How the Rolling Stones' relentless 60s and 70s touring damaged Brian Jones and Keith Richards

The Rolling Stones’ touring schedule through the 1960s and early 1970s was famously punishing — multiple tours a year, hundreds of shows, constant travel and press. For Brian Jones, that grind accelerated his unraveling. By 1967, he was showing up to sessions barely functional, arrested twice for drug possession, and increasingly sidelined by his own band. The mental exhaustion and pressure to keep up with Jagger and Richards, combined with his deepening addiction, left him isolated. He was found dead in his swimming pool in July 1969, just weeks after being fired.

Keith Richards weathered the same schedule by leaning into his own drug use, but it came at a huge physical cost. Through the early 70s, he maintained a breakneck touring pace while heavily addicted to heroin — nodding off on stage, collapsing in hotel rooms, and still somehow making it to the next show. His habit became legendary but took a real toll: he suffered from exhaustion, hepatitis, and a series of near-fatal overdoses. Where Jones broke under the weight, Richards built a lifestyle around the chaos, but neither escaped unharmed by the machine they helped create.