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, 2000-2008.
(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
Los Angeles blues-rock guitarist & singer
that has had critical and commercial success since the early 1970s. She
first opened for the Rolling Stones in Europe in 1970. She performed with
the Stones onstage at their last tour concerts in 2006 in Los Angeles and
Vancouver, performing Dead Flowers
and Shine a Light with
them.
MAC REBENNACK
(* see DR. JOHN)
A reggae percussionist who contributed to records
by Toots & the Maytals and Third World among others. He contributed
to the Stones' Goats Head Soup
overdubbing and mixing sessions at Island Record Studios in London in 1973.
He also played with Eric
Clapton during the same era.
Born in California, jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman became a sensation in the 1990s. He guested onstage with the Stones on a few occasions on their 1997-98 Bridges to Babylon tour, notably at their televised concert in St. Louis. His performance there on Waiting on a Friend is featured on the Stones' No Security album.
Redman has played with artists such as Chick Corea,
Quincy Jones and Me'Shell Ndegéocello,
in addition to making his own albums.
Regan is a studio bassist who played with artists
like Peter Frampton, Billy Idol and Ace Frehley in the 1980s. In 1985 he
played on Mick and Bowie's
single Dancing in the Street. This led to his contributing bass
to the Stones' Dirty Work
that same summer.
REPARATA & THE DELRONS (1962-1973)
Reparata & The Delrons were a relatively unsuccessful
early '60s girl group that was formed in New York, led by Mary Aiese, who
renamed herself Reparata Aiese (after a nun who taught at the school which
the girls attended). They started releasing records in 1964, and the following
year they became regulars on Dick Clark-sponsored tours. In 1969, Mary
Aiese left the group, which was now led by Lorraine Mazzola. The other
original member was Nanette Licari. That same year, they sang the backup
vocals on the Stones' Honky Tonk Women
single. Thereafter they worked mostly on the oldies circuit.
An assistant to Tom
Lord-Alge, who mixed some of the Bridges
to Babylon tracks.
If Mick and Ronnie's daughters can go onstage, why can't we Daddy?
The youngest of Keith's children with Patti Hansen
Richards, Alexandra joined her sister Theodora onstage at the Stones' last
Bridges
to Babylon concert in Cologne in June
1999, singing backup vocals during their father's numbers.
A British engineer who did some assistant engineering
duties on Black and Blue.
Since then, Richards has gone on to engineer and produce artists like David
Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Iggy Pop, Queen and Roger Waters.
The oldest of Keith's children with Patti Richards,
Theodora joined the Stones onstage at their closing show for the Bridges
to Babylon tour in Cologne in June 1999,
singing backup vocals behind her father's numbers with her sister Alexandra.
He assisted the engineering on the Stones'
Stripped (1995). He's worked with Madonna,
Jann Arden and the Wallflowers among others.
A longtime Stones guitar technician and roadie,
Rogan contributed guitar to the Stones'
Dirty Work (1986). In 1986, he also played
on Aretha Franklin's cover of Jumpin' Jack Flash, produced
by Keith.
New York-born saxophonist Rollins is a true jazz legend, having played with many of the bop and hard bop greats of the 1950s and '60s. In the 1950s, he recorded with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Max Roach among others. In the 1960s, Rollins paved a more idiosyncratic path, while in the 1970s he started contributing to R&B and pop recordings.
In 1981, the Stones hired him to grace the Tattoo
You album with his saxophone solos, and
Rollins laid down some unforgettable work on the songs Slave,
Neighbors
and especially Waiting on a Friend.
Rollins is still working today.
Born in Jamaica, reggae vocalist Max Romeo was having hits in the 1960s with risqué songs like Wet Dream. Romeo teamed up with producer Lee Perry in the '70s and his work started becoming more socially conscious and Rastafarian in philosophy. He is still releasing records today.
The Stones hired him to sing backing vocals on
their song Dance
for 1980's Emotional Rescue.
Following which, Romeo was signed to Rolling Stones Records and he released
an album on which Keith contributed and which he produced.
The queen of rock in the 1970s, Ronstadt covered
the Stones' Tumbling Dice,
before guesting onstage with the Stones at her hometown in Tucson, Arizona,
during their 1978 U.S. Tour. Future X-Pensive Wino and Stones collaborator
Waddy
Wachtel worked often on her recordings. In 1986, she guest starred
on the Chuck Berry 60th anniversary film/concert project which Keith was
involved in.
A fellow student during Keith's tenure at art
school in the 1950s, who formed an amateur country band. Keith says the
first time he ever played onstage was with this band.
In the 1970s, wildman pianist and vocalist Leon Russell was extremely appreciated among his musical contemporaries, who employed him frequently on their records. He also enjoyed a time-limited but successful solo career fusing blues and rock and gospel.
