Brian Jones: From Founder to Dismissed

Brian Jones named the band, handpicked the early lineup, and played the flashy lead guitar that got them noticed. By 1969, though, he was a ghost in the studio — his drug busts made him legally unreliable for US tours, and his playing had deteriorated so much that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were already handling most of the writing and recording without him.

The band’s official statement, issued on June 8, 1969, was blunt: “The Rolling Stones have decided that Brian Jones is no longer a member of the group.” It added that Jones himself had suggested leaving to “pursue his own interests,” a polite fiction that masked the tension. Jagger and Richards drove to his house to deliver the news in person; Jones reportedly took it quietly, then called his girlfriend and laughed, claiming he’d been planning to quit anyway. Three weeks later, he was dead.