Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings: The Post-Stones Blues Revival Band

After famously leaving the Rolling Stones in 1993 — partly due to boredom with the touring cycle and a desire to spend more time with his family — Bill Wyman didn’t just retire. Instead, he quietly assembled a supergroup of British blues and rock royalty that he called Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. The idea was simple: play the old R&B, jump blues, and rock ’n’ roll that originally inspired him, but without any of the stadium pressure. No ego, no drama, just loose, joyful sessions.

The Rhythm Kings became a revolving door of heavy hitters: Georgie Fame on vocals and Hammond, Albert Lee on guitar, Peter Frampton, Eric Clapton, Gary Brooker (Procol Harum), and even former Stones sidemen like saxophonist Bobby Keys and pianist Chuck Leavell. They recorded mostly in Wyman’s home studio in Suffolk, cranking out albums like Struttin’ Our Stuff (1997) and Double Bill (2001). The live shows were small-club affairs — a world away from Wembley Stadium.

For Wyman, the project kept him connected to music on his own terms. He could pick up his bass whenever he felt like it, call up friends, and have a proper jam without the machinery of the Stones. It also gave him a creative outlet that the Stones’ later years — where he felt like a sideman on a freight train — could not. The Rhythm Kings