98 Fun Facts About Rolling Stones

In which Kent town did Jagger and Richards grow up and reconnect at the station in 1961?

Dartford railway station, 17 October 1961: Jagger was carrying Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records, which told Richards they shared an obsession with American blues.

Which multi-instrumentalist founded the band in 1962 and named it off a Muddy Waters LP?

Brian Jones picked the name on the spot, Richards recalled: asked on the phone what the band was called, he glanced at a Muddy Waters LP on the floor and saw the track 'Rollin' Stone'.

At which London venue did 'the Rollin' Stones' play their first show on 12 July 1962?

The Marquee Club's regular Thursday band, Blues Incorporated, was away playing a BBC radio broadcast that night, so the newly named group stood in.

Which founding Stones keyboardist was pushed out by Andrew Loog Oldham but stayed as road manager until 1985?

Ian Stewart was dropped from the line-up in May 1963 because Oldham thought six members too many and his burly look wrong for the image, yet he played piano with the band until he died in 1985.

Why, by one famous account, did manager Andrew Loog Oldham lock Jagger and Richards in a kitchen?

To make them write songs: in Richards' telling he would not let them out without one, and the result became 'As Tears Go By', first recorded by Marianne Faithfull.

Keith Richards says the riff for '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' came to him while he was doing what?

Sleeping: he woke to find the riff on his bedside cassette recorder, followed, he says, by about forty minutes of his own snoring.

'Paint It Black' (1966) was the first chart-topping single to feature which instrument?

Sitar gives the single its drone: the band's founder took the instrument up in earnest after talking to George Harrison, who had just played one on 'Norwegian Wood'.

Which word did Ed Sullivan make the Stones sing in place of 'night' in 'Let's Spend the Night Together'?

Sullivan made them sing 'Let's Spend Some Time Together' on 15 January 1967; Jagger rolled his eyes at the camera each time he reached the word time.

For what was Mick Jagger sentenced to three months in prison after the 1967 Redlands raid?

Possessing four amphetamine tablets earned Jagger three months in 1967; after a Times editorial asked 'Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?', the appeal court cut the sentence to a conditional discharge.

The title of Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967) is a play on words found where?

Inside a British passport the text began 'Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State requests and requires...', which the title twists; the band built the set for its 3D cover themselves.

'Jumpin' Jack Flash' was inspired by the clumping footsteps of whom outside Richards' country house?

His gardener, Jack Dyer, stomped past the window at Redlands one rainy dawn and woke Jagger; asked what the noise was, Richards said 'that's Jack, that's jumpin' Jack'.

Which Russian novel did Mick Jagger cite as an inspiration for 'Sympathy for the Devil'?

The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov's novel, reached English readers in 1967 and gave Jagger the devil-as-narrator idea; Richards suggested turning the Dylanesque folk draft into a samba.

Which French director filmed the Stones recording 'Sympathy for the Devil' for his film One Plus One?

Jean-Luc Godard filmed the June 1968 sessions at Olympic Studios for One Plus One; one of his crew's lamps started a fire that wrecked equipment, though the tapes were saved.

Why was the release of the Stones' Beggars Banquet delayed for months in 1968?

Decca rejected its toilet-wall cover, a photo of a graffiti-covered bathroom, so the album came out months late in a different sleeve; later reissues restored the original.

Which one-off supergroup with Lennon, Clapton and Keith Richards on bass played the 1968 Rock and Roll Circus?

The Dirty Mac played 'Yer Blues' with Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience on drums; the Stones, unhappy with their own tired performance, kept the film unseen until 1996.

How did the Rolling Stones' founder die in July 1969, weeks after leaving?

He drowned in his swimming pool at Cotchford Farm, once the home of Winnie-the-Pooh author A. A. Milne; two days later Jagger read Shelley in his memory at a free Hyde Park concert.

Which guitarist, poached from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, joined in 1969 to fill the founder's spot?

Mick Taylor was 20 when he made his stage debut with the band at a free Hyde Park concert before some quarter of a million people; he quit in December 1974.

'Honky Tonk Women' was written on a ranch holiday in which country, inspired by the cowboys there?

Brazil: Jagger and Richards wrote it on the ranch-house porch as a country song in the style of Hank Williams, and that country version, 'Country Honk', is on Let It Bleed.

Which then-unknown cookery writer baked the cake on the cover of Let It Bleed?

Delia Smith, then an unknown cookery writer, was asked for 'a gaudy cake'; hers, topped with figurines of the band, crowns the stack on designer Robert Brownjohn's cover.

Which American singer shares the vocal with Jagger on 1969's 'Gimme Shelter'?

