Keith Richards: ‘I never understood why Mick Taylor left The Rolling Stones’
Why do so many rock bands split up and change members? The answer is simple: being in a band is hard. It’s already difficult going up to people with personal, creative ideas, risking them not liking them and turning them down, it’s another thing entirely doing all of that while consuming the amount of drugs and alcohol that the Rolling Stones have done and dealing with the pressure that comes with being a rock band, staying as a unit becomes borderline impossible.
The Rolling Stones can proudly boast that they’re one of the longest-running rock bands in history; however, they haven’t stayed with the same members throughout that period. Some people left the band for personal reasons, while others, unfortunately, passed away. However, with each different member comes a new phase of the Rolling Stones.
The band’s original guitarist, Brian Jones, passed away in 1969. He was found dead in his swimming pool in Sussex, England. It was ruled that he died from drowning; however, he had gone through a physical and mental decline in the build-up to his death, and it is widely accepted that substance abuse likely contributed towards his premature passing. His loss was felt throughout the musical world, as Bill Wyman recalled how difficult it was seeing his bandmate begin to struggle.
“I was really sad when Brian started to fall to bits, basically,” he said, “We’d be in LA and we’d go out to the clubs, and he’d be on LSD, and he’d be getting out of the limo going, ‘there’s snakes all over the ground!’ He’d be jumping about, saying ‘the ceiling’s on fire!’ I just used to let him get on with it, but he would go off on those tangents.”
When Brian Jones passed, the band needed to find a new guitarist. It was a difficult task, but in the end, they settled with Mick Taylor. Taylor and Keith Richards were a musical match made for one another. They had a style of playing that worked beautifully, and some of the band’s greatest music came out of this period. However, Taylor wasn’t long for the band.
While he was relatively happy, he wanted to focus on something over which he had more control rather than working as part of a unit. He decided to leave the band and pursue a solo career, which was a controversial decision. Whether it paid off or not will depend on who you ask. Mick Taylor, as a solo artist, didn’t outsell the Rolling Stones, but he still had a good career and is a well-respected guitarist. However, if you ask Richards, he was devastated that Taylor had decided to leave and thinks he could have done better by staying with the band.
“His touch and his tone and his melodic ideas wow me,” said Richards. “I never understood why he left. He’s always been a little restless and a little uneasy inside his skin. If he had to leave, I’d always hoped it would be to go on to bigger and better things than he did. I thought it was an impetuous move. But that’s what happened, and then we got Ronnie.”
