Jimmy Miller's Dual Role: Producer and Drummer on the Stones' Golden Era Classics

Jimmy Miller produced the Rolling Stones from Beggars Banquet through Goats Head Soup — the run that gave us Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main St. But his biggest behind-the-scenes contribution might be the drumming. Miller sat behind the kit for “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Honky Tonk Women” because Charlie Watts’ style didn’t match the groove the band wanted.

On “Honky Tonk Women,” Miller’s drumming is all about the swing. He played a straight four-on-the-floor beat with a heavy backbeat on the snare, giving the song that lurching, barroom feel that Charlie Watts himself said he couldn’t quite nail. Miller’s part locked with Keith Richards’ open-G tuning riff and made the track feel like it was tilting forward.

For “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” Miller’s drumming is subtler but essential. He starts with a soft, tom-heavy pattern that builds across the six-minute track, never overpowering the French horn intro or the gospel choir. His fills push the song’s dynamics without rushing the tempo — a trick that Charlie Watts later admitted he would have played differently. Miller’s rhythmic instinct gave both songs a loose, lived-in pulse that defined the Stones’ late-60s sound.