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 McPherson, 2000-2023.
(All rights reserved.
Like all files on Time
Is On Our Side,
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Engineer and mixer who has worked with acts
such as Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne, Miley Cirus,
Elton John, Justin Bieber, Eddie Vedder and Iggy Pop. He was one
of the two chief engineers at the helm of the Rolling Stones'
2023 Hackney
Diamonds album.
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.
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The arranger Mike Leander-led orchestra
that was used to add strings and/or brass to the songs As Tears Go By, My Girl and Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in
the Shadow?.
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 recorded again with the Rolling Stones for the album A Bigger Bang and toured with them throughout 2005 to 2007. In 2012, he recorded the new songs Doom and Gloom and One More Shot and joined them again for their 2012-2016 and 2017-19 world tours. He appeared throughout the 2016 Blue & Lonesome album. He was again on board with the band as they resumed touring in 2021 and 2022.
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 Rolling 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.
Louisiana-born
backup vocalist who sang with New Orleans greats Dr. John
and Shirley
Goodman. She sang with the Rolling Stones on Let It Loose,
featured on Exile on Main
Street. ,
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. On May 28, 2013, Mahal guested onstage with
the Rolling Stones again, in Chicago, performing Six Days on the Road.
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 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.
SHERLIE
MATTHEWS (1934- )
Los Angeles-born singer-songwriter and
producer who worked for Motown artists starting in the 1960s,
and eventually became a renowned backup vocalist for elite rock
and soul artists (Elton John, Bob Dylan, B. B. King, Paul
McCartney & Wings, etc.). She sang on both Let It
Loose and Tumbling Dice with her frequent collaborators Clydie King and
Venetta Fields.
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. (He therefore appears on the DVD and CD Some Girls Live in Texas '78 released in 2011.)
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. He
died of a stroke at age 69 on December 3, 2014.
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.
Keith Richards recorded for Aaron Neville's solo album My True Story in March 2012. On June 21, 2013, Aaron Neville joined the Rolling Stones onstage at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, duetting on Under the Boardwalk. During the same time period, he also contributed to Keith Richards' third solo album, Crosseyed Heart (2015). Du
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.
In 2011-2014, Ivan Neville helped out again
on Keith Richards' third solo album, Crosseyed Heart. On July 15, 2019, Neville's
band Dumpstaphunk opened for the Rolling Stones at the Superdome
in New Orleans.
Nevison is an engineer who with Howard
Kilgour recorded some early
takes for Goats Head Soup that were released in 2020. He then 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 2002-03 Licks 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 Ries 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.
Auckland members of this choir joined the
Rolling Stones onstage to sing You
Can't Always Get What You Want
at Mt Smart Stadium on November 22, 2014.
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. 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.
An Athens, Ohio university choir that sang You Can't Always Get What You Want with the Rolling Stones onstage in Columbus, Ohio, on May 30, 2015.
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.
In 2020, the Rolling Stones issued the
previously unreleased 1974 outtake Scarlet,
recorded with Jimmy Page.
West Virginia-born country rock
singer-songwriter who launched his recording career in 1999. On
June 18, 2013, Paisley performed with the Rolling Stones onstage
in Philadelphia, duetting on Dead Flowers.
Paisley repeated the feat in Nashville on
June 17, 2015.Pa
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.
California-born pop singer who became
successful in 2008. In 2004, she performed background vocals on
Mick Jagger's Old Habits Die
Hard. On May 11, 2013, she performed onstage with the
Rolling Stones at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, duetting on Beast of Burden.
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..
PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD JAVERIANA
A Colombian choir that joined the Rolling
Stones onstage to sing You
Can't Always Get What You Want
in Bogota, Colombia, on March 10, 2016.
A vocal ensemble from the University of
Music Detmold that joined the Rolling Stones onstage to sing You Can't Always Get What You Want at their concert at the Esprit Arena in
Düsseldorf, Germany, on June 19, 2014.
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
Rock singer and multi-instrumentalist, lead singer of the Vermont rock band The Nocturnals, who started releasing albums in 2005. She opened for the Rolling Stones in Minneapolis on June 3, 2015, and sang Gimmie Shelter with them onstage.
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 and the 2012 release L.A. Friday (Live 1975), 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 hypertension and
kidney failure 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.