Unsurprisingly, considering the extraordinary lives they’ve lived, the truth can often be stranger than fiction when it comes to The Rolling Stones.
Here are 15 surprising facts about the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world.
15 surprising Rolling Stones facts
1. Mick Jagger was a teenage TV star
The Stones singer was a TV veteran long before he was strutting his stuff on Top Of The Pops. In 1959, the 15-year-old Jagger appeared on a TV programme called Seeing Sport. The show featured Jagger and his father, a PE teacher, demonstrating the correct footwear and giving advice for rock climbing at High Rocks, Tunbridge Wells.
Though the young Jagger mostly keeps quiet throughout, his voice is unmistakable when he shouts "I’m coming up!" to warn the climber in front of him of his progress. "My father Joe worked as a sports instructor at St Mary’s College in Twickenham," Jagger told The Guardian in 2004.
"Sport was his whole life. He passed on that love to me; I couldn’t help but be a sports fan. He was pretty much my personal trainer when I was a boy."
2. Keith Richards was an angelic choir singer
To many, Stones guitarist Keith Richards is the ultimate rock’n’roll outlaw; a half-pirate, half-crow rogue who somehow survived decades of excess and is still alive to tell the tale. Today his voice is a slurred, rasping mid-Atlantic drawl, but as a youth, he had the voice of an angel.
Richards sang in the choir at his school, Dartford Technical Boys, Kent, and was such a talent that he was chosen to perform for the Queen at a concert held in St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey, in 1955. While that doesn’t sound very rock’n’roll, Richards would later claim it was a small act of rebellion.
"It was just a way to get out of chemistry and physics," Richards insisted in an interview with NPR’s Fresh Air in 2010 – we believe you, Keith, honestly.
3. Charlie Watts wrote and drew a children's book before the Stones
Our pick for the coolest Rolling Stone, drummer Charlie Watts was a perennially dapper jazz fanatic who studied graphic design at Harrow School of Art before starting the band. On leaving university, Watts became a graphic designer, working at the London-based Charlie Daniels Studios and playing in various jazz and R&B bands in his spare time.
Watts also found time to write and draw the kids’ book Ode To A Highflying Bird, a tribute to one of Watts’ musical heroes, saxophonist Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker, who was depicted as a hip, sunglasses-wearing bird. The book was released in 1965 and Watts went on to write and draw cartoons for Stones tour programmes and album sleeves. See – the coolest Stone.
4. They trolled the nation's hairdressers
The band’s rapid rise to fame was accompanied by a widespread moral panic over their appearance, with their long hair in particular causing outrage.
In Christmas 1963, the band responded in typically tongue-in-cheek fashion by placing an ad in the New Musical Express which simply featured the (mostly) smiling faces of the five Stones and the message ‘HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO THE STARVING HAIRDRESSERS AND THEIR FAMILIES’.
5. They recorded a jingle for a Rice Krispies TV ad
Thanks to manager Andrew Loog Oldham’s instinct for controversy, in 1964 the Stones were regarded as the bad boys of British rock’n’roll. But their reputation didn’t prevent them from providing the soundtrack to that most wholesome of things – an advert for breakfast cereal.
The ad for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies was commissioned by the J Walter Thomson advertising agency and, according to the agency’s own paperwork, featured music written by Brian Jones of the band with words supplied by the agency.
Even if he didn’t write them, it’s fun to hear Mick Jagger singing lyrics such as "Pour on the milk and listen to the crackle of that rice" set to a jaunty blues rock number.
6. Keith Richards never passed his UK driving test
According to legend, Keith Richards never actually passed his driving test in the UK – having failed three times, he simply got his right-hand man ‘Spanish’ Tony Sanchez to take the test on his behalf so he could get his licence.
In his autobiography, Life, Richards claimed "I’m a good driver", but that hasn’t stopped him racking up a litany of driving offences, including crashing his Bentley while falling asleep at the wheel in possession of LSD and being charged for reckless driving in Fordyce, Arkansas, during the band’s 1975 tour.
