“I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut”: How Steve Marriott failed his Rolling Stones audition at the last hurdle
The chance to join The Rolling Stones is something that many budding young musicians would lie awake at night dreaming about. After all, there are few names in rock music as legendary as the Stones; the Mick Jagger and Keith Richards-fronted group have been ambassadors for British rock and roll for over six decades. A chance to join the ranks of the group is not afforded to many people, which made it all the more heartbreaking for Steve Marriott when he blew his chance.
By the end of the 1960s, The Rolling Stones had firmly established themselves among the most popular and infamous outfits worldwide. From their humble blues rock beginnings, they had reached the top of the UK charts multiple times before exploring the world of psychedelia and the hippie counterculture of the USA. A lot of their success is attributed to the songwriting partnership of Jagger and Richards, but the rest of the group was just as essential. So, when guitarist Brian Jones left the group in 1969 – shortly before his tragic death – the band were left with the difficult task of replacing him.
Quickly, they recruited session musician Mick Taylor, who proved himself to such an extent that he was invited aboard The Stones full-time. However, Jagger and Richards were never the easiest people to get along harmoniously with, and eventually, Taylor left the band in 1974.
In need of yet another replacement guitarist, The Stones set their sights on the whirring talent of Steve Marriott. Of course, Marriott was not some nobody session musician who got lucky – à la Mick Taylor – by the mid-1970s, he had already established himself as an incredibly successful and beloved rockstar in his own right.
An icon of the mod subculture, Marriott had found fame as a founding member of The Small Faces, going on to form Humble Pie too. Given his status as a titan of 1960s rock and roll, he seemed a natural fit to take the reins as a guitarist with The Stones, but he fell at the last hurdle. He had been drafted in by Richards, who desperately wanted Marriott to replace Taylor, recognising his talent as hugely beneficial to the band’s sound. Still, it was Mick Jagger who vetoed the move, preventing the guitarist from officially joining The Stones.
Marriott’s wife, Pam, shed some light on the audition process during All Too Beautiful, the official biography of the guitarist. According to Pam, the audition was going swimmingly before Marriott opened his mouth, “Steve told me […] ‘I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut.’ Keith wanted him in, but there was no way that once Steve opened his mouth, Mick would have him in the band.” Adding, “He knew Steve would never stay in the background.”
So that was that. Marriott’s chance to join The Rolling Stones had been blown, and the great Ronnie Wood quickly filled the vacant position. Although Marriott was, by no means, struggling after the rejection, capable of living off the reputation he had garnered during his time with the Faces and Humble Pie, Pam did note, “They were the one band in the world that Steve would have loved to have been in. He just wanted to work with Keith.”
