Ian Stewart

Rock and Roll was number two.

That's Ian Stewart, the co-founder of the Stones.

Played piano on it.

John Bottom thought up that wonderful, incredible open.

Uh, Andrew had the Immediate record label, which is one of the first independent record labels, uh, of, of that time.

And a- actually, it was Ian Stewart who was the catalyst.

It was Ian Stewart who, like, made the suggestion, I think, to Andrew that Andrew, that he should check me out, uh, 'cause I was the lead singer with the Ikettes at that time, because it was a new group, and I had kind of been u- you know, uh, made the lead singer.

And so Stu suggested that, uh, Andrew check me out for, for the label.

And so like, yeah, so they, they had a little plan, and Mick like, you know, was like, because Mick and I was really close, it went through Mick and, and so then Mick and Andrew invited me to stay.

[upbeat rock music] The thing that almost got Keith kicked out of The Rolling Stones is his absolute obsession with Chuck Berry.

Everybody were all blues purists, Jagger, Jones, Ian Stewart.

What are you playing that rock and roll crap for? And they realized that the kids wanted to hear this, so they were ...

And even today, Jagger will tell you in his 80s, "Yeah, we were a rock and roll band.

He, he's in another building.

Can I tell him who's calling?" And the guy said, "Oh, uh, my name is Ian Stewart." So I knew immediately he was the Stones' keyboard and road manager.

He had founded the Stones, in fact.

So I said, "Oh my God, uh, uh, Mr. Stewart of London, I'll tell him." So I tried to wake Rory.

I'll go and look for you," I said, "but it'll take about 10, 15 minutes." 'Cause I'd, I'd, I had recognized the accent kind of straight away.

And I said, "Who shall I say is calling?" And he said, "Oh, Ian Stewart." And I was about, and I said, "Oh, Ian Stewart of, uh, London?" And he said, "Yeah." And so anyway, I said, "Call back in 15 and I'll see if I can find him." Knocked on Rory's bedroom, Rory, woke Rory up, and I said, "Oh," I said, "Rory, The Stones want you.

That phone call was from The Stones." And, uh, there had been a lot of specula- speculation who it would be or not, and, uh, anyway, Rory thought it was a wind-up and thought, "No, I'm not gonna rise to the bait and go back to bed." [laughs]

But he went to meet them in Amsterdam, was it, and Mick Jagger collected him at the, uh, the airport and brought him to record with him.

Sure.

So Rolling Stones fans will probably recognize the name Ian Stewart.

for the very early Rolling Stones.

I mean, he was there at the very beginning of the band.

And he's the one who told Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, that's Johnny Johnson, that piano player with Chuck Berry you love so much, that's Johnny Johnson.

So then you fast forward to the mid-1980s, and for some reason...

Ian Stewart pulled Keith Richards aside and said, don't forget, Johnny Johnson's alive and still playing in St. Louis.

You need to go find it.

And I was like, I wonder if he's ever talked about five-piece bands.

Because I knew that he had played a role in Ian Stewart, who was the original piano player in the Rolling Stones.

The Rolling Stones used to be a six-piece band.

And then he encouraged them to demote Ian Stewart.

Right.

So they became a five-piece band.

And the rationale was always, Ian Stewart looks too normal.

So he can't be in the Rolling Stones.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts.

Additional contributions were made by longtime Stones collaborators, including saxophonist Bobby Keys and keyboardist Billy Preston, Jack Nietzsche, Ian Stewart, and Nicky Hopkins.

Now, I believe we featured almost every one of them in our little-known big contribution category.

As with all the other albums of the Rolling Stones in the late 60s and early 70s period, it was produced by Jimmy Miller.

Think about the organ and piano in Southern rock and blues rock.

The Allman Brothers had Greg Allman, playing this growling soulful hammond b3 organ that was central to their whole sound and later chuck lavelle joined on piano and gave them that beautiful rolling piano listen to the instrumental jessica that's piano driven joy the keys stepping right out front and leading the band The Rolling Stones had a not-so-secret weapon in Ian Stewart, a fantastic boogie-woogie piano player who played on their records for years.

Leon Russell, Nicky Hopkins, Elton John, in his rootsy moments, a whole generation of rock keyboard players were pouring barrel house, boogie, and gospel piano into rock music.

So the keys never left.