7. The Beatles wanted Mick Jagger to star in A Clockwork Orange
Now viddy this, me little droogies – there was a point, in 1967, when Mick Jagger was rumoured to be in the running to play the protagonist, Alex, in the big screen adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange. The Stones had long been linked with Burgess’ book, which followed a wild teenage gang obsessed with violence, fashion, sex, drugs and music in a dystopian near-future and raised questions on crime, punishment, morality and redemption.
Andrew Loog Oldham had alluded to the possibility of the Stones playing Alex and his gang and even wrote the sleevenotes to their 1965 US album The Rolling Stones Now! as a thinly-veiled homage to the book. In 1967, a letter signed by cultural figures including The Beatles, Marianne Faithfull and Peter Blake was sent to screenwriter Terry Southern – who was working on the adaptation of the controversial novel with Michael Cooper – when word got out that actor David Hemmings was set to star in the movie.
The letter read, "We, the undersigned, do hereby protest with extreme vehemence as well as shattered illusions (in you) the preference of David Hemmings above Mick Jagger in the role of Alex in The Clockwork Orange [sic]."
It has been claimed that Jagger bought the rights to the novel for £500, but there’s no evidence that was the case – however, Si Litvinoff, who did own the rights, attempted to persuade director John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) to take the film on by telling him that Jagger would star and The Beatles would provide the music.
Still, the Stones didn’t get involved, and eventually the movie was made by Stanley Kubrick and featured an unforgettable performance by Malcolm McDowell in the starring role.
8. An album launch party turned into a food fight
In December 1968, the Stones released their seventh studio album – and finest LP yet: Beggars Banquet. In keeping with the title, a launch party was arranged at the lah-di-dah Gore Hotel in Kensington, London. The band was dressed up to the nines for the seven-course meal served by candlelight to a room of record label executives and media figures.
Predictably, things went awry, and during dessert, Mick Jagger launched a custard pie into Brian Jones’ face, kicking off a full-blown food fight that no doubt left many of their distinguished guests facing hefty dry cleaning bills.
Here is the mayhem kicking off:
9. Keith Richards became a babysitter for a week
During the Stones' 1973 tour of Australia, the band set up camp in Melbourne for a week and Keith Richards got more than he bargained for from a fling. The object of his fleeting affections was a single mum and Richards quickly moved in to her home. "Living in the suburbs of Melbourne for a week with a mother and child was kind of weird," he wrote in Life.
"Within four or five days, I was like a right Australian old man. Sheila, where’s my f****** breakfast?… It was like I’d been there forever. And it felt great… I was a husband for a week. Changed the baby’s diapers. There’s somebody in a suburb in Melbourne who doesn’t even know I wiped his a**."
10. They partied with Princess Leia and Han Solo
If you’ve ever noticed that the stars of the blockbusting 1980 Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back look a little worse for wear in one particular scene, well – you guessed it – that was thanks to the Stones. While she was shooting the movie, Carrie Fisher was renting Monty Python star Eric Idle’s place while he was shooting The Life Of Brian in Tunisia.
One evening, Idle returned, with a drink that had become popular among extras on the Python set, which Fisher named ‘Tunisian Toilet Cleaner’. A spontaneous party got underway and, as if summoned by the promise of debauchery, the Stones materialised.
Fisher called her co-star Harrison Ford, and the party continued until the early hours. With Fisher and Ford due on set the following morning, they made the decision not to sleep. So the following morning, they were filming their scenes while still half-cut. "We don’t smile a lot in the movie," Fisher later said. "But there, we’re smiling."
11. They helped unleash Tequila Sunrise on the world
Writer Jeff Burkhart explained how in 1972, the band was introduced to the then virtually unknown cocktail during a private party at the Trident restaurant in Sausalito, California.
After this introduction, the band began to order the drink at bars all across America during a string of shows that was unofficially known to the band as the Cocaine and Tequila Sunrise Tour, as detailed in Keith Richards’ book, Life.
12. Keith Richards refused to perform until he'd had a shepherd's pie
The Stones guitarist has played countless shows having imbibed vast quantities of substances that would render us mere mortals incapacitated, but in the late ’80s, Richards developed an addiction to shepherd’s pie that was so serious, a stadium show had to be delayed until he’d got his fix.
The Stones’ Steel Wheels tour of 1989 was one of the biggest stadium tours to date – a 12-month, planet-spanning jaunt that stood to make the band and promoters millions. It’s unsurprising, then, that the Stones’ every whim was indulged.
