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, 2000-2024.
(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.)
lick 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. She played with the band onstage
again on May 8, 2013, in San Jose, California, performing Let It
Bleed. She
Los Angeles singer and actor who, as part
of the backup singers for Rolling Stones opening act Ghost
Hounds, played with the group onstage during their concerts in
Milan, Italy, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on June 21 and
July 7, 2022.
MAC
REBENNACK (* see DR. JOHN)
A Ghana rock and jazz percussionist (Rebop
Kwaku Baah) who played with the groups Traffic and Can in the
1970s. He also played with Eric
Clapton. He contributed
to the Stones' Goats Head Soup overdubbing and mixing sessions at Island
Record Studios in London in 1973.
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.
Brazilian singer-songwriter, actor and percussionist. In 1985, he contributed percussion to the Rolling Stones' Back to Zero.. Rollins is still working today.
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.
ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY CONSERVATORY CHORUS
A choir that joined the Rolling Stones onstage during You Can't Always Get What You Want at their three concerts at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, in May-June 2013.
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.
English rock drummer best known for his work with Joe Cocker's Grease Band and Fairport Convention. In 1974 he helped Keith Richards and Jimmy Page record Scarlet that became a Rolling Stones release in 2020.
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 co-produced and played on Mick
Jagger's song Blue.
An engineer who worked with Chris Kimsey on the Rolling Stones' Tattoo You. He joined Mick Jagger and Chris Kimsey in recording handclaps for Start Me Up.
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 played 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 was a blues player who 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.
A choir from that joined the Rolling Stones
onstage in Tokyo, Japan, for You Can't Always Get What You Want on February 26 and March 4 and 6, 2014.
ROBBIE SHAKESPEARE
(1953-2021)
Also born in Jamaica, bassist Robbie is the
other half of the Sly & Robbie duo which was the premiere
rhythm section in reggae music, 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. In 2010 and 2011, he also engineered
the overdubs for the Exile
on Main Street and Some Girls
outtakes and in 2012 worked on the new songs for GRRR!. In
2015-16, he was chief engineer again for the Rolling Stones' Blue & Lonesome. He also co-engineered Live by the Sword
which
was released on Hackney
DIamonds.....
British singer-songwriter who rose to stardom in 2012. On June 27, 2015, he opened for the Rolling Stones at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and performed Beast of Burden with them onstage.
Born in New jersey, Shorter was 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.
Engineer, producer and mixer who's worked
since the late 1980s with diverse artists such as Aaron Neville,
Linda Ronstadt, the Kronos Quartet, Arcade Fire and Florence +
the Machine. In 2020, he mixed the seven previously unissued
outtakes for the deluxe edition re-release of Goats Head Soup.
THE
SINGAPORE YOUTH CHOIR (SYC) ENSEMBLE SINGERS
A choir first established in 1964 that joined the Rolling Stones
in Singapore to perform You
Can't Always Get What You Want on March 15, 2014.
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.
Born in Italy and based in Los Angeles, Sonzini is an engineer and mixer trained in classical music who first worked with prominent Italian artists such as Tiziano Ferro. He's also worked with pop or rock artists such as Keith Urban, Eddie Vedder, John Mayer and Janelle Monaé. In 2022-23, he was one of two chief engineers for the recording of the Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds album.
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.
New Jersey-born legendary
rock-god-in-his-own-right who launched his first album in 1973.
Having grown up on Rolling Stones records, and often performing
Stones covers like Street
Fighting Man in concert, he
duetted with Mick Jagger on Satisfaction
at the 1988 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Awards ceremony in New
York City. On December 15, 2012, he finally appeared with
the Rolling Stones onstage, during a telecast concert, fittingly
in Newark, New Jersey, performing Tumbling Dice.
He performed the same song again with them during their
performance in Lisbon, Portugal, on May 29, 2014, during the Rock in Rio Lisboa festival.
A long-time Stones road crew member who
played 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.
California-born singer-songwriter who rose
to fame as lead singer for the ska band No Doubt. She launched a
solo career in 2004. On May 3, 2013, she joined the Rolling
Stones ontage in Los Angeles at the Staples Center, duetting on Wild
Horses.
A session musician who, in the 1970s, under
the direction of Andrew Oldham, overdubbed piano on the Rolling
Stones' 1964 Don't Lie to
Me, for its release
on Metamorphosis.
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 2021, he
mixed the re-worked session outtakes for the Lost & Found:
Rarities disc on the Tattoo
You re-release.
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.
A choir that joined the Rolling Stones
onstage during You Can't
Always Get What You Want at
their concert in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 1, 2014.
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.
In 2009, she and Mick became co-bandmembers of the
new group SuperHeavy, whose first album was set to release
in 2011.
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. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards paid for his
funeral arrangements in December 2011.
One of the engineers who assisted the
recording of tracks for 1995's Stripped
in Amsterdam.
Pennsylvania-born country pop
singer-songwriter who established major success with her debut
album in 2006. On June 3, 2013, she joined the Rolling Stones
onstage in Chicago to sing As Tears Go By.
An Australian choir that joined the Rolling
Stones onstage during You
Can't Always Get What You Want
at their concerts in Sydney and Hunter Valley on November 12 and
15, 2014.
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 group the Heartbreakers, playing on all their albums since 1976. 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. Tench also appears
on the Rolling Stones' 2023 Hackney Diamonds album on the
songs Depending on You and Dreamy
Skies.
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...
