“This is his band”: Keith Richards on the true leader in The Rolling Stones
Every band seems to have that tension when someone starts vying for power in the group. As much as the best acts in the world treat themselves like a democracy, there are always going to be that handful of times when someone either wants their voice heard a bit more or feels the need to dictate to everyone what should be played on the record. Although Keith Richards has earned that right to show every member of The Rolling Stones how a song should be played, he would never consider himself the true leader behind every piece of the puzzle.
Hell, Richards was never even in the trenches when it came to The Stones. The whole point behind the band in the first place was to be one of the biggest blues bands in England in the 1960s, and while they continue to hold onto that lowdown and dirty sound in their repertoire, Richards and Mick Jagger have helped take the band to new heights by dabbling in everything from country music to punk to straight-up rock and roll.
When The Stones first began, though, Brian Jones was the true rock and roll spirit behind everything. He had come up with the group’s name and even done a lot of the promotional services, but listening back to what they had originally sounded like, they were the most straight-ahead blues band anyone could have thought of, even throwing in a sprinkle of jazz into the mix.
That was all thanks to what Ian Stewart was doing at the beginning of the group. While it would be tempting to call him the group’s manager before Andrew Loog Oldham took the reins, Stewart was more of an overseer of the band’s greatest moments, usually telling them the ins and outs of being professional and even getting Charlie Watts on board because of his interest in jazz textures.
“And in a way, it’s his band still.”
Keith Richards
Even when Jagger and Richards showed up, they were a bit wet behind the ears than most. They were certainly interested in the blues, but it took a while for them to gel into the songwriters they would become, so Stewart was the one who officially told them what to play and how they should look whenever they were performing.
So, while Richards was more than happy to reap the rewards of his songwriting, he admitted that some of the biggest moments wouldn’t have happened without Stewart leading the way, saying, “In a way, this is his band. The first rehearsal I went to that ended up being The Rolling Stones was above an old pub in Soho in London. As I walked up these creaky old stairs, I hear this barrelhouse piano and think, ‘Man, I’m in Chicago.’ And the only guy there was Ian Stewart. He’d sort of set the joint up—’You guys, you should play.’ And in a way, it’s his band still.”
Despite Stewart’s tendency to hide in the background of the band’s story, that didn’t make him any less important in rock and roll history. Outside of The Stones, he also contributed to one of Led Zeppelin’s deep cuts, ‘Boogie With Stu’ and was more than happy to perform on a number of Stones albums even if he never bothered to get out to the front of the stage whenever they played live.
Regardless of how much screentime he had with the group, Stewart was more than not the architect behind The Stones. The other players may have had to plug in and start working on new tunes, but no one gets to be in that position without the person who designed the blueprints for it all.
