MICK TAYLOR
5-1-2010
When the Rolling Stones needed to replace Brian Jones in 1969, Mick Jagger asked John Mayhall of the Bluesbreakers for advice. Mayhall immediately recommended Mick Taylor. He was then hired to play on the half-finished "Let it Bleed", putting his unmistakeable guitar stamp on "Honky-Tonk Woman", "Live With Me" and “Country Honk". His first full studio album with the Stones was 1971's "Sticky Fingers", although he did appear on 1970's live "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out". He played on 1972's "Exile on Main St.", and is credited with co-authoring "Ventilator Blues" with Jagger and Richards on that album. He was with the band through "Goat’s Head Soup" and "It's Only Rock and Roll" where he claims to have co-written "Till the Next Goodbye" and "Time Waits for No One" with Jagger and Richards, although no credit was given on the album sleeve. Before leaving the band, he recorded "Waiting on a Friend" which was never released until 1981's "Tattoo You". The success of the single helped propel that album to 9 weeks at number one. Taylor's encore track was the Stones' last major hit.
Throughout those years he had been doing side work with Herbie Mann and Jack Bruce separately. And finally he left the Stones in '74 to form a group with Jack Bruce. His reasons for leaving the Stones were unclear then and now. But his future looked bright. He was considered one of the best guitarists in the world. Mick Jagger, in a 1995 interview with Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone magazine, said "I think he had a big contribution. He made it very musical. He was a very fluent, melodic player... It was very good for me working with him ... Mick Taylor would play very fluid lines against my vocals. He was exciting, and he was very pretty, and it gave me something to follow, to bang off. Some people think that's the best version of the band that existed".
In 1989 he was inducted, along with the rest of the Stones, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Watch a video of Mick Taylor HERE
When the Rolling Stones needed to replace Brian Jones in 1969, Mick Jagger asked John Mayhall of the Bluesbreakers for advice. Mayhall immediately recommended Mick Taylor. He was then hired to play on the half-finished "Let it Bleed", putting his unmistakeable guitar stamp on "Honky-Tonk Woman", "Live With Me" and “Country Honk". His first full studio album with the Stones was 1971's "Sticky Fingers", although he did appear on 1970's live "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out". He played on 1972's "Exile on Main St.", and is credited with co-authoring "Ventilator Blues" with Jagger and Richards on that album. He was with the band through "Goat’s Head Soup" and "It's Only Rock and Roll" where he claims to have co-written "Till the Next Goodbye" and "Time Waits for No One" with Jagger and Richards, although no credit was given on the album sleeve. Before leaving the band, he recorded "Waiting on a Friend" which was never released until 1981's "Tattoo You". The success of the single helped propel that album to 9 weeks at number one. Taylor's encore track was the Stones' last major hit.
Throughout those years he had been doing side work with Herbie Mann and Jack Bruce separately. And finally he left the Stones in '74 to form a group with Jack Bruce. His reasons for leaving the Stones were unclear then and now. But his future looked bright. He was considered one of the best guitarists in the world. Mick Jagger, in a 1995 interview with Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone magazine, said "I think he had a big contribution. He made it very musical. He was a very fluent, melodic player... It was very good for me working with him ... Mick Taylor would play very fluid lines against my vocals. He was exciting, and he was very pretty, and it gave me something to follow, to bang off. Some people think that's the best version of the band that existed".
In 1989 he was inducted, along with the rest of the Stones, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Watch a video of Mick Taylor HERE