Connecticut-born composer, producer and guitarist. Tiven is known for having produced albums by the likes of Wilson Pickett and Don Covay, and fronting bands including the Jon Tiven Group. In 1975 he overdubbed congas on Jiving Sister Fanny and I'm Going Down for release on the Metamorphosis album.
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.
A choir from Trinity Wall Street Church in
lower Manhattan, New York, that guested onstage with the Rolling
Stones for You Can't Always
Get What You Want during
their concerts in Brooklyn, NY and Newark, NJ on December
8, 13 and 15, 2012.
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 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.
UMKC
CHOIR
Members of the University of Missisouri choir joined the Rolling
Stones onstage to perform You
Can't Always Get What You Want at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on June 27,
2015.
UNIVERSITY
OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THORNTON CHAMBER CHOIR
A choir that performed You
Can't Always Get What You Want onstage with the Rolling Stones in Anaheim and
Los Angeles, California, on May 15, 18 and 20, 2013. The choir
joined the Rolling Stones again for Desert Trip in Indio, California, on October 7
& 14, 2016.
UNIVERSITY
OF TEXAS ARLINGTON A CAPPELLA CHOIR
A choir that performed You
Can't Always Get What You Want onstage with the Rolling Stones in Arlington,
Texas, on June 6, 2015.
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.
New Zealand-born Australian country music
singer who achieved international success starting in 1999. He
joined the Rolling Stones onstage in Los Angeles on May 3, 2013,
performing Respectable.with
them.
UWM
CONCERT CHORALE
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee choir that performed You Can't Always Get What You Want onstage with the Rolling Stones in Milwaukee on
June 23, 2015.
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.
The Choir of the Cuskelly College of Music
in Brisbane, Australia, that sang You Can't Always Get What You Want onstage with the Rolling Stones at the
Entertainment Centre on November 18, 2014.
The core group of the VocalEssence choir in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They sang You Can't Always Get What You Want onstage with the Rolling Stones in Minneapolis on June 3, 2015.
A Danish choir that joined the Rolling Stones onstage to sing You Can't Always Get What You Want at the Roskilde Festival in Roskilde, Denmark, on July 3, 2014.
A Ukrainian
girls choir from Kiev that were flown to Vienna, Austria, to
join the Rolling Stones onstage on July 15, 2022, during You Can't Always Get What You Want as a
show of support for Ukraine in the Russian conflict.
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).
In 2011-14, Wachtel recorded again with
Keith Richards for the solo album Crosseyed Heart.
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.
On May 5, 2013, Tom Waits joined the
Rolling Stones onstage in Oakland, California, to perform Little Red Rooster with them.
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' A Bigger Bang album and performed on one track. Since then,
he's also co-produced the bonus material discs on the reissues
of Exile on Main Street (2010) and Some
Girls (2011). On the latter, he
overdubbed bass on Don't Be
a Stranger and handclaps
on Tallahassee Lassie.
In 2016, Was co-produced the album Blue & Lonesome. He also assisted the Glimmer Twins in
producing the recording sessions between 2015 and 2019 leading
up to Hackney
Diamonds (which included the 2020
single Living in a Ghost
Town), before
being replaced with Andrew Watt in 2022 when the
sessions were resumed after the pandemic and the passing of
Charlie Watts. He is listed as producer for the song Live by the Sword.
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
WASHINGTON CHORUS
A choir that performed You
Can't Always Get What You Want onstage with the Rolling Stones in Washington,
D.C., on June 24, 2013.
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. The November
1981 jam at the Checkerboard Lounge was released on DVD-CD in
2012.
Born and raised in Long Island, New York,
Watt started out as a singer, songwriter and guitarist and was a
co-founder of the band California Breed in 2013. Starting in
2020, Watt became an extremely successful and much in demand
producer (and musical collaborator) on albums by artists such as
Justin Bieber, Ozzy Osbourne, Eddy Vedder, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran,
Elton John, Post Malone, Maroon 5 and Iggy Pop. The Rolling
Stones enlisted Watt to produce their 2023 Hackney Diamonds album, on which he also co-wrote songs and was
a contributing musician. He also produced the band's Hackney
Diamonds Live album.
The
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 2021) 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.
¸
Born in London, England, Welch is a songwriter and the lead singer of indie rock band Florence + the Machine, who launched their debut album in 2009. On November 29, 2012, Welch sang Gimmie Shelter onstage with the Rolling Stones at their concert at the O2 Arena in London. She guested onstage again with the Rolling Stones on May 25, 2018 at London Stadium, singing Wild Horses.
¸
Mixing engineer based in London, England, who's mixed several of the Rolling Stones' live archival releases in the 2010s and '20s.
¸
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.
¸
A 150+ year Viennese choir that joined the Rolling Stones onstage to perform You Can't Always Get What You Want at Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, Austria, on June 16, 2014.
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.
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 was associated on and off with the Stones from the beginning of their careers, and was 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. Fifty years later, in late 2022, he
joined the Rolling Stones in the studio, along with Lady Gaga,
to record the song Sweet Sounds
of Heaven for the album Hackney Diamonds.
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 2001
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.
YOUNG ADELAIDE VOICES & ADELAIDE CHAMBER SINGERS
Choirs that joined the Rolling Stones
onstage to sing You Can't
Always Get What You Want at
their concert at the Adelaide Oval (Australia) on October 25,
2014.
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.
A Zurich, Switzerland choir that sang You Can't
Always Get What You Want with
the Rolling Stones onstage at their concert at Letzigrund
Stadium on June 1, 2014.