Some information
about most of the outside contributors
(musicians, engineers,
producers) who have rolled with the Stones
throughout the years,
onstage and on record.
Written by Ian Gordon McPherson, 2000-2010.
(All rights reserved. Like all files
on Time Is On Our Side,
this is the exclusive intellectual property
of Ian McPherson and cannot be
duplicated, in any form, without his authorization.)
click on a name or scroll down
London-born Ronnie Lane was bassist for the classic British bands the Small Faces and then the Faces in the 1960s and 1970s, both of which he formed, and both of which featured future Rolling Stone Ron Wood (starting in 1969). The Small Faces became clients of Andrew Oldham's in 1967 and during the recording of Their Satanic Majesties Request, Lane and fellow Small Face Steve Marriott sang and contributed to In Another Land, although whether their contributions were kept is not sure. Three years later, Lane added backing vocals to Sway, along with Pete Townshend, during the mixing sessions for Sticky Fingers. Lane's friendship with Bill and Woody in particular ensured that he often collaborated with them afterwards.
Lane quit the Faces in 1973 and started a solo
career. He then worked with Ron Wood and Pete
Townshend but contracted multiple sclerosis in the late '70s. In 1983,
a band of musicians came together to form a multiple sclerosis charity
called ARMS and toured to acquire money for the cause. They included Joe
Cocker, legendary guitarists
Eric
Clapton, Jeff Beck and
Jimmy
Page, as well as Bill, Charlie and Ron Wood. In 1985, Bill released
the Willie and the Poor Boys project, on which Charlie also participated,
whose profits were directed towards the ARMS charity.
Born in Minneapolis, the 15-year-old electric
blues guitarist broke big in 1997 with his debut album. He opened for the
Stones at various dates throughout their 1997-99 Bridges
To Babylon / No
Security world tour. He opened again for the
Stones during various dates of their 2002-03 Licks
North American tour, occasionally joining them onstage for a rendition
of Rock Me Baby.
A saxophone player, Lawrence joined the
Stones' horn section for the Fall 1973 Tour of Europe. He also played
with them for their L.A. concerts
in 1975. He's played with Paul Butterfield, Stevie
Wonder, Joe Cocker,
Ringo Starr,
the Pointer Sisters and many others.
In 1974 Eddie Leach was the drummer for a one-album
band called Slack Alice. That same year he contributed percussion to the
Stones' It's Only Rock And Roll.
England born Mike Leander was a producer for Decca in the 1960s and helped Marianne Faithfull's early recording career. In late 1963, early 1964 he was also working with the Andrew Oldham Orchestra, as musical director for demos and recordings of Jagger/Richards songs. Leander was a master of orchestration and when the Stones decided to do their own version of their song As Tears Go By in 1965, which they had given to Marianne to do a year earlier, they re-hired Leander to arrange the strings for it. A year later, they hired Leander again to arrange the horns for the Have You Seen Your Mother Baby? single.
Leander also later wrote the score for the
Beatles' She's Leaving Home. In the 1970s, in a big change of
direction, Leander launched the career of Gary Glitter, playing a vital
role in creating his image and co-writing his songs.
<
A successful keyboardist for many years before playing with the Stones, Leavell will no doubt go down in the history as Ian Stewart's replacement within the Stones, becoming the band's reliable keyboardist for the 1980s and '90s.
Born in the South, Leavell joined the Allman Brothers Band in 1972 following the death of Duane Allman, and played on their albums and tours until they more or less broke up in the early 1980s. He also guested on records by acts like the Marshall Tucker Band and Bonnie Bramlett. In the late 1970s, he was also a key member of the short-lived band Sea Level, which mixed jazz, blues and Southern rock.
Leavell's first gig with the Stones happened when the band played at the Atlanta Fox Theatre in October 1981 during their Tattoo You U.S. tour. He guested for the whole show. Subsequently the band hired him for the following year's entire 1982 European Tour, joining Ian Stewart as 2nd keyboardist, replacing Ian McLagan. Later that year he contributed to the Stones' Undercover album.
In 1984, Mick hired Leavell to play on his first solo album, and the next year Leavell was on hand again when the Stones recorded Dirty Work. When Ian Stewart died in December 1985, Leavell was pretty much sealed in as his permanent replacement. He gigged with the Stones at their tribute for Stu in London in February 1986. Though the Stones' future was in doubt over the next few years, Keith hired him to play for Aretha Franklin's cover of Jumpin' Jack Flash, which Keith produced, the Chuck Berry movie Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll later that same year (1986), and then for his first solo album, Talk Is Cheap.
When the Stones got back together in 1989, Leavell was used substantially again on Steel Wheels and accompanied the band on tour for the 1989-90 tour. Before the next Stones project, Leavell played on Ronnie's Slide On This album (1992) and was also part of his solo tour. Mick then used him for his own February 1993 solo Webster Hall concert. Leavell was subsequently again a major player for the Stones' Voodoo Lounge album (playing on almost every track) and tour. Bridges to Babylon in 1997 was the band's first album since Leavell's start with the band where he did not contribute, but he was back onstage with them again for the tour that followed (1997-99). Leavell was back onstage again with the Stones on their 2003-03 world tour, and appears on Four Flicks. He also appears on the live albums Flashpoint, Stripped, No Security and Live Licks.
In between Stones projects, Leavell has contributed to records or tours by the Fabulous Thunderbirds, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, John Hiatt, Blues Traveler, Colin James, Indigo Girls, Iris Dement and the Black Crowes among others. He released a Christmas-themed solo album in 1998.
Chuck Leavell has recorded again with the Rolling Stones for the new album A Bigger Bang and will tour with them again in 2005-06.
