How the Stones’ 1989 Hall of Fame Induction Ignited Arguments Over Who Got Left Out

When the Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, the ceremony was supposed to celebrate their legacy. Instead, it became a flashpoint for fan outrage over who wasn’t on stage. The Hall inducted the core lineup of the time—Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Ronnie Wood, and original guitarist Brian Jones—but Mick Taylor, the band’s lead guitarist from 1969 to 1974, was conspicuously absent from the honor.

Taylor had been the defining lead voice on Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St., but he’d left the band in 1974 and had a contentious relationship with Jagger and Richards. Fans argued that Taylor’s contributions to the band’s most celebrated era deserved recognition, especially when Brian Jones—who had been fired in 1969—was included posthumously. The omission felt like salt in the wound: Taylor had shaped the band’s sound for five years and then been erased from the official story.

The debate didn’t stop there. Some fans also pointed out that pianist Ian Stewart, a founding member and de facto sixth Stone who was present on nearly every record until his death in 1985, wasn’t inducted either. Stewart had been famously kept out of the public lineup by manager Andrew Loog Oldham, but his piano work was central to the band’s rhythm. The Hall of Fame eventually recognized Stewart in 2014 with a special “Musical Excellence” award, but in 1989 the snubs felt like a rewriting of the band’s history—one that still rankles part of the fanbase today.