Taylor was deadly serious and this was a decision that had been a long time in the making. In the 2012 documentary Crossfire Hurricane, Taylor said he was addicted to heroin and left to try and protect himself and his family from the maelstrom of being a member of the Rolling Stones.
The issue of songwriting credits was also mentioned by Taylor in an interview with Mojo in 1997. “We used to fight and argue all the time. And one of the things I got angry about was that Mick had promised to give me some credit for some of the songs – and he didn’t. I believed I’d contributed enough. Let’s put it this way – without my contribution those songs would not have existed. There’s not many but enough, things like Sway and Moonlight Mile on Sticky Fingers and a couple of others.”
In a 1995 Rolling Stone interview, Jagger expressed his belief that tension between Taylor and Keith Richards played a role as well, saying, “I think he found it difficult to get on with Keith.”
Regardless of the cause, the fact remained that the Stones were losing a player with unpredictable talent. Taylor was a virtuoso who took the Stones to new heights with his incredibly expressive and fluid playing, even with all of their combined talents. A monument to his unmatched and extraordinary brilliance, the band was changed not just when he arrived but also when he left.
Entering a band with the stature of the Stones was a shock for Taylor, who joined in 1969 after Brian Jones passed away. In front of a crowd of 250,000 people, he made his live debut at the Stones’ free concert in Hyde Park on July 5, 1969, at the age of just 20, making him much younger than the other members of the band.