Born in Oklahoma, he became a session musician in the early '60s as part of Phil Spector's players, then going to play on the Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man and with artists like the Monkees and Glen Campbell. In the late '60s and early 70s, he played with Delaney & Bonnie and became musical director for Joe Cocker's band. Billy Preston and the horn section of Bobby Keys and Jim Price were part of these two bands, as well, and non coincidentally, they all arrived pretty much together in the Stones' camp.
In 1969, Russell played piano and arranged the horn section on the Stones' Live with Me, which featured Bobby Keys on sax. Unlike Price, Keys and Preston, that was his last recorded contribution with the Stones. Mick, Bill and Charlie all contributed to Russell's 1970 album.
In addition to playing with Cocker, in the '70s
Russell recorded and toured with artists such as the Flying Burrito Brothers,
George
Harrison, Eric Clapton
and Bob Dylan. He also played
on Bill Wyman's 1974 and 1976 solo albums. In the 1980s and '90s, Russell's
popularity diminished, but he continued working with artists like Willie
Nelson and J. J. Cale.
Danny Saber is a bassist and producer who specializes in trip hop and alternative rock and dance. He also plays drums, keyboards and other instruments. In 1995, he joined the British alternative rock/dance group Black Grape, already formed around singer Shaun Ryder, previously of the Happy Mondays, and played on and produced their albums. The group achieved a lot of success in the U.K. This led Saber to produce acts like Garbage, David Bowie, John Lydon and U2.
The Stones enlisted Saber to help out on Bridges
to Babylon. He wound up producing and
playing on the song Gunface.
He also plays on Out of Control
and mixed the track Might As Well
Get Juiced. He's since worked with artists
like Marilyn Manson, Public Enemy, Seal and Herb Alpert. In 2001, he did
assisting duties for Mick's song Blue.
Born in France, Saisse is a jazz keyboardist who
crossed over into pop in the early 1980s and played on records by Chaka
Khan and David Bowie among
others. The Stones recruited him to play on their Dirty
Work album in 1985. He's worked since
with Steve Winwood, Hall & Oates, Brian Wilson, Tina
Turner and other artists.
Samuelsohn engineered the song Dance
on
the Stones' Emotional Rescue.
He also worked with AC/DC among others (Back In Black).
Born in Florida, Sanborn is one of pop's most often used session saxophonists, although he is also featured on jazz recordings. Sanborn started out his career with artists like Albert King, Paul Butterfield, David Bowie and Stevie Wonder before achieving success as a solo artist in the 1970s. He's contributed to records by Bruce Springsteen (Born to Run), James Brown, James Taylor, George Benson, the Eagles, Carl Simon, Eric Clapton and many others.
He contributed to the Stones' Undercover
in
1983. Thereafter Mick used him on his 1987 solo album Primitive Cool.
Sanderson worked as an assistant engineer on every
single track of the Bridges to Babylon
album.
He's also recently worked with Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach, Ziggy
Marley and Amanda Marshall.
The ever popular Mexico-born grandfather of Latin rock guested onstage with the Stones in New York City during their 1975 North American tour. Santana had opened for the Stones at Altamont in 1969, and opened for them again at some of their shows for the Tattoo You and Bridges to Babylon tours.
¸¸
Producer, engineer and mixer who's worked with
Donovan, Slayer, Rancid, Marilyn Manson, Johnny Cash, Rage Against the
Machine, System of a Down, Jet and Oasis among others. In 2005, he mixed
the song Rough Justice for
the Stones' A Bigger Bang.
Jeff Sarli plays the upright acoustic bass and
the Stones used him to that effect on the Bridges
to Babylon tracks Flip
the Switch, Too
Tight and How
Can I Stop. Sarli is a blues player who's
played with artists like Big Joe Maher and Tom Principato.
Savage was a British engineer who worked on the
Stones' first recording session for their first single, Come
On, in 1963.
Born in Ohio, guitarist and vocalist Scaggs was
part of the Steve Miller Band then became a successful solo artist in the
1970s. He participated in some recording sessions for
Emotional Rescue in 1979, although it's
not clear if his contributions wound up on the record. His career slowed
down in the 1980s.
Patti Scialfa started as a backup vocalist in the 1970s. She was little known until Bruce Springsteen hired her for his gargantuan and much mediacized Born In The USA Tour in 1984-85. It was during a break in that tour, in the summer of 1985, that she dropped by the Stones' sessions in New York to lay down some backup vocals on One Hit (to the Body). In 1988 Keith enlisted her help again for his album Talk Is Cheap.
Scialfa went on to marry Springsteen and have
children, as well as continuing to record and tour with him.
