Two Wyman interviews, I get the impression that he was genuinely hurt by his limited involvement - suggests to me that they lead him along a bit to access his archive for Crossfire Hurricane.

Wyman seems a likeable man, about as far removed from a one-time rock legend as you can imagine. He was, after all, always characterised as “the boring one” in the Rolling Stones. Indeed, when he left the band Mick Jagger claimed not to have noticed. “How hard can it be to play bass?” he said. “I’ll do it myself.” Certainly Wyman didn’t do drugs; his main requirement on the road was Marmite and Branston pickle. In conversation he uses quaint expressions such as “hark at me”, and when he swears he apologises. His main passion these days is metal detecting.

You get the feeling there is little love lost between him and Jagger: “He can start a sentence by saying Yes and by the end of it you realise he has said No.”

But they do have a passion for cricket in common, I say, trying to act as go-between. “Except I play it and he only watches it.”


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rolling-stones/9968755/Bill-Wyman-on-lo...


[i]Last November he joined his former band mates on stage for the first time in 20 years. "It was great for five minutes because that's about as long as they let me play," he says. "I thought I was going to get quite heavily involved because I was led to believe that throughout the year by them.

"Keith [Richards] in particular made me think that I would be a large part of it but when it came to it they told me they only wanted me to do two songs. It was fun but I regretted not playing more. I was a bass guitarist, a rhythm guitarist, I have to be on the button from the moment Charlie [Watts] does that first drum roll.

"I came off just as I was warming up and getting into it. When they asked me to go to America for two weeks to do three shows there, I said for two songs? No thank you."

But, says Bill, that doesn't mean to say the old boys are on bad terms. "We still have a relationship. We send Christmas and birthday presents. They are like family. Jerry [Hall, former wife of Mick Jagger] is a great friend of my wife's and all the kids knew each other growing up.

"Our lives are still intertwined but it's social - it's not business any more," and then he backtracks. "Although I am involved in business with them because all the projects they do usually involve me so I'm always asked for historical information."

And if Mick were to ask him back on a permanent basis? "I'd say 'no'," he says resolutely. "Thirty years was great but I've got better things to be doing now. That time has gone.[/i]

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/390184/Bill-Wyman-I-ve-got-better-t...

The piece in that Daily Express article about Mick asking him for access to his archive related to the mid 80s when Mick had been given an advance of several million pounds for his autobiography - and then realised that he couldnt remember hardly anything.

He assumed he could use Bill's archive for his minions to do some research for him, only to be told by Bill (who was using it for his own autobiography) to forget about it.

Mick returned the advance money to the publisher soon afterwards and abandoned plans for his memoirs.

I'm not really sure theres a real relationship between Mick and any of them, to be honest. With the probable exception of Charlie.