Merry Clayton was called in late one night in 1969 to trade lines with Jagger on 'Gimme Shelter'; her voice famously cracks during the final 'rape, murder' refrain.

At which December 1969 free concert did a Hells Angel fatally stab Meredith Hunter?

Altamont Speedway, 6 December 1969: Hells Angels were working as security, reportedly for $500 worth of beer, when one of them stabbed Meredith Hunter during the Stones' set.

The Stones' tongue-and-lips logo was inspired by the stuck-out tongue of which deity?

Kali: Jagger suggested the Hindu goddess's stuck-out tongue to designer John Pasche, whose logo went on sale with Sticky Fingers in 1971 and became the band's emblem.

Which pop artist conceived the Sticky Fingers cover, with its working zip that revealed underwear?

Andy Warhol conceived the 1971 sleeve, executed by Craig Braun; the working zip reportedly dented records stacked in transit, so copies were shipped with it pulled halfway down.

'Wild Horses' and 'You Gotta Move' were recorded in December 1969 at which Alabama facility?

Muscle Shoals Sound, the Sheffield, Alabama studio founded by four session players, hosted three days of sessions from 2 December 1969 that also produced a future number one single.

The Stones recorded their 1972 double album at a villa in the south of France because they had become what?

Tax exiles: owing far more British tax than they could pay, the band left England in 1971, and the basement of Richards' rented villa, Nellcôte, became the studio for Exile on Main St.

According to Keith Richards' memoir, who is the song 'Angie' about?

No one in particular, Richards wrote in his 2010 memoir: 'Angie' was a random name sung before he knew his unborn child would be a girl called Angela; the single topped the US chart in October 1973.

Ronnie Wood joined the Stones in 1975 from which band, alongside Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones?

Faces formed in 1969 when Wood and Rod Stewart, fresh from the Jeff Beck Group, joined the remaining Small Faces; Wood left for the Stones in 1975 and Faces split that December.

Which Some Girls single, with a 'Special Disco Version' 12-inch, reached number one in the US in 1978?

Miss You topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978; its harmonica is by Sugar Blue, a Harlem bluesman said to have been discovered busking in Paris.

Tattoo You (1981) is mostly made up of what?

Studio outtakes from the 1970s make up most of the album: with Jagger and Richards barely speaking, associate producer Chris Kimsey raided the vaults for unfinished tracks dating back to 1972 and the band added new vocals.

Which bassist played with the Stones from 1962 until his departure was announced in January 1993?

Bill Wyman, born William Perks, passed his 1962 audition partly because he owned a Vox amplifier the hard-up band could use; he stayed for thirty years.

Which former Miles Davis and Sting bassist did Charlie Watts pick for the Voodoo Lounge sessions?

Darryl Jones, chosen by Watts in late 1993, debuted on Voodoo Lounge in 1994 and anchored the band's tours for the next three decades as a hired sideman rather than an official member.

Charlie Watts originally trained in which profession before turning to music?

Graphic design: Watts studied at Harrow Art School and worked in advertising before joining in January 1963, then put the training to use designing the band's record sleeves and tour stages.

Who took over on drums after Charlie Watts's death in August 2021?

Steve Jordan, Richards' X-Pensive Winos drummer, had been announced as stand-in for the 2021 No Filter tour when Watts stepped aside for treatment; Watts died aged 80 on 24 August 2021 and Jordan stayed on.

Which 2023 album was the Stones' first of new original material in 18 years?

Hackney Diamonds, named after London slang for the broken glass left by a break-in, includes the last recordings of Charlie Watts, who drums on two tracks.

Who plays bass on 'Bite My Head Off' from the Stones' 2023 album?

Paul McCartney plays fuzz bass on 'Bite My Head Off' after recommending producer Andrew Watt to Ronnie Wood; Elton John, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder also guest on the 2023 album.

Which university did Mick Jagger attend before dropping out for the band?

The London School of Economics took Jagger in 1961 to study finance and accounting; he went to classes in the week and played gigs at weekends before dropping out, a choice he later called 'totally stupid'.

Keith Richards played Captain Teague, father of which film character whose look was based on Richards?

Jack Sparrow's slurring swagger was modelled by Johnny Depp on Richards, who then played Sparrow's father Captain Teague in At World's End (2007) and On Stranger Tides (2011).

In 2006 Keith Richards suffered a head injury after falling from what in Fiji?

A dead tree, by Richards' account a low branch he had been sitting on, not the coconut palm the press reported; he needed brain surgery and was back on tour that July.

What is the title of Keith Richards' 2010 autobiography?

Life earned Richards a reported $7.3 million advance on the strength of a ten-page sample; journalist James Fox then spent five years interviewing him and his circle to write it.