Scott co-engineered the song
Too Tight on the Bridges
to Babylon album. He's worked from everyone
from Black Sabbath to Hank Williams Jr.
Also born in Jamaica, bassist Robbie is the other
half of the Sly & Robbie duo which has been the premiere rhythm section
in the reggae music business, as well as prime reggae producers and contributors
to numerous pop artists' recordings. (See the Sly
Dunbar section for a summary of his contributions, which are mostly
the same as Dunbar's.) Like Dunbar, he also played on Ronnie's 1 2 3
4 and Mick's She's The Boss. He contributed to the Stones' Undercover
album.
Sharma is an engineer who initially did some assisting
duties on the Stones' Voodoo Lounge (1994).
He's worked with the Cult, Johnny Mathis, Counting Crows, Liz Phair and
Hilary Duff among others. In 2004-05, he was chief engineer for the Rolling
Stones' A Bigger Bang,
and also mixed five tracks.
Born in New jersey, Shorter is one of the great jazz saxophonists of the modern era. Training with John Coltrane in the 1950s, he went on to become as integral member of Art Blakey's band and then Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, for whom he composed many avant-garde pieces. In 1970, Shorter traded in hard bop for a more melodic jazz fusion style, forming the legendary group Weather Report with Joe Zawinul and other musicians. In the late 1970s, Shorter also began contributing to pop artists' records, such as Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan and Herbie Hancock. When Weather Report broke up in 1985, Shorter drifted into less successful projects. He spent some time touring with Santana, among other things.
In 1997, the Stones enlisted Shorter to play an
exquisite solo on the closing number of
Bridges To Babylon, How
Can I Stop.
Shrieve is a talented rock drummer who got his
reputation playing with Santana and
went on to guest on many artists' records. He played percussion on the
Stones' Emotional Rescue,
and
eventually also contributed to Mick's first solo album.
Before his association with Keith and the Stones, engineer, mixer and producer Don Smith had worked in the 1980s with the Eurythmics, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Nicks, Bob Dylan, and especially Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, as well as on movie soundtracks (Footloose, etc.).
In 1987, Keith hired Don Smith to engineer his first solo album Talk Is Cheap. Smith was re-hired again to work on the live album from his first tour and the following 1992 Main Offender album as well. During those years, Smith also worked with artists like U2, the Tragically Hip, Roy Orbison and the Traveling Wilburys, the Neville Brothers and Iggy Pop.
When the Stones got back together in 1993 a year after the Main Offender album, Keith convinced the band to enlist Smith to act as chief engineer on Voodoo Lounge, working at the side of newcomer producer Don Was. Smith did not work on Bridges to Babylon.
I'd very much like to use (for the Stones next year) the same cat who engineered this album, Don Smith... I recorded this album the same way I do Stones albums, the whole band playing in one room. Don Smith is a master at that. Even if he didn't do this record, if I had heard his work with some other band, I'd want him to do the Stones because I think he's the best guy for the job.
Sorenson worked as an assistant engineer on most
of the tracks for the Stones' Bridges to
Babylon (1997). He's also worked with
Whitney Houston, Beck, Babyface, Jewel and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The legendary producer, as infamous for his personality quirks as for his classic "Wall of Sound" recordings with girl groups like the Crystals and the Ronettes in the early 1960s, as well as artists such as the Righteous Brothers and Ike & Tina Turner, never produced the Stones as such but appeared at some of their sessions in their early years. Spector was an idol of Andrew Oldham's, and when a Stones-Ronettes tour was organized in January 1964, Oldham took the opportunity to invite Spector to some of the Stones' sessions for their first album. This resulted in Spector performing percussion on Not Fade Away, Now I've Got a Witness and Little By Little. In late 1964/early '65, the Stones met up again with Spector when they were recording in L.A. This resulted in Spector appearing at some sessions too, and contributing on songs like Play with Fire.
After an initial retirement in 1966, Spector went on to produce more records in the 70s, primarily with ex-Beatle John Lennon. (He also worked on the Beatles' Let It Be and Harrison'sAll Things Must Pass.) But he mostly became a recluse and rarely worked again. In 1992, Spector visited both Ronnie and Charlie at different solo work-related events.
Phil Spector was a big American record producer, kind of just another person that Andrew wanted you to meet. Although I really dug his sound, those records. Always wanted to know how he got such a big sound, and when I found out it was a 170-piece orchestra, OK.
A long-time Stones road crew member who plays
a shaker on No Security.
A percussion unit that joined the Stones onstage
for their encore of Sympathy for
the Devil during shows in New York City
on their 1975 tour.
Stent is an engineer and mixer who worked on the
Stones' Flashpoint (1991).