Keith is the musical director, as far as I'm concerned. He's the band master. But they do look to me to set tempos, to give cues when certain parts of songs come in, and also to help suggest arrangements... I'm big on the theory of the big picture. Throwing solos at me doesn't really make sense for the Rolling Stones. What does make sense is to blend in and do what Stu used to call "diamond tiaras". He said, You know, I like to hear those diamond tiaras. And that's those sparkly bits on the high end of the piano that pop up occasionally in those boogie-woogie songs. And that's part of what this gig is all about.
An engineer at Dynamic Sound Studios in Kingston,
Jamaica, who assisted Andy Johns in recording
sessions for Goats Head Soup in
late 1972. Lee had just engineered Bob Marley's seminal Catch a Fire
album and would go on to work with other reggae greats like Toots &
the Maytals, as well as rock artists like Joe Cocker.
Darrell Leonard is a trumpet player who plays
on a few tracks on Bridges to Babylon (1997).
He had previously already collaborated with saxophonist Joe
Sublett who plays on the same tracks. Leonard had started contributing
to records since the late 1960s, working with Delaney & Bonnie. He's
worked with Duane Allman, Linda
Ronstadt, Glenn Frey, John Mayall and Taj
Mahal among others. Recently he's worked with Bonnie Raitt, Amanda
Marshall and the Black Crowes.
Born in England, producer Lillywhite started out as an engineer in his late teens in the early 1970s. By the end of the decade he was producing new wave and punk acts like Ultravox, Siouxsie & the Banshees, the Psychedelic Furs and XTC, as well as reggae band Steel Pulse. In the first half of the 1980s, Lillywhite became one of the most sought after producers after his acclaimed work with Peter Gabriel, U2, Simple Minds and Big Country.
In 1985, off to start a new record contract with CBS, the Stones put a stop to their association with Chris Kimsey and hired Lillywhite to produce Dirty Work.
The first day Steve walked into the studio, I said, Maybe you don't want to be the meat in this sandwich. But he handled every aspect superbly. It was very interesting to watch him build up respect from the band. It didn't take him very long to establish his credentials. He didn't jump up and down. We might do a great take and he'd say, OK, that's it. None of this raving about, which would have been embarrassing for everybody. He was very cool. It didn't take long before everybody was going Yup. (Mimics nodding and winking). Surprisingly enough, we were LISTENING to this young kid!
Unfortunate to work with the Stones
in a period of conflict, it was perhaps inevitable that it was to be his
last work with them. After Dirty Work,
Lillywhite went back to producing major works by XTC and U2 (The Joshua
Tree, Achtung Baby), as well as producing acts like the Pogues
and Talking Heads. In the 1990s, Lillywhite has worked with acts like Morrissey,
Sinead O'Connor and the
Dave Matthews Band.
Shortly after the release of Dirty Work in 1986,
however, Lillywhite engineered Keith's production of Aretha Franklin's
cover of Jumpin' Jack Flash.
Like Mike Avory, Carlo Little was another occasional drummer for the Stones in their drummerless period of 1962/early 1963. Brian favored him, but the others did not think much of him. He went on to become part of Cyril Davies' R&B All Stars and also played in the later 1960s with Screaming Lord Sutch.
Brian was quite enthralled with Carlo. He'd never heard anything like it before. Brian wanted someone flash like Carlo Little because by then Brian was starting to see dollar signs.
Led by Vernon Reid, Living Colour broke racial
barriers in the late 1980s by becoming the first successful all-black heavy
metal band. Mick had a tremendous role in their career. After witnessing
them play, he had them play on his second solo album, Primitive Cool,
and then went on to produce and perform on their first album, Vivid
(1988).
The following year, Living Colour opened for many shows on the Stones'
Steel Wheels tour and at a stop in Montreal
even guested onstage with them.
A choir the Stones used to record You
Can't Always Get What You Want on in 1969.
A much-in-demand mixer, Lord-Alge mixed some of
the songs on Bridges to Babylon,
including Anybody Seen My Baby? and
Saint
of Me. He's also worked with Steve Winwood,
Marilyn Manson, Hanson, U2, Sarah McLachlan and many, many others. Lord-Alge
also mixed some tracks on Mick's Goddess in the Doorway album.
An engineer who worked with Danny
Saber on the mixing of Might As Well
Get Juiced in 1997.
Credited wrongly as "Tammi Lynn" on Exile
on Main Street, Lynn is a backup vocalist
who was singing with New Orleans greats Dr.
John and Shirley Goodman.
She sings with them on Let It Loose.
Singer/songwriter MacColl achieved some level
of success as a pop singer in England in the early 1980s before marrying
producer Steve Lillywhite. Lillywhite's
work with the Stones in 1985 led to MacColl singing backup vocals on the
Dirty
Work album. Afterwards she resumed her
solo career in 1989. She and Lillywhite separated in 1994. She's also sung
with artists like Billy Bragg, Talking Heads, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello,
the Smiths and the Pogues. She released her last solo album in 2000. She
died in December 2000 after being run over by a speedboat while swimming
with her family in Mexico.
Born in New York, Madaio is a trumpet player who
was a widely utilized session player in the 1970s, playing with the likes
of B. B. King, Paul Butterfield,
Stevie
Wonder, Ringo Starr, John
Lennon, Earth Wind & Fire and Air Supply. In 1975, he joined the
Stones onstage for their L.A. shows, along with Bobby
Keys. He's played since with artists like Bob
Dylan, Michael Bolton and Madonna.