Which Stones song was dropped from the setlist of their 2021 US tour amid debate over its lyrics?

Brown Sugar, a 1971 US number one whose lyrics touch on slavery and sex, was left off the setlists of the 2021 US tour after half a century as a concert staple.

Who inducted the Rolling Stones into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989?

Pete Townshend of The Who inducted them in early 1989, with Jagger and Richards sharing the stage just as they ended a long feud and began a comeback album.

Which 1970 live album was recorded at Madison Square Garden in November 1969?

Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! captured the 27 and 28 November 1969 Madison Square Garden shows and took its title from a Blind Boy Fuller song; it topped the UK chart in September 1970.

Which band's 1997 hit 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' had its royalties signed over to Jagger and Richards?

The Verve built 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' on a sample from an orchestral version of the Stones' 'The Last Time'; after a lawsuit they lost the credit and royalties, which Jagger and Richards handed back to Richard Ashcroft in 2019.

Which Chuck Berry cover was the Rolling Stones' first single, released on 7 June 1963?

Come On, a Chuck Berry song from 1961, was cut at Olympic Studios in May 1963 and reached number 21 in the UK; the band disliked it and refused to play it live.

The Stones' second single was a song written by which pair, reaching No. 12 in the UK?

Lennon and McCartney finished 'I Wanna Be Your Man' in front of the Stones in 1963; the single peaked at number 12, and the Beatles' own version, sung by Ringo, appeared on With the Beatles.

Which 1966 album was the first LP made up entirely of Jagger/Richards compositions?

Aftermath was the first Stones album written entirely by Jagger and Richards; their manager wanted to call it Could You Walk on the Water?, but the label balked at offending Christians.

Which 1989 album and tour marked the Stones' return after a seven-year touring break?

Steel Wheels, released in August 1989, ended a public feud between Jagger and Richards; its North American tour that autumn was the band's first anywhere since 1982.

Seven fossil stoneflies named after band members in 2018 were preserved in amber from which country?

Myanmar's Cretaceous amber held the insects; the scientists, punning on 'rolling' stoneflies, named a species each for Jagger, Richards and five bandmates past and present, among them Petroperla mickjaggeri.

Cotchford Farm in East Sussex, where the Rolling Stones' founder died, was once home to which children's author?

A. A. Milne wrote all of his Winnie-the-Pooh books at the farmhouse, drawing on the countryside around it. Statues of Christopher Robin and Owl stand in the garden.

After Keith Richards's 1977 heroin arrest in Toronto, a court ordered him to play a benefit concert for whom?

Blind people gained a gig because a blind fan testified on his behalf. Richards got a suspended sentence and a year's probation instead of the long prison term the charge could have carried.

Microsoft paid about $3 million to use the Rolling Stones' 'Start Me Up' to launch which operating system?

Windows 95 put a Start button on the desktop for the first time, which made the 1981 hit the obvious soundtrack for its advertising.

Which London museum bought the original artwork for the Rolling Stones' tongue-and-lips logo in 2008?

The V&A now holds the drawing by John Pasche, who was paid just £50 for the logo in 1970 while still a student at the Royal College of Art.

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts collected which kind of vehicle despite never holding a licence to operate one?

Cars were beautiful objects to Watts, to be admired rather than driven. All the Stones collected them, but he never had a driving licence.

As a schoolboy soprano, Keith Richards sang in a trio at Westminster Abbey for which member of the royal family?

Queen Elizabeth II heard the future guitar outlaw as one of three boy sopranos recruited by his school's choirmaster, Jake Clare.

Which American restaurant chain, founded in Tennessee in 1972, is named after a Rolling Stones song?

Ruby Tuesday got its name when one of founder Sandy Beall's fraternity brothers, a co-investor in the first restaurant, suggested the song title.

Mick Jagger sings backing vocals on which 1972 Carly Simon hit, whose mystery subject listeners still argue about?

You're So Vain made a suspect of Jagger himself: he was reported to be a contender for the anonymous man it skewers, even as he sang on the record.

Which future Oscar winner plays a stripper who wanders New York City in a 1997 Rolling Stones music video?

Angelina Jolie walks out mid-performance in the video for Anybody Seen My Baby?, whose chorus so resembled Constant Craving that its writers were given a credit.

Which Deep Purple song recounts a 1971 trip to Montreux to record with the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio?

Smoke on the Water tells how a fire at a Frank Zappa concert destroyed the casino where Deep Purple meant to record, leaving them with the Stones' truck and nowhere to use it.

Mick Jagger topped the UK chart in 1985 with a cover of 'Dancing in the Street' recorded with which singer?