ABC, Depeche Mode, the Pet Shop Boys, U2, Madonna, Björk, the Spice
Girls, Erasure and Massive Attack are some of the artists he's worked most
often with.
In all fairness, Ian should not be merely included among all these other contributors, since he enjoyed a privileged relationship with the Stones' throughout their history until his death. His is definitely the "Sixth Stone".
Born in Pittenham, Scotland, Ian was a figure surrounding the London Alexis Korner scene before Mick and Keith showed up. He was a pianist who specialized in boogie-woogie and R&B from the 1930s and '40s. He had answered an ad Brian had put up to form an R&B band and so had teamed up with him and with another guitarist called Geoff Bradford and a singer called Paul Jones. It was Brian who introduced Ian to electric Chicago blues.
When Mick, Keith and Dick Taylor joined (and Bradford and Jones left), Ian was the one who would often organize the rehearsals. The Stones have often been fond of calling the Stones "Stu's band" because of this fact, and because of his down-to-earth, take-no-bullshit, tell-it-like-it-is personality.
Ian was integral as any other member in the shaping of the Stones' original style and sound. However, when manager Andrew Oldham came along the scene, he kicked out Stu on the grounds that "5 Stones were enough". He nevertheless remained on as pianist for the Stones throughout their entire career until the time of his death, playing on most of their albums and accompanying them on their tours. He was also their undesignated road manager for much of their career, continuing to handle the equipment and carry the others in his van from gig to gig in the early years, and later still also participating in various functions.
The Stones used Stu on record mostly, but not exclusively, for their fast-paced, rock and roll tunes, where his boogie-woogie playing was an integral element to that magic Stones sound. His contributions can be heard from Around and Around (1964) to She Was Hot (1983). Ian contributed to other bands in the 1970s, including Led Zeppelin, and also formed his own outfit with Charlie, Alexis Korner and Jack Bruce in the late 1970s and early 1980s called Rocket 88, playing boogie-woogie R&B. He also played with the Stray Cats.
Ian died suddenly and without warning of a heart attack in December 1985, just after the completion of the Dirty Work album, leaving his fellow Stones quite broken-hearted, and adding to the pessimism regarding the band's future during that time. The Stones played their only concert in a 7-year period at a London club in February 1986 as a tribute to Stu. The Dirty Work album is dedicated to him, and an excerpt of his piano playing closes the album. When the Stones were inducted into the Hall of Fame in January 1989, Mick honored in his acceptance speech 2 people who were not presently with the band, namely Brian Jones and Ian Stewart.
I'm going to miss him a lot. He really helped this band swing, on numbers like Honky Tonk Women and loads of others. Stu was the one guy we tried to please. We wanted his approval when we were writing or rehearsing a song. We'd want him to like it.
Fellow Kent, England-born pop/R&B singer who
started her career in 2003 and was 18 when she opened for the Stones in
2005. She duetted with Mick on (The
Night Time Is) The Right Time in Miami.
By themselves, the Stray Cats basically created a neo-rockabilly craze in the early 1980s, recreating the sound of the early Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis records, not to mention Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins and many others. They never contributed to a Stones record, but the Stones admired them and they ended up crossing paths in many ways.
Ian Stewart played on the Stray Cats' albums. In 1980, they jammed at Keith's home in Redlands on one occasion. The following year guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer and drummer Jim Phantom played on Bill's 3rd solo albums, and they also opened for some Stones shows on the 1981 U.S. tour. In 1985, Keith contributed to a record by the Brian Setzer-less Phantom, Slick & Rocker group.
The Stray Cats reunited briefly in the 1990s. Brian Setzer enjoyed more success as a solo artist recently with his new take on swing.
Mick and I picked up on the Stray Cats before anybody else did and tried to sign them to the Stones' label. Brian Setzer's an excellent player and they're all nice guys.
Saxophonist Joe Sublett was a member of Stevie
Ray Vaughn's band in the 1980s. He's since played with artists like Taj
Mahal, Carla Olson, John Mayall and Little Feat. He was brought in
to play on several tracks for the Bridges
to Babylon album, including You
Don't Have to Mean It and Flip
the Switch.
Sullivan is an engineer who assisted on the Stones'
Flashpoint
(1991).
He's worked with Depeche Mode, Marillion, the Cure and others.
Born in Mississippi, Sumlin is one of the all-time greatest Chicago blues guitarists, the lead guitarist for Howlin' Wolf's band, playing on most of his classic recordings. His playing was a major influence on the Stones.
Charlie & Bill played with Sumlin when they
recorded an album with Wolf in 1970. In 2000, Keith contributed to the
making of a solo album of his. On January 16, 2003, Sumlin appeared onstage
with the Stones at Madison Square Garden in New York City, performing on
Let
It Bleed.
