Mick Taylor leaned over to Mick Jagger at an Eric Clapton birthday celebration and announced his departure from the Rolling Stones. On December 12, 1974, Jagger, Taylor, and the other guests were gathered to watch a fireworks show. A distraught Jagger questioned Ronnie Wood, who was standing close, “Do you think he was serious?”
Taylor had been thinking about this for a long time, and he was dead serious. Taylor admitted to having a heroin addiction in the 2012 documentary Crossfire Hurricane. He left the Rolling Stones to try to shield his family and himself from the chaos of being a member of the band.
Taylor also brought up the matter of songwriting credits in a 1997 interview with Mojo. “We used to constantly argue and fight. Mick had promised to give me credit for some of the tunes, so that was one of the things that infuriated me. I felt like I’d done enough. To put it another way, those tunes would not have been made possible without my help. Things like Sway and Moonlight Mile on Sticky Fingers, among a few others, are sufficient but not plentiful.”
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.”