David Bowie played Live Aid at Wembley that summer while Jagger appeared in Philadelphia, where he tore away Tina Turner's skirt mid-song. The duet also reached number one in Australia.

In which Caribbean capital did the Rolling Stones play a free open-air concert for half a million fans in 2016?

Havana hosted the free show as a bonus date tacked onto the end of a tour. The night was commemorated in the concert film Havana Moon.

Which American band topped charts in 2011 with a song named after the dance moves of the Rolling Stones' singer?

Maroon 5 recorded Moves like Jagger with Christina Aguilera, and the man himself appears in its video through old footage of his dancing.

Which Euphoria actress rides along the Sunset Strip in a red convertible in the Rolling Stones' 2023 video 'Angry'?

Sydney Sweeney dances in the back seat while the band sing to her from the billboards the car passes. She answered critics of the video by calling it empowering.

Which pop star duets with Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones' 2023 gospel-tinged single 'Sweet Sounds of Heaven'?

Lady Gaga shares the vocal while Stevie Wonder plays piano and keyboards. Producer Andrew Watt suggested inviting Wonder, an idea Jagger immediately supported.

Which famous British music festival did the Rolling Stones play for the very first time in 2013?

Glastonbury finally landed the band as its Saturday headliners, and their set drew a peak BBC Two audience of 2.6 million.

Which director filmed the Rolling Stones at New York's Beacon Theatre in 2006 for the concert film Shine a Light?

Martin Scorsese filmed two nights but used performance footage only from the second. It was also the first film on which he used digital cinematography.

Whose poem Adonais did Mick Jagger read from at Hyde Park in 1969 as a tribute to the Stones' late founder?

Shelley wrote Adonais as an elegy for his friend and fellow poet, which made it a fitting farewell. The free concert took place just two days after the band's founder died.

Mick Jagger founded Jagged Internetworks in the 1990s so that fans could follow live coverage of which sport?

Cricket is an avid passion of Jagger's, and his company began by covering the 1997–98 Singer Akai Champions Trophy.

Bianca Pérez-Mora Macias, who married Mick Jagger in 1971, was born in which Latin American country?

Nicaragua was her birthplace; the couple met in 1970 and married the following May in a Catholic ceremony in Saint-Tropez, France.

Which ballad, among the first songs Jagger and Richards wrote, was a 1964 hit for Marianne Faithfull?

As Tears Go By was written for Faithfull, whose version peaked at number nine in the UK. The Stones released their own recording the following year.

In the 1964 concert film T.A.M.I. Show, the Rolling Stones had to follow a show-stopping set by which soul star?

James Brown and the Famous Flames were so electrifying that Keith Richards has called following them the worst mistake of the Stones' careers.

Before joining the Rolling Stones, Ronnie Wood played bass alongside Rod Stewart in which guitarist's late-1960s group?

Jeff Beck took Wood on in 1967 as a rhythm guitarist and moved him to bass later that year. Wood played on the albums Truth and Beck-Ola.

The Rolling Stones' drummer published Ode to a High Flying Bird in 1964 as a cartoon tribute to which jazz saxophonist?

Charlie Parker, known as Bird, was a boyhood hero whose 78s Watts owned. In 1991 Watts formed a jazz quintet as another tribute to him.

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts owned a stud farm in North Devon devoted to which breed of horse?

Arabian horses were bred on his estate at Halsdon House, near the rural Devon village of Dolton, where he lived.

The Rolling Stones began recording their 1973 album Goats Head Soup in the capital of which Caribbean island nation?

Jamaica hosted the sessions in Kingston from November 1972, and the finished album reached number one in both the UK and the US.

On which Rio de Janeiro beach did the Rolling Stones play an enormous free concert in February 2006?

Copacabana drew a crowd of more than one million, making the free show one of the largest rock concerts of all time.

Who urged Decca's Dick Rowe, the man who had turned down the Beatles, to sign the unknown Rolling Stones?

George Harrison's recommendation gave Rowe a second chance, little more than a year after he had auditioned the Beatles in London and passed.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards sang in the studio chorus of which Beatles song during the 1967 Our World broadcast?

All You Need Is Love went out live by satellite with a studio full of famous friends singing along, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Moon and Graham Nash among them.

Which classical ensemble sings the opening of the Rolling Stones' 'You Can't Always Get What You Want'?

London Bach Choir singers were reportedly horrified by the album's other songs and asked for their name to be taken off the credits, a request they later withdrew.

In 1963 the Rolling Stones recorded a TV jingle, performed incognito, for which Kellogg's breakfast cereal?