One of the engineers who assisted the recording
of tracks for 1995's Stripped in
Amsterdam.
An engineer who assisted Keith
Harwood during the mixing of
It's Only Rock and Roll in London in 1974,
and again assisted on Black and Blue for
a short while. He had worked with Ralph McTell and John Mayall.
Dartford-born bassist Dick Taylor was a founding
Rolling Stone. He and Keith met as teens when they were attending art school
together, while Mick had also befriended Taylor and played with him occasionally.
They all got together as the Little Blue Boys and Taylor became a Rollin'
Stone in 1962 with the others when they started hanging around Alexis Korner's
scene and met Brian Jones and Ian Stewart. Taylor
left the band, however, in September 1962, before they ever recorded, to
return to school, and was replaced by Bill Wyman. He later went on to found
the moderately successful band The Pretty Things.
American-born keyboardist Benmont Tench is best known for his work as one of Tom Petty's backing group the Heartbreakers, playing on all their albums since 1978. Tench has also frequently been recruited by other artists, however, especially those hailing from the L.A. scene. In the 1980s and 90s, he worked with John Hiatt, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, John Prine, Randy Newman, Jackson Browne and ex-Eagles Glenn Frey and Don Henley. He has also done work with luminaries such as Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Roseanne Cash, U2 and Alanis Morrissette.
Tench had initially first played with Ronnie,
when he and Bob Dylan contributed to recordings for the country rock band
Lone Justice in 1984, for which Tench was also contributing. Tench really
came in through the Stones' circuit, however (like other musicians: Keltner,
Wimbish,
the returning Billy Preston),
when Mick recorded his Wandering Spirit solo album in Los Angeles
in 1992. Two years after his work with Mick, he joined the Stones for Voodoo
Lounge, and contributed again in 1997
to Bridges to Babylon.
He has brought country rock flavorings to songs such as Out
of Tears and
Already
Over Me.
Memphis-born American teen idol Justin Timberlake
was a member of the popular NSYNC in the late '90/early '00s before releasing
his first solo album in 2002. Timberlake was one of the many acts who opened
for the Stones on their July 30, 2003 mega festival concert at Toronto,
Canada's Downsview Park. He then appeared onstage with the Stones to duet
with Mick on Miss You.
Timberlake was pelted with water bottles until Keith came to the front
of the stage and threatened the crowd...
Born in Jamaica, legendary reggae guitarist and vocalist Peter Tosh joined Bob Marley's original Wailers as early as 1962, even though they only started to cut world-wide released records in 1972. He was an integral part of the Wailers sound and attitude, composing and singing as well as playing guitar, and a key component to the quality of the first two (and best) Wailers albums. He left in 1973 to pursue a solo career, his outspoken records pushing for the legalization of marijuana among other things.
Keith had befriended Tosh while living in Jamaica and this led to the Twins deciding to give a record contract to Tosh with Rolling Stones Records and producing his album Bush Doctor in 1978. Both Keith and Mick played on it. This led to Tosh opening for the Stones on tour in 1978, and Mick joined him onstage for the duet on Don't Look Back which they had recorded together.
Tosh continued making many albums, although he
never achieved the success of fellow musician Bob Marley. His outspokenness
against political oppression in Jamaica led to his getting frequently beaten
by Jamaican police and finally assassinated in 1987.
Creative leader of that OTHER little British rock band called The Who, guitarist Pete Townshend claims he stole his legendary arm swing from Keith. The Stones and the Who shared the bill for the first and last time when the Stones invited them to participate at their Rock and Roll Circus event in 1968.
A loud mouth in his own right, Townshend has often spoken about the Stones, mostly (though not always) admiringly. During the mixing sessions for Sticky Fingers in late 1970, he recorded backing vocals to Sway. In 1981, when he was hanging out with Mick, he contributed background vocals to the song Slave. (Earlier, in 1976, he had contributed to Ron Wood and Ronnie Lane's Mahoney's Last Stand project, and Charlie the next year contributed to an album that Townshend did with Lane.) In 1982, following the end of the Stones' European tour, Mick accompanied the Who for parts of their farewell tour. The following year, on Mick's 40th birthday, Townshend wrote a not-so-flattering letter in the London Times commenting on the significance of this event.
Mick enlisted Townshend to play on his first solo
album in 1984. And in February 1986, Townshend was one of those present
when the Stones gave their London club performance in honor of Ian
Stewart. He joined the band onstage for some blues numbers. In January
1989, he was the one who inducted the Stones into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame. In 2001, he played on the songs Gun and Joy for
Mick's Goddess in the Doorway album. Townshend & his buddies
also reunited on the same stage with Mick & Keith for the October 2001
concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden.
