mick taylor archive

"How do I feel about joining The Rolling Stones? Very... so happy to be joining them. I think things are going to go really well when we start working."

"By learning about his past you can see why his age is irrelevant when you ask yourself if he is mature enough to survive in his new environment. He is mature beyond his 20 years. I asked how the people he had grown up with have developed during the past few years. 'I sometimes meet the guys I went to school with and to be honest, they haven't developed at all.' he said. 'Most of them have been swallowed up by the Establishment, the way everyone else is. Most of them are married—they always get married around 21, you know. I'm glad I'm a musician and escaped it.' […] […] Mick has already had a bitter taste of the blinding spotlight of publicity which is constantly trying to pry into the dark shadows of the Stones' private lives. Was he apprehensive about this side of his future career? 'There's nothing more those people love than a scandal,' he said. 'I don't worry—there's nothing we can do about it. You know you are a victim of a system beyond your control. We're no different from most other people, but we get all that because of the position we are in.' Finally, I asked Mick if he had noticed a change in attitude in his friends since becoming a Rolling Stone. 'I notice the change most when I walk into a club or something and all the heads turn. But, you shouldn't get uptight about it, or revel in it. I just try to act naturally. I suppose more than anything, I find it amazing. But, if people want to stare, let them—it's nice.'"— Tony Norman of Fusion Magazine

"Mick Taylor was 14 and a year away from leaving school when the Rolling Stones had their first hit with Come On. Like so many of his age group—he is 20—Mick has never had the opportunity to see on stage [live] the group he has just become a part of. [...] Since the phone call from Mick Jagger three weeks ago asking him to play with the Stones on a recording session at Olympic Studios, Barnes, things have happened rather swiftly for him. [...] He was half-expecting Mick Jagger's phone call. 'I saw John Mayall at a club, and he told me Mick Jagger wanted to get in touch with me for recording. Mick had mentioned he was looking for a guitarist and John had suggested me.' Mick went to Olympic twice and played with the Stones on sessions. At the end of the second one, they asked him to join. 'I was pretty sure at first but I felt I wanted a little time to think things over,' said Mick. 'I examined my own reasons for wanting to do it, and they were for the experience and the musicals more than for the recognition and the money.' 'It was so unexpected,' he continued, unaware of the understatement. 'It's all a bit strange for me, but I don't really feel a part of the group yet and I won't do until I have been with them for quite a while and played with them on gigs.'"

"It's not really that big a change. I've always been aware of their [the Stones] music, so musically it's not going to be a big change at all. What they do is just a mixture of soul, folk, and blues, and I like playing all those things. I don't just like playing twelve bar blues all night. The roots of their music are still in the blues. It's going to be a fantastic experience playing with the Stones and it will give me an opportunity to develop my own ideas. [...] I'm all for rebelling against the Establishment, so it [being labelled as a Stone with their reputation as "rebels" and the considerable publicity they attracted during recent drug cases] doesn't really worry me. I kind of prepared myself for all the publicity and I'm certainly not going to change my way of thinking because I'm in the public eye. Drugs? Because of pop music and drugs a lot of good things have happened. I'm not really concerned about drugs at all. When you do take drugs anyway, you get really high and you feel good, but you are not too aware of what it means and what you are doing. You should be able to feel good within yourself without drugs. I don't drink and I'm a vegetarian because i want to be healthy and as aware as I can in a natural kind of way." — Mick Taylor

"Forget about that. That's all I've been asked so far—will I buy my parents a new house, what car will I buy, what clothes do I like? [...] I'm not really worried about [financial] security, it's a dream motivated by fear of the unknown. You can live happily without worrying about tomorrow. I don't really think much about the future—if you base your whole existence on material gain, you'll never be satisfied. It doesn't mean to say that I'm going to alter because I've joined the Stones." — Mick Taylor

"It was just over two weeks ago. Mick Jagger phoned up and invited me down to some recording sessions, then it all happened from there. I took part in the session and did a couple of tracks. I don't even know what they were called. I'd never met any of the Stones before. My name had just cropped up and Mick phoned. I was expecting the call because I'd heard that my name had been mentioned. Afer the second session, Mick told me that they were thinking of getting another guitarist in. I fitted in very well with what they were playing. It was about a week later I was asked to join. I thought about it for a week, examining my reasons for wanting to join them. In the end, I decided it was what I wanted to do." — Mick Taylor

"The Rolling Stones are sitting on the grass in a circle. [...] Right in the middle of the circle, wearing a white jacket with the smoothest, freshest, white skin is the baby, Mick Taylor, who is being introduced to the press this day as the group's new guitarist. He stares straight into the camera, his left eye half-hidden by his flowing hair and a look of pure innocence on his face. The contrast between Taylor and the others is more than startling, it's downright frightening."