Modern blues great Taj Mahal was a student of the blues much like many white musicians in the 1960s. Guitarist, banjo player, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, his career has been that of a preservationist of blues and other African American traditions. Born in New York, he discovered the blues in the early 1960s while attending university. After graduating, he formed the band the Rising Sons with Ry Cooder, which, however, did not meet with much success. Mahal went on to record and release his first solo album in 1968, which was the start of a successful and long-lasting solo career.
In that same year of 1968, Mahal, as well as Cooder,
met the Stones. Although Mahal did not participate in the Stones' recordings,
like Cooder he was instrumental in teaching Keith about certain open tunings
on guitar that Keith didn't know about. This friendship, and the Stones'
appreciation of his music, led them to invite Mahal to participate in their
Rock and Roll Circus event in December of that year. This marked the end
of Mahal's initial association with the Stones. Thirty years later, however,
when the Stones held a televised concert in St. Louis in December 1997
in the midst of their Bridges to Babylon
tour,
they invited Mahal, who played onstage his 1968 song Corinna
with them. The track made the Stones' 1998 live album No
Security.
No relation to Ron Malo. He contributed some engineering
duties to December's Children.
Malo was an engineer for Chicago's Chess Studios. He was the engineer for the first sessions the Stones did in the USA, in Chicago in June 1964, recording songs (It's All Over Now, I Can't Be Satisfied, Time Is On My Side, Look What You've Done, Around and Around, Down the Road Apiece, etc.) that wound up appearing on the albums 12 X 5, The Rolling Stones Now! and December's Children. He was also the engineer at Chess when they returned in November 1964 to do more sessions there, and when they came back a third time in May 1965 (resulting in Out of Our Heads songs like Mercy Mercy and That's How Strong My Love Is).
The Stones must have admired Malo because he had
worked with many of the blues and R&B greats, such as Bo Diddley, Etta
James, Sonny Boy Williamson and Chuck Berry, as well as some jazz greats
like Cannonball Adderley. He went on to work with Muddy
Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy and John
Lee Hooker. In the 1970s, he worked with Billy Joel among others.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, guitarist Harvey Mandel played in Chicago blues rock bands in the 1960s, developing his chops and becoming a versatile, jazz and blues influenced rock guitarist. He joined the group Canned Heat in 1969, after which he did a short stint with John Mayall.
Mandel will be most remembered for being one of
the 3 true contestants to replace Mick Taylor within the Stones in 1974.
Mandel played with the Stones during their recording of
Black and Blue and his guitar work is
featured on Hot Stuff and
Memory
Motel. Mandel's career never quite picked
up after that disappointment.
Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Mardin became an extremely
successful arranger and producer for Atlantic Records, starting in the
1960s. His first landmark work came with Aretha Franklin's classic soul
recordings. He went on to work with artists such as Isaac Hayes, the Rascals,
Dusty Springfield and Hall & Oates. Mardin hit a new peak in the mid-70s
by helping to reinvent the Bee Gees' sound, and contributed to many classic
disco recordings. The Stones, who were signed with Atlantic at the time,
hired Mardin to help horn arrangements on the song Melody
for
Black
and Blue. (They rehired him a few years
later for arranging horns on Emotional
Rescue) In the late '70s as well as in
the 1980s and '90s, Mardin continued working with artists such as Bette
Midler, the Average White Band, Rod Stewart, Ringo
Starr, Carly Simon, Chaka Khan, Phil Collins, Culture Club, David
Bowie, Steve Winwood, Billy Joel, Elton
John, Patti Labelle and many others.
Born in Harlem, hip hop artist Biz Markie had
brief success in the late 1980s and early '90s with his comedic brand of
rap. He went on to play with the Beastie Boys although his own career stalled.
The Stones' Anybody Seen My Baby?
features a sample of Markie's rapping.
London born singer/guitarist Steve Marriott formed
the Small Faces with Ronnie Lane in the mid-1960s.
Andrew
Oldham eventually signed the Small Faces on, and Marriott and Lane
contributed to the recording of his song In
Another Land in 1967 because he was too
shy to sing for himself and Mick and Keith weren't there. Marriott went
on to form Humble Pie with Peter Frampton. Keith played with him when they
recorded a remake of Get Off of My Cloud
in 1975 with Alexis Korner. Marriott lost his life in a house fire.
Born in England, guitarist Dave Mason contributed
guitar and mandolin to the Stones' Beggars
Banquet in 1968 on tracks like
Dear
Doctor and Factory
Girl. Mason came into the Stones' circle
because he was a member of the group Traffic, which Jimmy
Miller was producing just before starting work with the Stones. Mason
also recorded with Hendrix (Electric Ladyland), along with Al
Kooper, that same year. Afterwards Mason quit Traffic and went on to
work with Delaney & Bonnie, George
Harrison, Mama Cass, Eric
Clapton, Paul McCartney &
Wings, Blondie Chaplin and many others,
including Ron Wood on his 1979 solo album Gimme Some Neck. He joined
the re-grouped Fleetwood Mac in the 1990s.
THE MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA
Brian started making trips to Morocco in 1966
and stumbled upon the Master Musicians of Jajouka. These musicians are
part of the native Berber culture of Morocco, living in the hills south
of Tangiers, and their trance-like music is deeply tied to the religious
and social life of their community. Mick and Keith also witnessed them
when they traveled there in February 1967. Brian was hypnotized by their
sound and traveled back to record them in 1968, the result of which was
released on an album on Rolling Stones Records in 1971. Mick, Keith, Ronnie
and Matt Clifford traveled back to Morocco in the summer
of 1989, while mixing Steel Wheels,
on the 20th year since Brian's death, to record them and add them to the
track Continental Drift.
Some recordings of their music were released in the 1990s.
