Ian Stewart - The Forgotten Member of The Rolling Stones
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Founder member Ian Stewart was ejected from the group on the brink of stardom when their manager decided he looked ‘like a coal miner’.
Stewart, of Pittenweem, officially ‘left the group’ but continued as their road manager and pianist until he suffered a heart attack and died in 1985, aged 47.
Stewart, or Stu, played keyboards on most of the Rolling Stones essential albums from the 1960s until the 1980s. Both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have spoken of his enduring influence on their work. “He really helped this band swing on ‘Honky Tonk Woman’ and loads of others,” said Mick Jagger after his untimely death. “He was the one guy we tried to please. We wanted his approval when we were writing or rehearsing a song. We’d want him to like it.”
Now fellow Fifer Rankin has written a tribute to one of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s ‘nearly men’ after teaming up with Arab Strap frontman Aiden Moffat. ‘The Sixth Stone’ will appear on a new compilation album bringing together some of Scotland’s top writers and musicians. It will be performed by Aiden Moffat and The Best Ofs.
Ian Rankin said “Ian Stewart lost his place in the line-up after the band’s manager determined that Stewart, with his pronounced jaw-line and thick brushed-back hair, didn’t look the part. But, he stayed with the band for the rest of his life as road manager and occasional boogie-woogie pianist. All the way through the Sixties, he was there in the background, but he was always more interested in the golf course than the groupies, drink and drugs.
The award-winning novelist once revealed, during a Radio 4 series exploring the relationships between crime writers and their favourite music, that he took some of his inspiration for Inspector Rebus from Stewart.