"I was left with two impressions. Firstly, that young Mick Taylor is well prepared, both mentally and musically to learn to live happily with being a Stone. Secondly, that he was one of the most openly honest people that I have met in the pop world. I hope that never changes." — Tony Norman of Fusion Magazine

"Lucky Mick Taylor chose unlucky Friday the 13th for his first public appearance with the Rolling Stones. People have been calling him lucky ever since he jumped from relative obscurity at £100-a-week to his £1000-a-week job as the Stones' new lead guitarist. [...] Mick was formerly a member of the John Mayall Bluesbreakers—and before that a £8-a-week paint factory labourer. [...] Mick, a quiet, shy boy was asked about the Stones' wild image. He said: 'Look, I don't take drugs and never have. I don't know anything about drugs and I don't want to.' He was picked for the group by Mick Jagger personally. When asked about his new salary, he replied cautiously: 'I haven't been told exactly what I'll be getting. We will go into that later. But I can tell you that I am very happy about it.'"

"The new boy in the Rolling Stones met the fans yesterday. Mick Taylor is his name. He's the one with the white coat and the somewhat Byronic looks. [...] Twenty-year-old Mick, who was once an £8-a-week labourer in a paint factory, is quietly-spoken and shy, but he's not at all worried about becoming part of the Stones' rather wild image. 'Look,' he said, 'stories about the boys just don’t worry me. I am sure I'll fit in very well.'"

"We got the right guy now," Mick Jagger told Peter Swales. "He's really young and cute-looking."

"I'd never met Mick Jagger, and it came as quite a shock when he rang up out of the blue and asked me to come down to one of the Stones' recording sessions. He asked me to play and a few days later he telephoned again and asked if I wanted to work with the group. I found it easy to adapt my music to fit in with theirs, but at first I was very nervous playing with The Rolling Stones, but they are all very easy-going." — Mick Taylor

"Mick had played and learned a great deal with John Mayall, but finally he felt he had to break away and look for something else. He was stagnating musically. 'I wasn't really sure of what I wanted to do,' he said. 'The only thing I had in mind was making a solo album, which I will still be able to do. It will be a mixture of all the things I like and I hope to write most of the songs. It will take quite a long time to get it together.' For a couple of weeks Mick considered his future and tried to work out what he wanted to do next. Then came the now almost historic phone call from Jagger."

"Mick Taylor is very quick to pick things up and he's getting on well with Keith. By the way, I read it all in the newspapers that Brian [Jones] was our lead guitarist—well, I don't think he was. Mick Taylor has been through the John Mayall school, and when I knew he was leaving I thought I'd try and get hold of him. I had him down to a session and he was quite good, then he came to another and he was very good. I don't know Mick so well I can say he's as good as Eric Clapton, but anyway, that's not what the Rolling Stones are all about." — Mick Jagger

"Mick Taylor was rescued from the comparative obscurity of a £100-a-week job to become the group's £1,000-a-week lead guitarist at the request of Mick Jagger. [...] Mick, with his £1,000 pay packet, didn't seem yesterday as if he would be doing much arguing. 'I can tell you,' he said, 'that I'm very happy about my pay.' Mick Jagger is happy, too, about the new Stone. He slapped him on the back and said: ‘You can take it from me—he's okay. He is now one of us.'"

GARY JAMES: When you landed that gig with the Stones, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin remarked "Mick Taylor is an extremely fortunate man, kind of like a fellow who wins the lottery. All of a sudden he's worth a million dollars. No, maybe more. But, he's a nice fellow." MICK TAYLOR: I remember reading that quote. I guess there was a certain amount of luck. There is in everything. It's being in the right place at the right time.