Born in South Africa, Matthews formed the Dave Matthews Band in Virginia, which achieved success by the mid 1990s. The Stones invited the group to open some of their shows on the Bridges to Babylon tour. Matthews himself guested with the band onstage on a few occasions, duetting with Mick on songs like Wild Horses and Memory Motel. He guested notably on the St. Louis televised concert in 1997 and his Memory Motel duet appeared on the Stones' No Security album in 1998.
Matthews reappeared onstage with the Stones in
October 2006, duetting on Let It Bleed
in
Seattle and El Paso.
An engineer who did assisting duties on Flashpoint. He's worked with Youssou N'Dour and Bruce Dickinson among others.
<
Another engineer who assisted on the Stones's
Still
Life. He's worked almost exclusively on
live albums, by the likes of Talking Heads, George Thorogood, Billy Joel,
Guns
N' Roses and many others.
McBroom, like Sophia Jones, is a backup vocalist
the Stones hired for their 1990 Urban Jungle European tour when Lisa
Fischer and Cindy Mizelle couldn't make it.
She had recorded backup vocals for Eddie Murphy, among others, and toured
with Lou Reed and Pink Floyd.
McClintock was an assistant engineer on the Stones'
No
Security. He's also worked on Barbra Streisand
and Portishead's live albums among others.
Along with her colleague Janice
Pendarvis, McDonald was a backup singer recording and performing with
Sting when she was hired by the Stones to provide backup vocals for
Dirty Work in 1985. She has also worked
with Talking Heads and Laurie Anderson, and went on to work with Youssou
N'Dour and Tears For Fears among others.
McDonald was a backup vocalist for Leon
Russell when the Stones hired her to sing backup on All
Down the Line for 1972's Exile
on Main Street. She had also played with
Big Brother & the Holding Company. She went on to record with Nicky
Hopkins, Long John Baldry and Quicksilver Messenger Service among others.
McDonald did some engineering duties on Black
and Blue. McDonald had been an assistant
engineer on the Beatles' Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, and spent most of the '70s
doing engineering duties for the solo works of Lennon,
Harrison
and Starr. He also worked with
Deep Purple, Wings and Yoko Ono. In the 1980s, he became the producer for
the Beatlesque group Squeeze.
English born keyboardist Ian McLagan joined the Small Faces in 1965, formed by Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane and Kenny Jones. When Marriott quit in 1968, McLagan stayed with the others to form the Faces with Ron Wood and Rod Stewart, who enjoyed a lot of success in Britain in the first half of the 1970s. He also played on Rod Stewart's simultaneous solo records.
In the mid-70s, when the band was breaking up and Woody was joining the Stones, McLagan played on Ronnie's first three solo projects, I've Got My Own Album To Do, Now Look and Mahoney's Last Stand. His next break was the Stones, who entering Paris studios to record Some Girls in 1978 were clearing the decks and starting fresh in terms of engineers and guest musicians. (Gone were Hopkins, Preston and company.) McLagan assisted Ian Stewart in the occasional keyboards the Stones used for that more guitar-oriented album (Miss You, Just My Imagination). He subsequently joined them for the following 1978 U.S. Tour.
In 1979-81, McLagan recorded two solo albums, which met with little success (although Keith and Ronnie played on them), and also played on Ronnie's next two solo albums, Gimme Some Neck and 1 2 3 4, becoming a member of Ronnie's touring band the New Barbarians following the first album. McLagan's next and last, but prestigious, gig with the Stones was to accompany them on their 1981 Tattoo You U.S. tour, and he appears on the live album Still Life and the film Let's Spend the Night Together. Thereafter McLagan continued contributing on other people's records, such as Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Joe Cocker, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, Izzy Stradlin, Paul Westerberg and Bruce Springsteen. In 1988, McLagan guested on some of Ronnie's solo shows. In 1992, Ronnie repatriated McLagan to play on his solo album Slide On This and the tour that followed. In 1998, he guested at a Stones show in Houston, Texas. McLagan released a new solo album in 2000. He also appears on Ronnie's 2001 Not for Beginners album.
Ian opened for the Stones in Austin, Texas in
October 2006 on their Bigger Bang World Tour.
McMillan is a Dublin engineer who assisted Don
Smith in recording the Stones there for 1994's Voodoo
Lounge. He's worked primarily with Irish
artists like Altan, Lir and Niamh Parsons.
Saxophonist McMurray was a member of Don
Was's 1980s R&B group Was (Not Was). He was brought in to play
on the Stones' Brand New Car and
Suck
on the Jugular in 1994. He's also played
with artists like Iggy Pop, Bob
Dylan and the B-52s.
An American, Miller first started working in music with British musician Steve Winwood in the mid-1960s, mixing songs for the Spencer Davis Group, and then producing the first albums by Winwood's new group, Traffic, Mr. Fantasy (1967) and Traffic (1968). Miller had made a reputation for himself as someone who knew how to get a good drum sound, amongst other things. It was in early 1968 that the Stones hired Miller as a producer, who is credited as such on the Stones' next five albums, Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street and Goats Head Soup, certainly one of the high periods in the band's output. Miller occasionally also played percussion and drums on Stones' records, for example on Happy. (He also plays the cowbell on Honky Tonk Women.) Miller and the Twins, Mick and Keith, no longer saw eye-to-eye during the making of Goats Head Soup (1972-73) and that's when their association ended.
Although he continued to work with other groups after his separation from the Stones, he never regained the same success. He worked with acts that included Motorhead, the Plasmatics and Johnny Thunders. He died of liver failure.
Jimmy was a drummer... (and) was really into the beat and the percussion and all that, and it shows on some of those records.
