Why were The Rolling Stones in exile?
As they entered the 1970s, The Rolling Stones were riding the zenith of their rock ‘n roll mythos. Their arrival into the new decade hadn’t been smooth, with founding member Brian Jones’ death followed by the Altamont Free Festival disaster, where a fan had been murdered by the Hells Angels, who they had hired as security during their set. The turmoil that plagued the band didn’t dent their collective musical magic, 1971’s Sticky Fingers topping multiple charts and new lead guitarist Mick Taylor breathing new dimension to their output.
Still firing all rock cylinders, the Stones’ entourage of producers, longtime session musicians, girlfriends, and dealers all decamped to the south of France in June ’71 to begin work on their tenth album. Renting a spacious villa in Nellcôte, rumoured to be a former Nazi haunt during the country’s Vichy era, the Stones brought along their mobile DAF F1600 Turbo truck studio to live, party, and hang out while recording. The sessions were chaotic and disorganised, typically starting sessions at eight in the evening and working through to three in the morning.
The schedule also had to factor in Keith Richards’ growing heroin habit. Thousands of pounds worth of smack was circulated through their bohemian mansion every week, triggering such local disgruntlement toward the house of hedonism that renowned Californian singer and keen debauchery specialist Gram Parsons was told to scarper to ease the heat growing from local French police suspicion. The villa’s ‘open door’ roll call of dodgy characters was so slack that thieves simply walked in and stole nine of Richards’ guitars, Bobby Keys’ saxophone and Bill Wyman’s bass during the day as they watched TV.
While loose and ramshackle, the sessions were possessed by a decadent magic, the sound of the Stones at a rawness they’d never visit again. Following a police raid on the premises, the sessions were finished off at Los Angeles’ Sunset Sound and cobbling material recorded three years earlier in London, released the double album Exile on Main St, which topped the charts once again and set the stage for their much anticipated North American tour that summer, documented all too well on the still yet unreleased Cocksucker Blues film, chronicling flagrant drug use include the shooting up of heroin.
So why were The Rolling Stones in exile?
The clue’s in the name. While shrouded in apocryphal legend, the fact is the outlaw status heaped upon them by rock ‘n roll romantics obscures a much less interesting motive for their French tarriance.
Amid a drawn-out legal battle with their former manager Allen Klein’s ABKCO publishing company, matters were made worse by the realisation that they hadn’t paid tax for seven years. On the advice of their financial manager, the Stones became reluctant tax exiles, fleeing their ruinous tax bill as well as the Labour government’s 93% tax on high earners. It’s a financial oversight quite remarkable for a frontman who was a London School of Economics student before pursuing a path in rock.
A very un-sexy revelation that still yielded one of the Stones’ finest moments, closing the last chapter of their golden era and cutting an album that would stand as the last time the band would roll this knockout again.
