Ian Stewart’s Quiet Power as the Rolling Stones’ Unofficial Sixth Member

Ian Stewart was the Rolling Stones’ original pianist and a founding presence, but in 1963 manager Andrew Loog Oldham decided the rough-hewn Stewart didn’t fit the teen-idol image and pushed him out of the official lineup. Instead of leaving, Stewart stayed on as road manager, session musician, and de facto musical director—driving the van, tuning the pianos, and holding the band together through chaos. The Stones never stopped relying on his steady boogie-woogie piano, and he played on nearly every album from the 1960s onward.

Stewart’s piano appears on landmark records like Let It Bleed (“Honky Tonk Women,” “Let It Bleed”), Sticky Fingers (“Brown Sugar”), Exile on Main St., Goats Head Soup, It’s Only Rock ’n Roll, Black and Blue, Some Girls, and Tattoo You. He also co-founded the Rolling Stones’ own label and sat in on countless