Nicky Hopkins vs. Ian Stewart: The Two Piano Men Behind the Stones

On Sympathy for the Devil, that insistent, rolling piano figure isn’t Ian Stewart–it’s Nicky Hopkins. Hopkins laid down the track’s foundational piano part at Olympic Studios in June 1968, playing a grand piano with a percussive, almost Latin-inflected rhythm that drives the whole song. For Angie, Hopkins played the aching, arpeggiated grand piano that defines the ballad, recorded at Island Studios in 1972. He was the band’s go-to session pianist from Beggars Banquet through Goats Head Soup, also shaping tracks like “She’s a Rainbow” and “Loving Cup.”

Ian Stewart, by contrast, was never a hired gun. He co-founded the band, played boogie-woogie and R&B piano, and was famously kicked out of the official lineup in 1963 (manager Andrew Loog Oldham thought he looked too plain). But Stewart stayed on as road manager and session player. His piano is all over early hits–think the driving eighth-note pattern on “It’s All Over Now” or the barrelhouse underpinning of “Honky Tonk Women.” Stewart’s style was rootsier and more rhythmic; Hopkins brought a classically trained touch and melodic flair that suited the band’s more orchestral turn in the late 60s. The Stones used both, but for different textures: Stewart kept the motor running, Hopkins added the color.