The legendary bassist of the Rolling Stones, Bill Wyman, has spoken about his life after leaving the band and what he is currently doing.
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Wyman was officially a member of the Stones between 1962 and 1993, But now, with his former bandmates preparing to go on tour this week, the 87-year-old has spoken to the Mirror about his surprising decision to leave the band.
Currently, Bill shares his life with his wife of 31 years, former model Suzanne. The couple has three daughters (Jessica, Matilda and Katharine) and houses in Chelsea, 15th century Gedding Hall in Suffolk and one in the south of France.
“I left in 1991 but they didn’t believe me. They refused to accept that I was gone. It wasn’t until 1993, when they were starting to get together to tour in 1994, that they said, ‘You’re actually gone, right?’ And I said, ‘I left two years ago.’ “They finally accepted it, so they say I left in 1993.”
Explaining his decision, he added: “I’ve had enough. It was halfway through my life and I thought, ‘I have other things I want to do.’ I wanted to do archaeology, write books, hold photography exhibitions and play cricket for charity. I used to read about ancient cultures while traveling and also take photographs. “I just had another life I wanted to live.”
Actually Bill’s life is now a million miles away from rock ‘n’ roll. Wyman has spent the last 30 years writing books, searching for treasures as a metal detector, and collecting a variety of things, including stamps, cigarette cards, music hall posters, Roman coins, and, uniquely, yearbooks. Rupert Bear who collects for his own joy after learning to value things as a child.
“I love collecting and I don’t like throwing things away.”
“Growing up in the war we didn’t have gifts. But we had Rupert Bear yearbooks that we all shared. He used to read them to the little ones. And then I started collecting them because he was crazy about them. It was something that stuck with me. I have the entire series to this day and have other things like Rupert scarves, badges and postage stamps. I could fill a museum with it. Maybe one day.”
And adds:
“I also have a Stones file. I have a library that I created with everything that happened to me. “I wanted to keep an archive of the Stones to show my son that I was once in a band.”
Bill kneaded a personal fortune of 60 million pounds with the band, But he admits that towards the end he was tired of spending nights in hotel rooms in remote places.
Bill spoke about his life and his years with the Stones during a talk at the National Army Museum in Chelsea, West of London, the area where he lives with his wife Suzanne Acosta. The event helped launch his latest book, “Billy in the Wars”, that narrates his childhood in Pengesoutheast of London, which he says was “marked by poverty” after having survived a bombing that killed some of his neighbors.
From the age of 19 he did two years of military service in the Royal Air Force, which led him to be assigned to Germany, where he discovered the birth of rock ‘n’ roll in the dance halls. Years later, in 1962, he learned that an upcoming rhythm and blues band called The Rolling Stones was looking for a bassist. He auditioned in a pub Chelsea… And the rest is history.
Bill says money was tighter in 1960, when the late stone Brian Jones, who drowned in 1969 at the age of 27, founded the band. Remember:
“There was no money for a year or more. We used to play gigs for £2 or £5. “We did everything we could because we were a blues band and the blues wasn’t popular.”
“It was very difficult. Brian took everything we earned to pay for food or guitar strings. Charlie was working and I was working. He had an eight-month-old son and had responsibilities. Those lucrative years came much, much later.”
“We went to the United States for the first time in June 1964 and no one had heard of us. We once played one night in New York and the fans almost destroyed Carnegie Hall. They tried to prevent us from doing a second concert but we managed it.”
“We were the first band to go on stage in casual clothes since we didn’t have uniforms like the Beatles.”
In fact, they did start out wearing uniforms, but they were among the first to take it off. And they could smile openly, it had not yet arrived Andrew Loog Oldham.
Wyman returned briefly on the Stones’ 2023 album, ‘Hackney Diamonds’, playing on the fast-paced theme ‘Live By the Sword’. It was his first appearance on a Stones recording since 1991.
Talking with NME about having Wyman on the song, alongside the late drummer Charlie Watts Ronnie Wood said:
“It was Andrew Watt’s idea. We had this track with Charlie’s drums. None of us were there when Bill did his thing. But Andrew said she had a lot of fun with him. He closed the studio to him.”
In 2012, Wyman joined the band for their 50th anniversary concerts at the O2 Arena in London, but a year later he said that “never” would do it again, insisting that he had “better things to do.”
“The good thing was that my children saw me on stage with the Stones.”
“They had asked me the previous December and I had to play with them for three days. I was under the impression that I was going to be involved a lot, but when it came down to it, they only wanted me to do two songs, which was very disappointing.”
“I have always maintained that you cannot go back to things and that they can never be the same again. It’s like a school reunion or Tony Hancock’s army reunion. If you try to go back and have a relationship with someone, it doesn’t work, and musically it’s the same thing. It does not work. It was something unique. Five minutes. Okay, never again. I have no regrets, we are still great friends.”
