When it comes to the Beatles vs. Stones debate, ex-Rolling Stone guitarist Mick Taylor has no trouble taking sides: “I sort of liked them, but was never passionate about the Stones,” Taylor told Mail Online’s Bob Graham on being asked to join the band in 1969. “In some ways I liked The Beatles more.”
Well, if Taylor wasn’t a big fan of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and company back in the 60s, you can imagine what his opinion is now that they’ve allegedly not paid him royalties in 27 years. “In 1982 they stopped paying me,” Taylor said. “They’d signed to a different record company and had new contracts and were advised they didn’t need to pay me any more.”
Taylor left the Stones in 1974, after playing guitar on and, according to him, co-writing songs from six classic stones records. No specific reason was given for his departure back in the 70s, but now Taylor claims staying in the band, amid its drug-centric environment, would’ve killed him.
Now clean, sober, and broke, Taylor is ready to take Jagger and Richards to court to fight for his alleged past royalties. “I’ve tried to talk to Mick [Jagger] a couple of times,” Taylor claimed, “but I realize that hiring a lawyer is probably the only way they’ll take me seriously.”
Wow, and I thought Sly Stone had it rough.