There isn't one producer who can
handle the whole thing. You run through them like you run through gas in
your car. Jimmy Miller went in a lion and came out a lamb. We wore him
out completely... Jimmy was great, but the more successful he became the
more he got like Brian... (He) ended up carving swastikas into the wooden
console at Island Studios.
Mizelle is mostly a backup vocalist who's contributed
to records by many contemporary R&B and pop performers. In the 1980s,
she contributed to albums by Kurtis Blow, Al Jarreau, Carly Simon and especially
Freddie Jackson. In 1987, Mick enlisted her to sing backup on his second
solo album, Primitive Cool. Two years later, the Stones recruited
her to join Lisa Fischer and Bernard
Fowler as backup singers for the 1989-90
Steel Wheels jaunts in North America and
Japan. (She appears on Flashpoint
and in the concert movie At The Max.) She's played since with Luther
Vandross, Patti Labelle, Mariah Carey, Michael Bolton, the Black Crowes
and many others. In 2009, she was re-enlisted by the Stones to sing backup vocals on their re-worked Exile outtakes.
In 2
Born in New York, Money was a successful rocker
in the late 1970s and early '80s. Andy Johns
and Nicky Hopkins were some
of the Stones' collaborators who worked with him. He guested on sax on
Miss
You at a gig for the Stones' 1978 U.S.
Tour.
An engineer who helped Bob
Clearmountain mix I Go Wild for
the Stones' Voodoo Lounge.
She's worked with Cyndi Lauper, Anthrax, Living
Colour and Frank Sinatra among others.
A background vocalist who sang on the Stones'
Steel
Wheels and has recorded with Simple Minds
among other artists.
Portuguese fado singer who achieved prominence
starting in 2005. On June 25, 2007, she sang No
Expectations with the Stones onstage at
their concert in Lisbon.
Muhoberac is chiefly a keyboard player who also
occasionally plays bass. The Stones hired Muhoberac to play on the
Bridges to Babylon tracks Anybody
Seen My Baby?, Saint
of Me and Out
of Control. Muhoberac had played with
Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan, Paula
Abdul, Seal, Tina Turner
and Celine Dion among others. Muhoberac's most recent work has included
Amanda Marshall, Ziggy Marley and the Art of Noise.
Munsey helped out on the Stones' Voodoo
Lounge (1994) as an assistant engineer.
He's worked with Luther Vandross, Meat Loaf, Neil Young and others.
Ndegéocello is an alternative R&B/rock
singer/songwriter who's been releasing well-received albums since 1993.
She also duetted with John Cougar Mellencamp on his cover of Wild Night.
A talented bassist as well, she's done sessions with Madonna and Indigo
Girls among others. The Stones enlisted her to play bass on 1997's
Saint of Me.
Engineer who was Assistant Engineer for the Rolling
Stones' A Bigger Bang.
He's also worked with Evanescence, Gob and Silvertide among others.
The son of Aaron Neville and one of the Neville Brothers, keyboardist and vocalist Ivan got his start as a member of funk group Rufus in the 1970s and early '80s. His work was already appreciated by Keith, who in 1981 stated the Neville Brothers' Fiyo On The Bayou album as his favorite album of the year. They opened for some Stones shows in 1981.
Ivan really entered the Stones' circle during the mixing of Dirty Work in New York City in 1985, where he contributed bass to the song Hold Back among other things, when Bill Wyman was not available. When Keith decided to make his own solo album in 1987, he recruited Neville for the album and tour that followed. His status as an X-Pensive Wino remained for Keith's next album, Main Offender in 1992, and the solo tour that followed that album as well. He was then recruited to play on the Stones' Voodoo Lounge album in 1994, being extensively used as a keyboardist and background vocalist for that album.
Neville has also worked with Don Henley and Robbie
Robertson among others, as well as releasing solo albums. Keith and Ronnie
contributed to Neville's 1995 album.
Nevison is an engineer who helped out Keith
Harwood and Eddie Kramer
on Love You Live
in New York City in 1977. Nevison has had a long and successful career
working mostly with '70s hard rock bands. Before the Stones, he'd already
done engineering or production with the Who, Bad Company, Led Zeppelin
and Dave Mason. In the 1980s and '90s,
he's worked with Eddie Money, Jefferson
Starship, Heart, Ozzy Osbourne, Kiss, Chicago, Meat Loaf and Vince Neil
among others.
NANETTE NEWMAN (WORKMAN) (1945- )
Newman - actually Workman - is a Quebec singer
who's had a long singing career and is still going. She sang background
on Country Honk and
You
Can't Always Get What You Want for
Let It Bleed in 1969. She was at the time
working with Doris Troy
along with
Madeline Bell,
who also sang on the latter, and they continued working together afterwards.
She went on to work with Gary Wright and George
Harrison among others.
The horn ensemble (Andy Snitzer, Kent Smith, Michael Davis) that has played with the Stones onstage for the 1994-95 Voodoo Lounge, the 1997-99 Bridges to Babylon and the 2002-03Licks world tours. They are featured on Stripped, No Security and Live Licks. They had previously contributed to records by artists like Aretha Franklin, Ratt and Philippe Saisse. Tim Rees replaced Andy Snitzer in 1999.
The New West Horns are again performing with the
Stones on their current 2005-06 A Bigger
Bang World Tour.
Tessa Niles is a vocalist who has worked with
many pop artists in the 1980s and '90s, especially with Tina
Turner, Duran Duran, Eric
Clapton and the Pet Shop Boys. She had also played with Escape Club
and John Anderson, who had worked with Christopher
Marc Potter and Matt Clifford. The Stones hired
her to sing backup on the Potter-engineered
Steel
Wheels (1989) and again on Flashpoint
(1991).
