Guitarist Brian Jones had become a “liability” to The Rolling Stones, with Mick Jagger saying he had no choice but to fire him.
The veteran guitarist had been a founding member of the group but would be cut loose as he went from being “obsessive about the band” to an “outsider” of the group. Jagger said a lack of professionalism ultimately led to Jones’ firing, which was “not pleasant” according to the long-serving frontman. In an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine founder Jann Wenner, the Wild Horses hitmaker confirmed he was left with no other choice but to fire the founding member, as the rest of the group “couldn’t go on” with Jones in the band. Jagger has said he does not feel guilty about firing Jones and that the guitarist, who would also provide backing vocals, “let his talent slide.”
Jagger said: “He went from [being] an obsessive about the band to being rather an outsider. He’d turn up late to recording sessions, and he’d miss the odd gig every now and then. He let his health deteriorate because he drank too much and took drugs when they were new, hung out too much, stayed up too late, partied too much and didn’t concentrate on what he was doing. Let his talent slide.”
Wenner then asked if Jagger had fired Jones, which the frontman confirmed, before explaining how tough a decision it was. Jagger added: “Not pleasant. It’s never pleasant, firing people. But it had to be done because we felt we needed someone, and he wasn’t there. He wouldn’t come to the studio. He wouldn’t do anything.
“We felt we couldn’t go on. In fact, we came to a point where we couldn’t play live. We couldn’t hold our heads up and play because Brian was a total liability. He wasn’t playing well, wasn’t playing at all, couldn’t hold the guitar. It was pathetic.
“Of course, now I suppose we would have had him admitted to rehab clinics and so on, but those things, unfortunately, in those days were not the path. He tried lots of doctors, but they just gave him more pills.” Though feeling unpleasant about the firing, Jagger confirms he does not feel guilty about Jones’ deterioration after he left the band.
Jones died on July, 3, 1969, with a coroner ruling it as “death by misadventure” after he was found at the bottom of his swimming pool at Cotchford Farm.
Jagger reflected on Jones’ death and the decision to fire him in the interview with Wenner, saying: “No, I don’t really. I do feel that I behaved in a very childish way, but we were very young, and in some ways we picked on him.
“But, unfortunately, he made himself a target for it; he was very, very jealous, very difficult, very manipulative, and if you do that in this kind of a group of people, you get back as good as you give, to be honest. I wasn’t understanding enough about his drug addition. No one seemed to know much about drug addiction. Things like LSD were all new. No one knew the harm. People thought cocaine was good for you.”