original member, that he was a druggie, a disposable commodity?
WYMAN: I want to put the record straight, because amongst many, many Stones fans, they don’t even know what Brian Jones did. They know his name and they know he’d been in the band once. As far as Brian was concerned, he was the most intelligent person that was ever in the Stones. He was the most articulate speaking. He had the most variety of musical instruments he could get something out of or perform on. He was very creative. He was a wonderful person and a real s*** at the same time.
He could switch from one to the other. So you couldn’t love him forever, but you always forgave him, because he had such a sweet nature on one side. And then he’d do the dirty on you. He’d say, “I’m sorry, man, I didn’t mean it.” You’d say, “Aw, OK, Brian, just don’t do it again.” And you’d forget all about it.
Q: And, not for nothin’, the Stones was originally Brian’s band.
WYMAN: Brian invented the name. It was Brian’s idea that we play that kind of music. It was all Brian! When the band started out, for the first two years, Brian was the most popular member. Brian got all the fan mail. All the girls went after Brian. They didn’t look at Mick. It’s only when you get into late ’64, ’65 — the time when we started to go to America and all that — when Mick started to become more prominent.
Andrew Oldham took Brian out of the running, to be honest. Prevented him from doing interviews and that. So he killed Brian off, really, in the media. And then, of course, Mick became more and more and more prominent. Turned out to be, probably, the greatest live entertainer who’s ever been, which is fantastic. And Keith, probably one of the best rhythm guitarists who’s ever been.
If only sidelong glances and smirks could talk
Wyman (in wheelchair) and his fellow Stones wore drag to sell records. At least, that was their claim. © Decca Records
Q: “Out of Our Heads” (1965) was a pivotal album, with originals that marked a maturing sound — “Satisfaction,” “Play With Fire,” “I’m Free,” “The Last Time.” What do you recall of making it?
WYMAN: It was in RCA Studios, Hollywood, wasn’t it? Keith and Mick had started to write a few reasonable songs. I mean, they’d been trying to write for a few years under Andrew Oldham’s commands, I should say (laughs). They started to come up with some pretty good songs by then, so we started to do them, like “Heart of Stone” and things. We were also discovering some more soulful singers, as opposed to blues artists — Otis Redding, people like that. We did it at RCA in four-track. Of course, Brian at that time was experimenting with all kinds of instruments. I was doing a little bit as well, in that way. I tried out a six-string bass on a few numbers, I remember. But we were trying different things with all kinds of sounds. It was a lot of fun.
Q: Did you do some gallivanting while in Los Angeles? This was 1965 — still very much “early days” for you boys.
WYMAN: It was almost like going on holiday, you know, from England. You went out into the sunshine! There were lots of pretty girls around. There were great places to go. You’d meet people like the Everly Brothers and Phil Spector and Jack Nitzsche, those kind of people. You got to go to sessions for them — Gold Star Studios (in Los Angeles), it was called — and meet the people that were singin’ for Spector, the girls and all that.
You’d go into RCA with the sun shinin’, and then come out, and the sun was still shinin’ sometimes, because it was morning (laughs). But it was really pleasurable to do it that way. When we worked in England, you know, it was always “in between.” It was usually in the afternoon that we would record, between doin’ a photo shoot in the morning and gettin’ in a van to go and do some gigs in the evening. We used to do three-hour sessions in the afternoon. And just to have, like, two or three weeks over there, just enjoyin’ it in a really nice hotel — I think it came out in the music like that. They were fun times.
Q: Does your costume on the “Have You Seen Your Mother” sleeve— a military lady in a wheelchair — have a backstory? It’s like “Monty Python” before there was a “Monty Python.”
WYMAN: Exactly (laughs). A few of my aunts — my dad’s sisters, actually — were members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. I used to stay with the family there, so I did see them backwards and forwards in their uniforms. I thought I’d do that (twisting) with me legs, just for a laugh.