Since then, she's played with Buddy Guy, George
Harrison, Mike & the Mechanics, Joe Cocker, Steve Winwood and many
others.
AMYL
NITRATE (* see RICHARD
WASHINGTON)
Chicago born Jack Nitzsche staked an incredible career as a behind-the-scenes player, producer and arranger for many rock artists, most notably the Rolling Stones.
A keyboardist and percussionist in his own right, Nitzsche moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s where he became a fixture of the musical scene there. After teaming up with Sonny Bono, he started a fruitful association in the early-to-mid 1960s with Phil Spector as an arranger, helping him build the famous Wall of Sound on recordings by the Ronettes, the Crystals, the Righteous Brothers and other artists. Because Andrew Oldham forged a friendship with Phil Spector in early 1964, when the Stones started recording in Los Angeles at the end of the same year, they were inevitably introduced to Jack Nitzsche as well, who became an important collaborator with the Stones for the next few years and occasionally beyond. He worked with them as an arranger and occasional musical contributor, playing keyboards and percussion (e.g. Down Home Girl, Heart of Stone, Play with Fire, Satisfaction and many Aftermath tracks) on the albums The Rolling Stones Now!, Out of Our Heads, December's Children and Aftermath (the albums they recorded primarily in L.A.). His last work of this period with the Stones was in the early sessions for Between the Buttons in August 1966, when he contributed to songs like Let's Spend the Night Together and Yesterday's Papers.
When the Stones started recording in London again (late 1966), their association with Nitzsche ended for the moment, while Nitzsche worked with Buffalo Springfield among others (which led to a long career working with Neil Young). Nitzsche and the Stones met up again in 1968, when Nitzsche was called on to handle the soundtrack for the movie Performance. That led to Nitzsche working with the Stones again, handling the choral arrangements for You Can't Always Get What You Want and playing piano on Sister Morphine in early 1969.
Thereafter Nitzsche specialized in making film soundtracks, but he did team up again with the Stones for the It's Only Rock and Roll album in 1974, contributing keyboards and percussion. His last stint with the Stones was for Emotional Rescue, when they hired him to arrange horns for that album. Jack Nitzsche died of cardiac arrest in August 2000.
The first time I met (the Stones) was when they walked into RCA Studios and the session just stopped because no one had ever seen anyone who looked like that. I'd never met British people before so they had these funny accents. I'd heard their records, which hadn't impressed me, but THEY did. The Rolling Stones were the first rock and roll band I met that were intelligent. They can make conversation with anyone, which on top of all that superstardom must freak people out. Up until then all the rock and rollers I met seemed to be assholes. The Stones were the first ones I saw say fuck you to everybody.
Jack Nitzsche was Phil (Spector)'s
arranger and a very important part of that whole sound. It was Jack's idea
of harmonies and spacing. But it's nice he's singing with Crazy Horse now.
He couldn't stand to... to even get him to play the piano you used to have
to do a whole Jack number. It's great he's doing it.
Scottish pop/rock singer who arrived on the scene
in 2006. He opened for the Stones during their European tour of that year,
and the following year he duetted onstage with them on Love
in Vain at their concert at the Isle of
Wight Festival.
Andrew Oldham was the group's personal manager from 1963 to 1967 and helped them obtain their recording contract and was definitely a key player in helping orchestrate publicity moves that helped along the group's popularity (or notoriety at the very least). Musically, however, the extent of his input is arguable. He was definitely their official producer during this period, but unlike, say, George Martin for the Beatles, had very little knowledge and no experience in such matters. In the early days, the engineer would basically take care of the final sound of the records.
Andrew had the same naïve experience or lack of experience that we had. In the studio when we made our first records he had absolutely no experience. Andrew didn't know what the fuck he was doing nor did we. We just learned as we went along.
Oldham was, however, important in encouraging
Mick and Keith to become songwriters, in helping them choose material in
the early days, and as time went on he acquired experience and was definitely,
despite his lack of experience, one of 3 chief creative heads - with Mick
and Keith - that oversaw the making of tracks and albums in terms of major
creative decisions. But by 1967, after Between
the Buttons had been recorded, the Stones
recognized they had no real use for Oldham anymore and they parted ways.
In addition to the Stones, Oldham was instrumental
in helping along the careers of Marianne
Faithfull, the Small Faces, the Nice and other acts. Following his
split from the Stones, he worked briefly with artists such as Donovan and
Humble Pie and attempted to manage bands again but with little success.
He recently released an autobiography.
Before creating Led Zeppelin in 1968, Page spent time as one of the Yardbirds, who had gotten their start like the Stones surrounding the Alexis Korner scene in London. But before that, he was also a session musician, working in the early to mid-1960s with artists like Brenda Lee and the early David Bowie. In 1964 he also participated at Andrew Oldham Orchestra sessions as well and plays on their version of Heart of Stone (which appears on the Metamorphosis album). At this point, when Brian started becoming more incapacitated and troublesome to the band, the Stones toyed with the idea of replacing Brian with Page, as Bill Wyman later revealed..
In '65 we almost asked (Brian) to leave before Zeppelin was formed, when we were going to ask Jimmy Page. We thought of asking him to leave 5 or 6 times.
Then, in late 1966, Brian and Jimmy
Page collaborated together, working on the soundtrack for the German film
A Degree of Murder, in which Anita Pallenberg
starred. Later, when Mick Taylor left the Stones in 1974, Page's name,
along with many other legendary guitarists, was bandied about as a possible
replacement - even though he still had a little band going called Led Zeppelin!
