Bill Wyman Stopped Counting at 1,800 Partners, Bob Spitz Says in New Rolling Stones Biography
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jul 12
Bill Wyman Stopped Counting at 1,800 Partners, Bob Spitz Says in New Rolling Stones Biography
1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 12
Summary
Bob Spitz says in his new Rolling Stones biography that former bassist Bill Wyman kept a journal of sexual partners and stopped counting at about 1,800, far above Mick Jagger’s estimate in the hundreds.
Spitz uses the tally to recast the band’s mythology, saying Keith Richards — long seen as the ultimate outlaw — counted only four on his fingers and was viewed by Marianne Faithfull as the most romantic Stone.
Wyman’s private life also drew sharper scrutiny than the band’s usual excesses: Spitz says Mick Jagger and other Stones were revolted by Wyman’s 1989 marriage to Mandy Smith, then 18, after they reportedly met when she was 13.
The biography argues the Stones deliberately built an anti-Beatles image in the 1960s, turning sexual entanglements, paternity suits and onstage insolence into part of the band’s bad-boy brand.
Spitz says the group’s longevity ultimately rested less on those excesses than on Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ bond, which he calls the central relationship holding the band together.