Ten Thousand Motels wrote on Oct 15
th, 2008 at 9:39am:
Joey wrote on Oct 15
th, 2008 at 9:34am:
" Bill played on the "High Wire" and "Sex Drive" sessions in London in January 1991. His last session with the band, although it wasnt officially announced that he had left until two years later. "
Gazza .............................
Was Bill ' asked ' to leave the band or did he just quit on his own ?
I don't think we'll ever really know the answer to that. I heard quite an extensive radio interview with Bill just before he left. He didn't sound like he wanted to quit to me. In fact quite the opposite.
Absolutely the opposite. He had made up his mind by 1990 he was leaving and the band tried unsuccessfully to talk him out of it for the next two years or more. Mick confirmed in an MTV interview in December 1992 at Keith's solo London concert that Bill had made up his mind to quit, and it was officially announced in the first few days of 1993.
I've an interview with Charlie from mid 1991 or so where, when asked what the situation was re: Bill's future he replied something like "I think it's something along the lines of - he wants to leave, but we won't let him! It's like the Mafia - you can't leave!". I think he also said that Bill was avoiding contact with Keith, because he knew Keith would try and "bully" him into changing his mind.
Keith was pretty resentful about it at first, but in the end he respected his decision and did acknowledge that Bill did them a favour by quitting when he did because it would be dragging the band down if one of the band members kept going when his heart was no longer in it.