In any event, 10 years later he did work with the Stones briefly. He participated
in Bill Wyman's project
Willie and the Poor Boys (after participating
a year and a half earlier in the charity all-star tour for the ARMS multiple
sclerosis cause with Bill and Charlie among others) and some months later,
in the summer of 1985, contributed guitar to an overdub session for the
Dirty
Work album in New York City. He plays
guitar on One Hit (to the Body).
In 1992, Page and Keith jammed together again at the annual Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame ceremonies, where Keith inducted Leo Fender.
The German-Swedish model/actress who was Brian's
great love and then Keith's common-law wife and mother of his children,
was part of the group of people who sang background vocals on Sympathy
for the Devil for
Beggars
Banquet in 1968. An outspoken person,
she apparently frequently made suggestions at Stones' sessions.
A producer/engineer who assisted engineer Dave
Jerden on the Stones'
Dirty Work.
Parker has worked with rock, R&B, indie and jazz artists, including
bands such as Tears for Fears and The Fall. In 1986, he also worked on
Dirty
Work remixes and the Keith Richards-produced
Aretha Franklin version of Jumpin' Jack
Flash. He has since moved on to film,
TV and computer games, and is currently a lecturer on music technology
at Leeds Metropolitan University.
Though a contemporary and a friend, country rock founder Gram Parsons was greater as an influence on the Stones than as an actual collaborator (see here). Born in Florida, guitarist and vocalist Parsons formed the International Submarine Band in 1966 in his brief university days, before quitting and joining the Byrds in early 1968 and redirecting their sound and helping create the seminal country rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Later in 1968, Parsons met the Stones at the same time as he quit the Byrds, and struck up a friendship with Keith in particular, living at his home in Redlands and singing and exchanging country and country-flavored songs with him.
Parsons never contributed to an actual Stones recording, but he was a major presence over the following years. In early 1969, he formed the first full-fledged country rock outfit called the Flying Burrito Brothers, who recorded and released Wild Horses before the Stones did. By the end of the year, after having recorded two albums, Parsons quit the Burritos and started hanging out with the Stones again, at their tour rehearsals in Los Angeles in the fall of 1969 especially (see Stanley Booth's book The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones for an eyewitness account of this period). Though he didn't record with them, the Stones' country explorations on albums like Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street were definitely influenced by Parsons' presence. Throughout 1970 and 1971 he hung out with them on tour and during recording sessions. In the summer of 1971, particularly, he lived with Keith at his home in the South of France during the recording of Exile.
In late 1971, early 1972, as the Stones (Mick
and Keith particularly) spent time in L.A. overdubbing and mixing
Exile, Parsons was there as well, taking
the time to write songs for a solo album. Afterwards his path with the
Stones diverged. He spent the last year and a half of his life recording
two influential solo albums and touring behind one of them, before meeting
his death in California after a tequila and morphine overdose. He is now
revered as the father of country rock.
A percussionist who contributed to Goats
Head Soup on many songs during the mixing
sessions in London in 1973.
An engineer who did some engineering duties for
the song Melody on
the Stones' 1976 album Black and Blue.
Gene had worked with Arif Mardin for
Atlantic Records and in so doing collaborated with jazz greats like Charles
Mingus, Cannonball Adderley, Max Roach, and soul/pop artists like Aretha
Franklin, Bette Midler, Hall & Oates and the Average White Band.
Keith first played alongside backup vocalist Pendarvis
when they played together on an album by reggae artist Max
Romeo in the early 1980s. She was also recording with John Mayall and
Blondie during those years. In 1985, now working with Sting along with
Dollette
McDonald, she was enlisted to sing backup on the Stones' Dirty
Work. She's gone on to work with Sheena
Easton and Jewel among others.
American born Al Perkins is one of country and country rock's most talented dobro, steel and pedal steel guitar players. Gram Parsons knew and appreciated Perkins' work and this probably led to his working with the Stones. Perkins had been a member of the short-lived country rock outfit Shiloh in 1970, which featured future Eagle Don Henley, and in 1971-72 had joined former Stephen Stills and former Byrd Chris Hillman to form another short-lived country rock outfit celled Manassas.
Perkins played with the Stones during that same period, contributing gorgeous steel guitar to the Stones' own country rock classic Torn and Frayed for Exile on Main Street in Los Angeles. Immediately afterwards, Perkins went on to star on Parsons' solo albums.
For the rest of the decade, Perkins went on to
play drums briefly for the Parsons-less Flying Burrito Brothers, making
more music with both Stephen Stills and Chris Hillman (the Souther Hillman
Furay Band) as well as contributing to many artists' recordings, including
Rita Coolidge, Randy Newman, the Eagles, Michael Nesmith, Leonard Cohen
and Dolly Parton. He also played sax on the Stones' Think
I'm Going Mad. In the '80s, Perkins played
less frequently, but added his guitar to records by ex-Eagle Dan Fogelberg,
Chris Hillman, Bob Dylan
and Michelle Shocked among others. In the 1990s, his career truly revived.
He has played with rock and country artists such as Emmylou Harris, Dwight
Yoakam, Wynonna Judd, Kate Campbell, Iris Dement, Garth Brooks, Tori Amos
and Sixpence None the Richer.
Before he auditioned for Mick Taylor's replacement and recorded with the Stones in 1974-75, American guitarist Wayne Perkins had recorded with artists such as Albert King, the Everly Brothers, Lonnie Mack, Ronnie Milsap, P. F. Sloan, Bob Marley (1973's Catch a Fire) and Joni Mitchell (1974's Court and Spark). Perkins was the favorite candidate along with Ron Wood to get the job. He started contributing early on (1974) in the Black and Blue sessions, and wound up playing on songs like Fool to Cry, Memory Motel and Hand of Fate. Some of the work he recorded there also later wound up on Tattoo You (Slave, Worried About You).