Born in New York, Doris Troy was one of the most successful and well-known vocalists to have sung with the Stones. She was one of Atlantic Records' great R&B singers in the early to mid-1960s, most well known for her giant 1963 hit and classic Just One Look (later covered by Linda Ronstadt). In the late '60s and early '70s, she recorded a few solo albums, as well as recording backup for rock bands, notably the Stones.
Doris Troy and her own backup singers Madeline
Bell and Nanette Newman contributed
the backup vocals to You Can't Always Get
What You Want. She went on to sing with
Pink Floyd, Gary Wright, Carly Simon and Humble Pie among others.
Though she has never recorded with the Stones, Tina Turner's path has regularly crossed with the Stones' since the 1960s.
Born Anna Mae Bullock in Tennessee, she joined
Ike Turner's band as a backup vocalist in the 1950s, which eventually became
the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. They opened for the Stones on their 1966
British tour and again on their 1969 U.S. Tour. Tina left Ike in the mid
1970s and had trouble getting a solo career going. In the early 1980s,
Mick and Keith helped her along, enlisting her as an opening act on some
of their 1981 U.S. Tour dates. During the Stones shows' in New Jersey,
she guested with them onstage, singing on Honky
Tonk Women.
S
In 1984, of course, Tina Turner enjoyed mega
success with her album Private Dancer. The following year, she guest-starred
on Mick's first ever solo performance at the Philadelphia Live Aid concert.
Later on in the year, Mick returned the favor by appearing at one of her
concerts. Tina guested again onstage with Mick during his 1988 tour of
Japan.
An engineer who did assisting duties for the Stones'
Stripped in 1995.
The Stones had used the Kick
Horns for the Steel Wheels
album, but used another brass section, the Uptown Horns, to accompany them
onstage for the 1989-90 Steel Wheels-Urban Jungle world tour. They
had previously played with Graham Parker, Platinum Blonde, Joe Cocker,
Run DMC and most significantly on Tom Waits'
1985 Rain Dogs album, on which Keith had guested. They've since
performed with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, David
Sanborn, Buster Poindexter and many others. They're featured on the
Flashpoint album (1991). A 1993 album
of theirs featured a contribution by Keith.
One of the engineers who assisted the recording
of tracks for Stripped in
Amsterdam. He was again on hand when the Stones did live recordings in
Amsterdam in 1998 for No Security.
The singer of one of the most celebrated rock bands of the 1990s, Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam opened for Stones shows on the Bridges to Babylon tour, and one night in Oakland in 1997 Vedder came onstage to guest with the Stones on Waiting on a Friend.
Pearl Jam opened again for the Stones in 2005
and in Pittsburgh Vedder duetted onstage with Mick Jagger on Wild
Horses.
Engineer who assisted Krish Sharma in mixing some
of the tracks for 2005's A Bigger Bang.
He's also worked with Rage Against the Machine, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice
Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Avril Lavigne, Mariah Carey and Our Lady Peace among
others.
Volaitis is one of the main engineers who worked
on the Stones' Bridges to Babylon,
along with Rob Fraboni, Dan
Bosworth and Ed Cherney. Volaitis
had worked on movie soundtracks as well as engineering records by Tracy
Chapman, Marshall Crenshaw and alternative dance/rock group Black Grape,
which counts Danny Saber as one of its members
and producers. Volaitis worked mostly on the Danny Saber-produced tracks
of Bridges to Babylon.
He also mixed the song Gunface.
Another L.A. beast, Waddy is a session guitarist who from the 1970s to the 1990s made a career out of playing regularly on many of the albums of the city's legendary performers, such as Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Randy Newman, Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks and Don Henley.
Wachtel's first Stones connection was with Ronnie. Wachtel contributed to Ronnie's fourth solo LP, 1 2 3 4, recorded in L.A. and released in 1981. Subsequently Wachtel became an X-Pensive Wino when Keith stole him away for his first solo album and tour in 1988. Wachtel was still there for the 1992 album and tour, this time co-composing many of the tracks on the album.
So I started to put a band together... Steve (Jordan) looks at me and says, Who do you want to play with? I said, Guitar? Waddy Wachtel. And he goes to me, My very words. I'd known Woody since the middle 70s, and I've always liked his stuff. But I always recognized him as a man left alone out there running a chick's band. And I knew this man wants to rock more desperately than he's allowed to. (Laughs.) He's doing Linda Ronstadt, then he's doing Stevie Nicks, and I know my man wants to rock. Waddy and I have always had that empathy, and he understands my music. I don't have to explain anything to Waddy. I say, It goes like this, and everybody else would say, Well, that's weird. But Waddy goes, Oh, that's interesting.
