Bill Wyman details Brian Jones’ “evil streak”
The Rolling Stones always had a sinister edge from the moment they stepped on stage. Being raised in the same blues clubs that begat the British blues boom a few years after they made it big, the songwriting of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards felt like the antithesis of what pretty boys like The Beatles had been doing at the time, making songs that had a bit more swagger in their delivery. Even though every member could claim their vices, Bill Wyman thought one of his bandmates took things too far.
While Wyman may not have been known as the most high-profile member of the band, his way of holding down the low end on every single song made him a sonic force to be reckoned with. Across their creative evolutions, Wyman was known to play the perfect melodic, rhythmic counterpoint to Richards’ riffs, like the massive bass rundown on ‘Street Fighting Man’ or the four-on-the-floor stomp of ‘Miss You’.
Although Richards may have been getting the most praise behind the fretboard, no one on the musical scene could touch Brian Jones. Forming the band as a bluesy outfit in their early years, Jones would become one of the most multifaceted musicians of his time, learning to play nearly everything he could get his hands on.
Despite his talents behind various instruments, Wyman knew that Jones had an unpleasant side to him that often reared its head. While Jones was known to nurse various drug habits during his time with the band, Wyman remembered the guitarist as being cold-blooded when it came to his female company.
Outside of his significant array of girlfriends, Wyman recalled when Jones would absent-mindedly steal his girlfriend, telling Louder, “He had an evil streak which a lot of people only remember him for. Brian would do nasty things, like steal my girl or something one night. So he’d do the dirty, then you’d end up forgiving him because he’d have that little innocent, angelic smile: ‘Sorry, man. I didn’t mean it’. So you’d love him and hate him”.
Even if Jones could have his hurtful side now and again, he would be suffering on the inside for most of the late 1960s. Outside of his various drug dependencies, Jones slowly had his heart broken when Jagger and Richards took over his band. Having built up the group from the ground up, Jones would see his baby slowly turning into something he didn’t like, eventually being asked to leave after not wanting to contribute anything to their later output.
While Jones tried for various solo projects, he wouldn’t be around much longer to see anything come to fruition. After various fallings-out over business decisions, Jones would eventually be discovered dead at the bottom of his pool under mysterious circumstances shortly after he departed from the band, leaving behind a legacy of fantastic musical pieces.
Despite the cagey side of his bandmate, Wyman credited Jones with keeping the band afloat in their early days as well, explaining, “He was the creator of The Rolling Stones. I don’t care what you say about Mick and Keith. If it hadn’t have been for Brian, they probably would have had a different band in Dartford, out in the sticks where they lived”.