Rice Krispies got a 30-second jingle co-written with the J. Walter Thompson agency. It was credited to one member alone, which did not sit well with the rest of the band.

Which English seaside resort banned the Rolling Stones for decades after a riot at a 1964 show?

Blackpool barred the band after trouble at its Empress Ballroom and only lifted the ban in 2008, 44 years later.

Which newspaper ran a 1967 editorial, titled with a line of Alexander Pope, attacking Mick Jagger's jail sentence?

The Times was edited by the traditionally conservative William Rees-Mogg, who borrowed Pope's question about breaking a butterfly on a wheel for his headline.

Which Czechoslovak president, a lifelong Rolling Stones fan, helped bring the band to Prague in August 1990?

Václav Havel met the band at Prague Castle before the show and helped to cover its costs, along with the Czechoslovak Ministry of Industry.

Which Delta blues legend wrote 'Love in Vain', which the Rolling Stones reworked with a slide guitar solo in 1969?

Robert Johnson went unnamed in the original album notes, which credit the song to Woody Payne, one of his pseudonyms.

Which soul singer co-wrote 'It's All Over Now', the Valentinos song that became the Rolling Stones' first UK number one?

Bobby Womack wrote it with his sister-in-law Shirley and sang it with the Valentinos, only for the Stones to hear it and quickly record a cover that hit the top in July 1964.

Which Willie Dixon song, covered by the Rolling Stones in 1964, became the first blues to top the UK chart?

Little Red Rooster reached number one in December 1964 and no blues song has topped the British chart since. Howlin' Wolf had recorded the original in Chicago three years earlier.

The Rolling Stones instrumental '2120 South Michigan Avenue' is named after the Chicago address of which blues label?

Chess Records had its offices and studios there, and the band spent two days recording at them in June 1964, meeting heroes including Muddy Waters.

Which jazz saxophone giant plays the solo on the Rolling Stones' 1981 single 'Waiting on a Friend'?

Sonny Rollins was hired despite Charlie Watts's doubt that he would ever play on a Stones record, and he asked Mick Jagger to dance the part out for him in the studio.

ABC briefly switched off Mick Jagger's microphone to censor lyrics while the Rolling Stones played which 2006 event?

The Super Bowl halftime show in Detroit went out on a five-second delay, and the band had agreed in advance to the cuts in its first two songs.

John Paul Jones, who arranged the strings on the Rolling Stones' 'She's a Rainbow', later played bass in which band?

Led Zeppelin lay in the future: Jones arranged the strings during his days as a session musician, while Nicky Hopkins supplied the vibrant piano.

Keith Richards meant the fuzz-guitar riff of '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' as a rough sketch for which instruments?

Horns were what the fuzz tone stood in for, and Otis Redding's soul cover later put them on the riff just as Richards had originally intended.

Which country-rock band, led by Gram Parsons, released 'Wild Horses' almost a year before the Rolling Stones did?

The Flying Burrito Brothers put it on their 1970 album Burrito Deluxe after Parsons heard a demo and asked whether his band could cover it.

Under which nickname have Mick Jagger and Keith Richards been credited as producers of Rolling Stones albums?

The Glimmer Twins took over production for It's Only Rock 'n Roll after Jimmy Miller, whose contribution had dropped, was not invited back.

Which pseudonym did the Rolling Stones use between 1963 and 1965 for songs composed by the whole group?

Nanker Phelge joined the band's word for a revolting pulled face to the surname of Jimmy Phelge, a flatmate from their Edith Grove days.

Which American manager, who later handled the Beatles, ended up owning the Rolling Stones' 1960s Decca recordings?

Allen Klein's ABKCO label ended up with the Decca catalogue, and contractual disputes with him pushed the band to form its own company, Rolling Stones Records.

Which former Allman Brothers Band keyboardist became the Rolling Stones' touring pianist and musical director from 1982?

Chuck Leavell landed the keyboard seat for that year's European tour and stayed on; away from music he is a tree farmer and conservationist.

What did Keith Richards call the backing band he formed in 1987 while Mick Jagger pursued a solo career?

The X-Pensive Winos backed him on Talk Is Cheap, his 1988 solo debut, with Waddy Wachtel on guitar and Ivan Neville on keyboards.

Which Texan saxophonist, born on the very same day as Keith Richards, played with the Rolling Stones for decades?

Bobby Keys made his debut with the band in 1969 and said that as a teenager he had befriended Buddy Holly, briefly playing with him.

In which Eastern Bloc capital did the Rolling Stones play two shows at the Palace of Culture and Science in 1967?

Warsaw made the Stones one of the first Western rock bands to play in Eastern Europe, and a riot started despite warnings to the audience to behave.