Wachtel did not participate in any Stones
sessions during those years but he has played extensively since on the
Bridges
to Babylon album. This is undoubtedly
a function of the fact that the Stones recorded and mixed the entire album
in Los Angeles, using many musicians of the scene. Wachtel played guitar,
acoustic and electric, on more than a good half of the album's tracks,
becoming the most heavily used guitar player on a Stones album, outside
of the Stones, since Wayne Perkins
and Harvey Mandel in
the days of Black and Blue
(1976).
Born in California, the eccentric musician and singer-songwriter has had a successful career as a musician, and also actor, since the 1970s, honing a musical style all his own. Waits and the Stones briefly collaborated in 1985 when the band was mixing Dirty Work in New York City, at the same time as Waits was recording his Rain Dogs album there. Keith and Waits struck up a friendship, which led Keith to play on some of the songs on Waits' album, while Waits also contributed to Dirty Work (he sang backup vocals on Harlem Shuffle). In 1988 Waits attended some of the mixing sessions for Keith's first solo album.
Keith collaborated again with Waits on the latter's1992
album Bone Machine, co-composing and performing the song That
Feel.
British drummer Mickey Waller supposedly stepped
in for Charlie for a March 1964 Stones performance in Chatham, England.
Waller later played with Ronnie and Rod Stewart as part of the Jeff Beck
Group in the late '60s, and allegedly was considered by Brian Jones for
his next band in 1969. Waller stayed with Rod & Ronnie for the former's
first several solo albums, and played on Ronnie's first. He's also performed
with Brian Auger, Chris Jagger, the Deluxe Blues Band & Billy Bragg
among others.
Another engineer who assisted on Love
You Live (1977). Warner had mostly done
work with jazz and blues artists like Buddy Guy, Arif
Mardin, Charlie Mingus, as well as the Average White Band. He went
on to work with acts like George Benson, Tom
Waits and Yes.
Born Donald Fagenson in Detroit, Don Was started out his career as a session bassist, then formed an R&B/funk duo Was (Not Was) in the 1970s, which achieved success in the mid-1980s. By then Don Was had already started a career as a producer, and it is this career which has taken over, spurred on by the success of his work with Bonnie Raitt in 1989. He worked afterwards with artists such as Iggy Pop, Ringo Starr, the B-52s, Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, as well as producing a number of movie soundtracks. He was auditioned and hired by the Stones in 1993 to help them coproduced Voodoo Lounge. Was, who also now and then contributes as a musician to the Stones' recordings, was kept on as producer for the following half-live, half-rehearsal album Stripped (1995). He also appeared onstage with them during their Paradiso concerts in Amsterdam in May 1995, playing keyboards.
When the Stones started Bridges to Babylon in 1996-97, they chose to work with a number of producers for the first time in their career. Nevertheless they kept Was on board as co-executive producer for the record, as well as co-producing most of the album's specific tracks. He also contributed keyboards and bass on a few tracks.
In 2002, Was was again onboard to co-produce the Stones' new Forty Licks material and the following Live Licks album.
To me, (Don Was) is very much like working with Jimmy Miller, who's a producer but also a musician. To the Stones, it's a real extra plus to have a guy that knows how things are played, what's done.
In 2004-05, Don Was co-produced the Rolling
Stones' latest, A Bigger Bang,
and performs on one track.
RICHARD "DIDYMUS" WASHINGTON (AMYL NITRATE)
Nicknamed Amyl Nitrate on the credits,
Richard Washington was a percussionist working with Dr. John. He participated
in the Stones' L.A. sessions for Exile
on Main Street and contributed marimbas
to Sweet Black Angel.
The Stones first met their idol Muddy Waters in
June 1964 when they recorded at Chicago's Chess Studios. He jammed with
them on 2120 South Michigan Avenue,
although his guitar doesn't appear on the released version. Both Bill and
Charlie recorded Muddy in 1974. The Stones jammed now and then with Waters
through the years, notably in July 1978 and November 1981 during their
tour stops in Chicago.
Born in Virginia, jazz saxophonist Ernie Watts was hired by the Stones to accompany them onstage throughout the 1981 Tattoo You U.S. tour, and he consequently appears on the album Still Life and the film Let's Spend the Night Together.
Working with Buddy Rich in the mid-1960s, Watts
thereafter became a band member of the Johnny Carson band on American TV's
The Tonight Show in the 1970s, and he also specialized in contributing
to pop and soul recordings, playing with the Average White Band, Joe Cocker,
Bobby Bland, Steely Dan, Carole King, Quincy Jones, Paul
McCartney and many, many others. In the mid-1980s, he returned to concentrating
on pure jazz.
Charlie's wife (1964 to the present) apparently
recorded backing vocals on the song Please
Go Home, which was released in 1967. She
therefore has the distinction of being the first woman to grace a Stones
recording.
