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Happy birthday Mick Taylor!

Born Michael Kevin Taylor (son of Marilyn and Lionel Taylor) on Jan. 17 1949 in Welwyn Garden City but raised in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England.

Bands: The Juniors, The Strangers, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (1965-1969), The Rolling Stones (1969-1974), and The Jack Bruce Band. plus an extensive solo career and hundreds of works as session musician. A teenage blues fanatic and guitarist who worked as an artist’s engraver, belonged to a band called The Gods when he was asked to sub for one night for an ailing Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Blues Breakers. Clapton eventually left Mayall, as did his replacement, Peter Green (to form Fleetwood Mac), at which point Mayall decided that Taylor was finally old enough to be a Blues Breaker. A couple of years later, Taylor decided he wanted to play more than just the blues and left Mayall.

Mick Taylor Joins The Rolling Stones

After the band reached the painful conclusion that Brian Jones could no longer continue as a member of The Rolling Stones, the search for a replacement began quietly but decisively. It was longtime confidant and road manager Ian Stewart who suggested Mick Taylor, a young but already highly respected guitarist then playing with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Mick Jagger contacted Mayall directly, seeking an honest assessment, and received nothing but praise for Taylor’s talent, discipline, and musical instincts. Encouraged, Jagger phoned Taylor and offered him the opportunity of a lifetime—though not without giving him a week to carefully consider the weight of the decision.

After the Stones decided that Brian could no longer remain a band member, Ian Stewart suggested that they contact Taylor. Mick spoke to John Mayall, who had no negative words for the guitarist, so Mick gave him a call. A few weeks later—having given Taylor a week “to think about it”—it was announced on June 13, 1969, that Mick Taylor would indeed become an official Stone, replacing Brian Jones. He made his debut as a Stone at the free Hyde Park Concert on July 5, 1969, which, ironically, served as a memorial to Brian.

Mick Taylor’s Departure from the Stones

Worn down by relentless touring and the darker side of the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle, Mick Taylor decided to leave The Rolling Stones five years after joining them. His departure came at a particularly dramatic moment: December 1974, on the very day the band was due to enter the studio to begin work on what would become Black and Blue. Aware of Taylor’s value to the group, Rolling Stones Records president Marshall Chess tried to persuade him to stay, especially with a major U.S. tour already planned for 1975. Taylor, however, had made up his mind and chose to walk away from the pressures that came with life inside the Stones’ machine.

After leaving, he briefly joined the Jack Bruce Band, exploring new musical directions, while the vacancy he left behind triggered a high-profile audition process, with virtually every notable guitarist of the era vying for the coveted spot in the world’s biggest rock band.

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