"I'm always shy in front of an audience, so I'm always at the back, in the shadows, just doing it. I don't like the front, the adulation." -- Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman (born William George Perks; 24 October 1936) is an English musician best known as the bassist for the English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1992. Since 1997, he has recorded and toured with his own band, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings. He has worked producing both records and film, and has scored music for film in movies and television.
Wyman has kept a journal since he was a child after the second World War. It has been useful to him as an author who has written seven books, selling two million copies. Wyman's love of art has additionally led to his proficiency in photography and his photographs have hung in galleries around the world. Wyman's lack of funds in his early years led him to create and build his own fretless bass guitar. He became an amateur archaeologist and enjoys relic hunting; The Times published a letter about his hobby (Friday 2 March 2007). He designed and markets a patented "Bill Wyman signature metal detector", which he has used to find relics dating back to the time of the Romans in the English countryside. As a businessman, he owns several establishments including the famous Sticky Fingers Café, a rock & roll-themed bistro serving American cuisine first opened in 1989 in the Kensington area of London and later, two additional locations in Cambridge and Manchester, England.
"Because of the fashion, the young people don't have any access to the history of music, unless people like me revive it. There are very few people to revive it, because you can't earn any money doing it.""But why is it that in music, anything more than 5 years old - apart from a few hits - is never played on radio to the young public?""Everything had to be done in-between Stones time.""I always got great respect as a bass player.""I always listen to a lot of different music when I am working on a project.""I always say that I am very proud of the work that I did with the Rolling Stones and that I am also proud of what I have done with the Rhythm Kings.""I am much more my own man than I was when I was with the Stones.""I didn't want to stay in the Stones, and be stuck in a position having to play a music I didn't like anymore and that restricted me from doing all the others things I'm interested in because of time.""I don't make any money.""I had a wonderful time with the Stones but after 31 years, I thought it was time to move on.""I have found two Roman sites in the area that I live in.""I have no restrictions, no limits, no musical history to live with.""I have very interesting hobbies like archeology and photography.""I live in a house that was built in 1480. It has a moat around it. It is like a little baby castle.""I love to play smaller crowds with the Rhythm Kings.""I open events for museums and I do charity work and photography.""I think anyone would want to see their favorite band in a small club over a large stadium.""I was listening to music long before rock 'n roll.""If you are any competent musician, if you have creative ideas, ideas of songs, of arrangements, in a band like the Stones, where these 2 people do all the things, there is no freedom.""My first record I owned was by Les Paul.""The first records I heard were from Dizzy Gillespie and people like that.""The Stones always tried to do the odd smaller gig when they could.""There are things that I am very proud of and there are things that you are not so proud of. But I think that applies to any musician.""With the Rhythm Kings, I can involve myself in arranging and producing the music as well as the choice of songs.""You never know what your next dig is going to find.""You're always frustrated, you don't have the chance to do a song on the album, like the Beatles did with Ringo and George, or like Led Zeppelin, where everybody was given a chance to contribute. There never is a chance with the Stones."
Bill Wyman was born in Lewisham Hospital in Lewisham, South London, the son of William Perks, a bricklayer, and his wife, Molly. One of five children, Bill spent most of his early life living in a terraced house in one of the roughest streets in Sydenham, southeast London. He describes his childhood as "scarred by poverty".
He attended Beckenham and Penge Grammar School from 1947 to Easter 1953, leaving before the GCE exams after his father found him a job working for a bookmaker and insisted that he take it.
Wyman took piano lessons from age 10 to 13. A year after his marriage on 24 October 1959 to Diane Cory, an 18-year-old bank clerk, he bought a Burns electric guitar for £52 on hire-purchase, but was not satisfied by his progress. After hearing a bass guitar at The Barron Knights' concert, he fell in love with the sound of it and decided 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 south London band, The Cliftons. He used the stage name Lee (later Bill) Wyman, taking the surname of a friend with whom he had done National Service in the Royal Air Force from 1955 to 1957.
The Rolling Stones
When drummer Tony Chapman told him that a rhythm and blues band called The Rolling Stones needed a bass player, he auditioned and was hired on 7 December 1962 as a successor to Dick Taylor. The band were impressed by his instrument and amplifiers, (one which Wyman built himself) but because he was married, employed and older, Wyman remained an outsider.
In addition to playing bass, Wyman frequently sang harmony on early records, and through 1967 in concert as well. He sang lead vocals on the track "In Another Land", on the Their Satanic Majesties Request album and a single. The song is one of two Wyman compositions recorded by the Rolling Stones; the second is "Downtown Suzie" (sung by Mick Jagger), on Metamorphosis, a collection of Rolling Stones outtakes. The title "Downtown Suzie" was chosen by the Rolling Stones' erstwhile manager Allen Klein without consulting Wyman or the band. The original title was "Sweet Lyle Lucy", named after Lyle Street, a street in the red light district in Soho, London.