Willie Weeks has been a much-in-demand session bassist since the early 1970s. Throughout that first decade he played often with the likes of Carly Simon, Stevie Wonder, George Harrison, Bobby Womack, Randy Newman, David Bowie, David Cassidy, the Greg Allman Band and Dan Fogelberg. When Weeks first played with the Stones, he was recording also for both Rod Stewart and Ron Wood's solo albums. He played bass on the home recording of It's Only Rock and Roll at Ronnie's home studio in late 1973. In the 1980s and '90s, he's played with the Doobie Brothers, David Lee Roth, John Cougar Mellencamp, Roseanne Cash and Wynonna Judd among others. He appears on Ronnie's latest, Not for Beginners.
¸
Detroit-born half of the immensely successful
2000s rock band The White Stripes. White duetted with the Stones onstage
on Loving Cup
at the Beacon Theatre in New York City on October 29 & November 1,
2006.
Doug Wimbish has been one of the most in demand session bass players in the 1980s and '90s. He started out as the house band bassist in the early '80s for the early rap label Sugar Hill, playing behind Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five among others. He went on to play all kinds of styles, from funk to reggae to heavy metal, cutting sessions with acts like George Clinton, Jeff Beck, Carly Simon and James Brown in the '80s and early '90s.
In 1987, Mick hired Wimbish to play on Primitive
Cool, and the following year he toured with Mick's solo band in Japan
and Australia. In 1992, he played again on Mick's album Wandering Spirit
and also guested on Ronnie's Slide On This album. He went on to
join the band Living Colour
but it quickly broke up. Wimbish then went back to recording sessions for
acts like Annie Lennox, Madonna, Billy Idol, Al Green and Depeche Mode.
In 1993, he was a favorite candidate to replace Bill Wyman as the Stones'
bass player until Darryl
Jones got the job. He finally got the chance to play with the Stones
in 1997 - he played bass on Bridges to
Babylon's
Might
As Well Get Juiced and contributed backing
vocals to Always Suffering.
A Danish session drummer who played on the Tattoo
You sessions.
English jazz/soul/rock singer who started her
career in 2003. On June 10, 2007, she duetted with the Stones onstage during
Ain't
Too Proud to Beg at their concert at the
Isle of Wight Festival.
Ohio-born Bobby Womack has been associated on and off with the Stones since the beginning of their careers, and has been connected to them one way or another for 4 decades. Womack and his family formed the Valentinos in the early 1960s, an early Northern Soul group whose It's All Over Now was covered with great success by the Stones in 1964. In the later 1960s, Womack, a great songwriter, vocalist AND guitarist, worked with, and influenced, soul greats Curtis Mayfield, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and Jimi Hendrix, among others.
In 1975, Womack played on and produced Ronnie's second solo album, Now Look, which was the start of a long and fruitful friendship between the two. Womack appeared again on Ronnie's 1981 album 1 2 3 4, which led to Womack opening for some Stones shows on their 1981 U.S. tour. Ronnie jammed with Womack at a club in 1982.
In the mid-1980s, Ronnie brought in Womack to contribute to the Stones' mixing sessions for Dirty Work in 1985. Womack formed, along with Keith, Ronnie and musicians like Chuck Leavell, a small group that was the leading creative unit during those mixing sessions, frequently being present as well as contributing to the sessions. Womack sang backup on One Hit and Harlem Shuffle, and played guitar on Hold Back and Back to Zero. In late 1986 and early 1987, Ronnie and Womack held several recording sessions together for an unreleased album.
Several years later, in 1994, Womack reunited
with the Stones, where he was used as a backup vocalist for the Voodoo
Lounge album.
R&B and pop legend Stevie Wonder opened for
the Stones during their 1972 North American Tour. He joined them onstage
for a medley of Uptight and Satisfaction
for
the last shows of the tour.
The daughter of Ron Wood and Jo Howard Wood regularly
appeared onstage with the Stones during their Bridges
to Babylon tour to sing backup vocals
on Keith's songs. She's featured on No
Security. Recently she also appears on
Ronnie's latest solo album, Not for Beginners.
ANGUS (1959- ) & MALCOLM YOUNG (1953- )
The Scotland born dual guitarist brother team
of the classic Australian hard rock combo AC/DC. They joined the Stones
onstage - performing Rock Me Baby - at 2003 concerts in Australia,
Europe & at the Downsview Park SARS concert in Toronto on July 30.
An assistant engineer to Glyn
and Andy Johns who name is misspelled as "Joe
Zaganno" on the Exile on Main Street
credits. This was Zagarino's only work with the band. Before the Stones,
Zagarino had worked with artists such as Albert Collins, B.B.
King, Paul Butterfield and The Band.