Every great band eventually runs into the age-old problem: who’s really in charge? No matter how democratic things may look on paper, there’s always a point when someone takes the wheel—sometimes with force, sometimes just by showing up first. In The Rolling Stones, many would assume that Keith Richards or Mick Jagger naturally filled that role. But ask Richards himself, and he’ll tell you: the man quietly calling the shots from the shadows was Ian Stewart.
In the early 1960s, while Richards and Jagger were still cutting their teeth on blues records and learning how to write songs, Stewart had already laid the foundation. He wasn’t just another sideman—he was the glue. Stewart booked the gigs, brought in players like Charlie Watts, and even taught the band how to sound and act like professionals.
“The first rehearsal I went to that ended up being The Rolling Stones was above an old pub in Soho,” Richards once recalled. “As I walked up these creaky old stairs, I hear this barrelhouse piano and think, ‘Man, I’m in Chicago.’ And the only guy there was Ian Stewart. He’d sort of set the joint up—‘You guys, you should play.’ And in a way, it’s his band still.”
Before manager Andrew Loog Oldham polished the band’s image for the mainstream, Stewart was running the show in the background. He didn’t crave fame. In fact, he actively avoided the spotlight, even though he continued playing piano on albums, touring with them for years, and even lending his chops to Led Zeppelin’s “Boogie With Stu.”
But to Richards, Stewart was much more than a sideman—he was the architect. “This is his band,” Richards repeated, not out of sentiment, but as a matter of fact.
While the world celebrates the swagger of Jagger and the riffs of Richards, Stewart was the unshakable foundation. No theatrics, no ego—just a man who knew how a great band should sound, look, and move.
He didn’t need to be center stage. He’d already built it.