Wyman kept a journal throughout his life, beginning when he was a child, and used it in writing his 1990 autobiography Stone Alone and his 2002 book Rolling with the Stones. In Stone Alone, Wyman claims to have composed the riff of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" with Brian Jones and drummer Charlie Watts. Wyman mentions that " Satisfaction" was released as a single only after a 3-2 vote within the band: Wyman, Watts and Jones voted for, Jagger and Richards against, feeling it not sufficiently commercial. By the 1970s, Wyman, tired of the monopolisation of songwriting and production by Jagger and Richards, began solo projects. In the 1970s and early 80s he made three solo albums, none commercially very successful but all well received by critics. In July 1981 his "(Si, Si) Je Suis Un Rock Star" became a top-20 hit in many countries.
Wyman composed the score of the 1981 Ryan O'Neal-Omar Sharif film Green Ice; and in the mid-80s, he composed music for two films by Italian director Dario Argento: Phenomena (1985) and Terror at the Opera (1987). He made a cameo appearance in the 1987 film Eat the Rich. He produced and managed the group Tucky Buzzard.
Wyman was close to Brian Jones; he and Watts were the only members at Jones' funeral in July 1969. Wyman was also friends with guitarist Mick Taylor. Like the Rolling Stones he has worked with Taylor after Taylor's departure from the band.
After the Rolling Stones' 1989-90 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tours, Wyman left the band; his decision was announced in December 1992. The Rolling Stones have continued to record and tour with Darryl Jones on bass.
Recent activity
Wyman continues to tour with The Rhythm Kings, which has featured such musicians as Martin Taylor, Albert Lee, Gary Brooker, Terry Taylor (formerly with Tucky Buzzard), Mike Sanchez and Georgie Fame. Following his 70th birthday in October 2006, Wyman undertook another British tour.
On 10 December 2007, Wyman and his band appeared alongside a reunited Led Zeppelin at the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert at The O2 in London.
Wyman was a judge for the 5th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.
In 2009, ex-Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor was invited as a guest performer with Wyman's Rythmn Kings.
On 25 October 2009, Wyman performed a reunion show with The Faces, filling in for the late Ronnie Lane as he had previously done in 1986 and 1993.
Musical instruments
Wyman's bass sound came not only from his home-made fretless bass, but the "walking bass" style he adopted, inspired by Willie Dixon and Ricky Fenson. His tight work with Charlie Watts anchored the Rolling Stones, exemplifying the "heartbeat and pulse" idea behind ideal rhythm sections. Wyman has played a number of basses including a Framus Star bass, a Vox Teardrop bass (issued as a Bill Wyman signature model), a Fender Mustang Bass, two Ampeg Dan Armstrong basses, a Gibson SG Bass, a Rickenbacker 4005 copy and a Travis Bean bass. He currently favours Steinberger basses. His amplifers over the years have included a Vox T-60, a piggyback Fender Bassman, a Hiwatt bass stack and an Ampeg SVT.
Wyman, although moderate in his use of alcohol and drugs, has stated that he became "girl mad" as a psychological crutch. Maxim magazine ranked Wyman at number 10 on its "Living Sex Legends" list, as he is reputed to have had sex with over 1000 women.
Wyman married his first wife, Dianne, in 1959; their son Stephen Paul Wyman was born on 29 March 1962. They separated in 1967 and divorced in 1969.
From 1967 through 1983, Wyman was romantically linked to Astrid Lundström.
On June 2, 1989 Wyman married the 18-year-old Mandy Smith, whom he had been dating since she was 13; their relationship was the subject of considerable media attention. The marriage ended in spring 1991, although the divorce was not finalised until 1993. In 1993, while Wyman was still married to Mandy Smith his son from his first marriage, Stephen, became engaged to Smith's mother.
In April 1993 he married Suzanne Accosta. They are still married and have three daughters, Katherine Noelle (born September 1994), Jessica Rose (born November 1995), and Matilda Mae (born May 1998).
Wyman lives in a country house in Suffolk and in St Paul de Vence in the south of France. In the South of France his friends include numerous artists. He is a cricket supporter, and played in a celebrity match at The Oval against a former England XI, taking a hat-trick.
Wyman has also recently started selling metal detectors .
Wyman is a keen photographer. He has taken photographs throughout his career and in June 2010 launched a retrospective of his work in an exhibition in St Paul de Vence, in the South of France. The exhibition included images of his music acquaintances, as well as famous artists from the South of France, including Marc Chagall.