In Richards’ case, this meant that a full-scale English pub was recreated at each show for the guitarist to enjoy pre-gig, complete with jukebox and pub grub. But one item on the menu was a non-negotiable – the humble shepherd’s pie. Tucking into a freshly baked pie became a pre-show ritual for Richards, but one night in Toronto, disaster struck as Richards arrived to find that somebody had already taken a piece of his pie.
Richards was apoplectic and refused to go on stage until a new pie had been made. During this crisis, Jagger was apparently worried the entire show would have to be cancelled – let’s not forget, a stadium full of fans was waiting. Happily, catering saved the day and Richards’ hunger was sated.
"It’s now famous, my rule on the road," Richards wrote in his autobiography, Life. "Nobody touches the shepherd’s pie till I’ve been in there. Don’t bust my crust, baby." Richards was 45 years old at the time of the incident.
13. Donald Trump's run-in with the Stones
The first leg of the Steel Wheels tour wrapped up with three nights at the Convention Center in Atlantic City, with the penultimate night to be broadcast on pay-per-view TV. The show was a huge success, with cameos from John Lee Hooker, Guns N’Roses stars Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin, and Eric Clapton, but the future president of the United States nearly threw a spanner in the works.
Adjacent to the venue was Trump Plaza, a casino and hotel owned by Donald Trump. Even at this point, Richards had it in for Trump and the Stones’ manager, Michael Cohn, had been told that the perma-tanned tycoon and pie-loving guitarist should not cross paths. Trump was also told that he was not to associate himself with the Stones’ shows in any way and was even banned from the concert.
Not that this stopped him – when the Stones arrived for a press conference at the center, they found Trump was already in the room, courting the media. "They call me back, at which point Keith pulls out his knife and slams it on the table and says, ‘What the hell do I have you for?’" Cohn remembered.
"'One of us is leaving the building – either him, or us.' I said, 'No. I’ll go do it. Don’t you worry.’" Richards’ feelings on Trump didn’t mellow with time; in 2015 he said, "Can you imagine President Trump? The worst nightmare."
14. Bill Wyman released a signature metal detector
After leaving the Stones in 1993, bassist Bill Wyman had ample time to pursue his interests, among them cricket, history (all the better to unpick his tangled family tree) and metal detecting. In 2005, Wyman co-authored the book Treasure Islands, detailing his love of detecting and, in 2007, he took it to the next level when he designed and started selling his own detectors.
"Metal detecting is not just for anoraks or eccentrics," Wyman wrote on his website, apropos of nothing, "It’s probably the most enjoyable way of learning about our history." The site goes on to tell us that Wyman’s detector has "won praise from the likes of Richard & Judy" – make of that what you will.
15. Mick Jagger has some unique backstage demands
In 2016, the Stones headlined Desert Trip, a six-day offshoot of Coachella, held in California. Thanks to the vintage of the acts – they were joined by Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Roger Waters and The Who – the festival was dubbed ‘Oldchella’ by the press. Still, Jagger’s onstage antics and lithe physique would’ve been impressive if he were half his age.
The shows gave an insight into how Jagger stays in such remarkable shape. An article in the New Yorker revealed that not only did each artist get their own friends-and-family backstage area for the entire two weeks of the festival, but the Stones’ compound included a 40-yard-long, air-conditioned running track for Jagger to warm up on.
And one more for luck...
Charlie Watts has a staggering book collection
As we’ve already established, Charlie Watts was the coolest Stone – a fact further underlined when some of his exquisite collection of rare books and jazz memorabilia was auctioned in 2023.
Among Watts’ book collection was a first edition of F Scott Fitzgerald’s pivotal American novel, The Great Gatsby, inscribed by the author to ‘the original Gatsby’, screenwriter Harold Goldman; Dylan Thomas’ own copy of his first collection, 18 Poems; and a signed, first edition copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses, one of just 100 copies.
Among Watts’ jazz collection was an instrument case used by Charlie Parker, a conductor’s baton owned by Duke Ellington and a drawing by Miles Davis. See, Charlie was the coolest Stone.
All photos Getty Images
Top image The Rolling Stones posed for a band portrait, 1963
