The Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman finally revealed the truth about Brian Jones’ firing in a new interview, saying Keith Richards played a large role. Yoko Ono recently made a surprising Keith Richards claim.
Wyman told Yahoo, “It really had nothing to do with me, it was down to them. It was down to what was going on with Keith, Brian, and Andrew [Loog Oldham]. Clearly, [drummer] Charlie [Watts] and I were just the rhythm section; we were there to do our job and lay the foundation for everyone else, and that’s what we did. We did it very efficiently and conscientiously. We were always on time, we were always well-behaved, we were always straight, and so the basics went down.”
Jones was allowed to make his own statement to spin the news to the public, “I no longer see eye-to-eye with the others over the discs we are cutting. … I want to play my kind of music, which is no longer the Stones music. The music Mick and Keith have been writing has progressed at a tangent, as far as my own taste is concerned.”
Wyman discussed drugs and alcohol hurting his relationship with Jones, “On the road [in the Stones’ early days], I would share [hotel rooms] with Brian. So Brian and I always got along pretty well, and we used to go out clubbing when the others were staying in the hotel. We would go out clubbing and sometimes jam with local musicians and, you know, pick up girls. So yeah, we were pretty close. … [but] I was never aware of him ever taking heavy drugs. It was always painkillers with alcohol and sleepers. He used to take sleepers and then take alcohol and stay awake on it, so he would be stoned and all that kind of stuff. So, that was about ’67 when I kind of lost the closeness with him, I suppose.”
