Remember When The Rolling Stones Fired the Band’s Founder in 1969?

Without Brian Jones, there likely would have been no Rolling Stones. His passion for what the band was trying to do in their early days helped them separate from countless other groups trying to make it in England at the time.

But the Stones couldn’t have sustained much longer with Jones at the time they made the decision to expel him from the group. In June 1969, three members of the band journeyed to Jones’ home. There, they gave him the bad news.

A Multi-Instrumental Marvel

In 1962, Brian Jones, having left his former group Alexis Corner’s Blues Incorporated, put out the feelers to start the group that would become The Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were among those who joined up initially. Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts followed not far behind.

The Stones took England by storm in 1963 and 1964, not long after The Beatles had carved out their path to massive popularity. During those early years, Jones often served as a rhythm guitarist behind Richards’ lead. But he lacked the songwriting prowess that Jagger and Richards soon displayed, putting him in more of a secondary role within the band.

Jones found a niche when the Stones started playing a more baroque style of music, which was the prevailing style of the mid-60s. His ability to play non-rock instruments, à la recorder (on “Ruby Tuesday”) or marimba (on “Under My Thumb”) gave the band something extra that most other groups didn’t possess.

A Sad Decline

Jones’ run of key contributions to The Rolling Stones’ records ended with Beggars Banquet in 1968. That’s when the band rededicated themselves to a bruising, blues-based form of rock and roll. Within that type of music, Jones’ exotic instrumentation wasn’t needed.

Even if the band hadn’t changed musical direction, it’s likely that Jones’ role within the band would have been mitigated. His use of drugs and alcohol had advanced to an unmanageable point. He either failed to show up for sessions or couldn’t contribute anything if he did.

The other band members grew increasingly weary of Jones’ unpredictable personality and general deterioration. With the band in the middle of making a new album and another tour looming as a possibility, the majority of the Stones decided to make a change. In June 1969, Jagger, Richards, and Watts drove to Jones’ house to inform him of his ouster.

Decision Day

In the book According To The Rolling Stones, Richards explained how it went down:

“We offered him the chance to stay, but it was an offer that we knew was going to be refused. He wasn’t going to come back; it was already a foregone conclusion. It was just a matter of how he took it.”

Jones didn’t rant and rage or argue about the decision. Instead, he informed his bandmates that he had many other musical irons in the fire on which he could now focus. The Stones soon found his replacement in virtuosic guitarist Mick Taylor.

Whether Jones might have made good on those grandiose plans will never be known. He was found dead in his swimming pool less than a month after the band that he founded fired him. Jones was just 27 years old at the time of his death.

(Photo by Ivan Keeman/Redferns)

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