Wyman took piano lessons from ages 10 to 13. After his marriage, he bought a guitar, but wasn't satisfied by his own progress. After hearing a bass guitar at a
Barron Knights' concert, he fell in love with the sound of it and decided that this was his instrument. He created the first fretless electric bass, by removing the frets from a
bass guitar he was reworking, and played this in a local south London band, The Cliftons. He began calling himself Bill Wyman using the surname of a friend with whom he had done
National Service in the
Royal Air Force.
When drummer
Tony Chapman told him of a fledgling rhythm and blues band called The Rolling Stones who needed a bass player, he applied for the job and was officially hired in December 1962, as a successor of co-founder,
Dick Taylor. Although The Stones were impressed by his instrument and amplifier (and his abilility to provide the band with cigarettes), they weren't too fond of Wyman's style and personality (probably because he was a little older compared to the rest of the group members). Although he developed into a strong bass player and a key-element in the group's sound, Wyman always remained something of an outsider in the Stones during the following decades. Wyman's work as a Rolling Stone after the first year or so of being in the band, both in the studio and during concerts, rarely involved vocals. One notable exception was the song "In Another Land", released both on the
Their Satanic Majesties Request album and, oddly enough, also as a solo Bill Wyman single. A second Wyman penned song, "Downtown Suzie" (sung by
Mick Jagger), was released on
a collection of Rolling Stones outtakes, with the title of the song altered by Rolling Stones manager
Allen Klein without informing either Wyman or the band (the subject of the song is actually named "Lucy").
In the 1970s and early '80s he released three solo albums, none of which was particularly successful. The last one, 1982's eponymous new-wave rock offering, gave him a European hit single, "(Si, Si) Je Suis Un Rock Star", a parody on his French rock star exile status.
The mid eighties also saw Wyman compose original music for two films by Italian film director
Dario Argento: 1985's
Phenomena and 1987's
Terror At The Opera. He also produced/managed some groups like rockers
Tucky Buzzard.
Wyman kept a detailed daily journal of his days with the Rolling Stones. He used this journal extensively in writing his history of the Rolling Stones
Rolling with The Stones and also his
Stone Alone autobiography.
Evidently, Wyman maintained a friendly relationship with guitarist
Mick Taylor, the only member of the Rolling Stones to voluntarily leave the band. He continued to work with Taylor on solo projects from time to time after Taylor left the band.
Along with
Charlie Watts, Wyman kept a low profile in comparison to Jagger and Richards. Although his personal life was sometimes stormy and his affair with a 13-year-old child (
Mandy Smith) highly publicised, he came through his tenure as a Stone relatively unscathed. Wyman and Watts were, by all accounts, the most sensible and level headed of all the Stones, refusing to partake in the dizzying effects of drink and drugs. In Wyman's case, this could have been, to some extent, due to his age — he was the oldest member by some years. Always on the outside, it was said that he never really "joined" the band after thirty years.
Wyman says he created the essential riff to "
Jumpin' Jack Flash", although
Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards dispute the claim and are credited with writing the song (Keith Richards even played the bass on it, much to Wyman's chagrin).
In the 1980s, distance grew between the other band members and Wyman due to, amongst other things, the Mandy Smith affair (see below). After having contributed to the album
Steel Wheels (1989), he decided he had had enough of it, but took some time to finalise his decision to retire. The Stones regretted his leaving but did not seem too weakened by it. Instead of choosing a permanent replacement, they recruited several bass players to support them during recordings and concerts, the first of whom,
Darryl Jones, made the strongest impression.
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