Like Mandel,
Perkins' career somewhat aborted after that disappointment. He did went
on to play until the mid-1980s, forming a short-lived group called Crimson
Tide and recording with the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Levon Helm,
Glenn Frey and the Oak Ridge Boys.
The leader of 1960s folk rockers the Mamas and
the Papas never contributed to a Stones recording, but he warrants mention
because of his friendship and association with Mick and Keith in 1976-77.
Mick produced the recordings for a future John Phillips solo album in the
fall of 1976, on which both Keith, Ronnie and Mick Taylor all played heavily.
A year later, in the summer of 1977, Keith produced more sessions for Phillips,
on which Mick also played again. The album was released as Pay, Pack
and Follow in 2001. Philipps died of heart failure in March 2001.
Pitney was an American pop singer who had moderate
successes in the early 1960s. He also wrote songs, such as He's a Rebel
for
the Crystals. His association with Phil
Spector led to his meeting the Stones when they were recording Not
Fade Away, Now
I've Got a Witness and Little
By Little in early 1964, and he contributed
to those sessions. Afterwards, Oldham
had Pitney cover an early Jagger/Richards ballad called That Girl Belongs
to Yesterday. He also had a short fling with Marianne
Faithfull during this time. His career stalled in the late 1960s.
American born Bill Plummer is a jazz bassist who in the early 1960s was contributing to records by bop, hard bop and soul-jazz musicians like Buddy DeFranco, Paul Young and Roy Ayers. In the middle of the decade, working mostly in California, Plummer, who had started playing the sitar, also started contributing to sessions by folk rock artists like Gentle Soul and also to soundtracks (such as TV's Mission Impossible).
When the Stones wanted upright (acoustic) bass
for some tracks for their 1972 LP Exile
on Main Street, they enlisted Plummer,
who plays on Rip This Joint,
Turd
on the Run,I
Just Want to See His Face and
All
Down the Line. A versatile musician, Plummer
has continued making recordings for jazz artists, as well as for bluegrass
country artists like Byron Berline.
An engineer and mixer who assisted on the Stones's
Still
Life. He's worked with Aerosmith, Bobby
McFerrin, Steve Winwood, David
Bowie and others.
Prior to the Stones, Christopher Marc Potter did
not have extensive experience as an engineer. He had worked with Escape
Club among others. (He had worked with Matt Clifford
also.) In 1989, he engineered the Stones' Steel
Wheels album, co-produced by the Twins
and Chris Kimsey. Since then,
he's gone on to work with the Bee Gees, Tom Jones, Pink Floyd, Tina
Turner, Bryan Adams and the Verve among others. He joined Clifford
again in 2001 to work on Mick's Goddess in the Doorway album, co-producing
2 tracks.
Texas born Preston has made a career out of being an excellent session keyboardist (piano, organ, synthesizer), but also enjoyed relative success on his own in the 1970s with a string of mid-sized hits. Preston was a child prodigy who got in the business very young, playing with Ray Charles and Sam Cooke among other people. His biggest break, however, was playing with the Beatles in 1969, recording their ill-fated album and movie Let It Be with them (he also plays on I Want You, featured on Abbey Road), and playing with them on their final rooftop concert in London. That allowed Preston to start his own career with Apple Records at the same time as he started making the rounds in the musical circles, bringing his soul and gospel influences with him to bands like Delaney & Bonnie.
Through most of the 1970s (1970-76), Preston was a player onstage and on record with the Stones, and he appears on all their albums from Sticky Fingers to Black And Blue. He became most visible during the Stones' 1975-76 tour (documented on the 1977 album Love You Live), where the Stones regularly allowed him to play a few of his own songs during their set. One of his stand-outs is certainly his duet with Mick on Melody, featured on 1976's Black and Blue. (His material was slightly later also used, credited or uncredited, on Tattoo You.) During this same period, Preston played with a number of other groups and artists that tended to share the same sessions musician, including Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Stephen Stills, and the three ex-Beatles Lennon, Harrison and Starr.
Preston's career slowed down in the 1980s and 90s, but he has continued to contribute to people's records, including in more recent years people like Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, Yoko Ono and Me'Shell Ndegeocello. In 1992, Mick recorded his third solo album Wandering Spirit in Los Angeles and hired Billy Preston again, after all these years. Many of the Wandering Spirit players appeared again on the Stones' Bridges to Babylon 5 years later, since the band recorded in Los Angeles. Preston was no exception and his keyboards can be heard on Saint of Me.
Billy Preston died of illness in 2006.
Price is a horn player - trombone, trumpet, horn -, who also occasionally played keyboards. He was one of several high-prized session horn musicians in the 1970s, especially in the first half of the decade. He performed, and played on records, with primarily British artists like Delaney & Bonnie, Dr. John, George Harrison (All Things Must Pass), Joe Cocker, Harry Nilsson and Eric Clapton.
It was in those same years that Price and his
colleague Bobby Keys played
with the Stones, appearing on Sticky Fingers,
Exile
on Main Street and
Goats
Head Soup. Keys and Price also formed
the horn section the Stones used onstage in those days, performing on their
tours with them from 1970 to 1973.
Engineer and mixer, since 1980, working at Los
Angeles' Ocean Way Studios who has engineered, mixed and produced records
for Amy Grant, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits,
the Black Crows, Weezer, Hole, Son Volt, the Verve Pipe, No Doubt, Green
Day, Sheryl Crow, Counting Crows, Stereophonics and Black Eyed Peas among
others. In 2001 he mixed five songs on Mick Jagger's Goddess In The
Doorway album and four year later he mixed over half the tracks for
the Rolling Stones'
A Bigger Bang.