How Jim Price and Jim Horn’s Horns Gave Sticky Fingers and Exile Their Swagger

Jim Price (trumpet, trombone) and Jim Horn (sax, flute) weren’t just session players on the Stones’ early-’70s classics — they were the secret sauce that turned already rowdy tracks into full-blown rock ’n’ roll riots. On “Brown Sugar,” Price’s stabbing trumpet riff after the chorus doesn’t just accent the groove; it pushes the song into a kind of celebratory sleaze, like a juke joint horn section that wandered into Muscle Shoals. They recorded that part live with the band, which is why it locks in so tightly with Charlie Watts’ backbeat.

By the time Exile on Main St. rolled around, the horn duo had become a default part of the Stones’ sonic palette. “Rip This Joint” is the ultimate example: Price and Horn play almost nonstop, trading licks at breakneck tempo, as if they’re trying to keep up with Jagger’s double-time shout. The arrangement is pure chaos — that’s the point — but they never lose the pocket. It’s the sound of a bar band that accidentally got a horn section, and it’s why those records feel sweatier and more alive than anything else in the Stones catalog.