Mick Taylor life and biography

Michael Kevin "Mick" Taylor is an English musician, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1966–69) and The Rolling Stones (1969–74). Since resigning from the Rolling Stones in December 1974 Taylor began working with numerous other artists and has released solo albums. Taylor was listed in Rolling Stone magazine's 2012 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, ranked at 37th place.

After Brian Jones was removed from the The Rolling Stones in June 1969, Mayall recommended Taylor to Mick Jagger. Taylor believed he was being called in to be a session musician at his first studio session with the Rolling Stones.An impressed Jagger and Keith Richards invited Taylor back the following day to continue rehearsing and recording with the band. He overdubbed guitar on "Country Honk" "Live With Me" for the album Let It Bleed, and for the single "Honky Tonk Women" released in the UK, on 4 July 1969.

Taylor's onstage debut as a Rolling Stone, at the age of 20, was the free Hyde Park concert on 5 July 1969. An estimated quarter of a million people attended for a show that turned into a tribute to Brian Jones, who had died 3 days before the concert.

After the 1973 European tour, Richards's drug problems had worsened and began affecting the ability of the band to function as a whole.Between recording sessions, the band members were living in various countries and during this period Taylor appeared on Herbie Mann's London Underground (1974) and also appeared on Mann's album Reggae (1974).

In December 1974, Taylor announced he was leaving the Rolling Stones. The bandmates were at a party in London when Taylor told Mick Jagger he was quitting and walked out. Taylor's decision came as a total shock to many. The Rolling Stones were due to start recording a new album in Munich, and the entire band was reportedly angry at Taylor for leaving at such short notice.

In an essay about the Rolling Stones, printed after Taylor's resignation, music critic Robert Palmer of The New York Times wrote that "Taylor is the most accomplished technician who ever served as a Stone. A blues guitarist with a jazzman's flair for melodic invention, Taylor was never a rock and roller and never a showman."

Taylor has worked with his former bandmates on various occasions since leaving the Rolling Stones. In 1977 he attended London-based sessions for the John Phillips album Pay Pack & Follow, appearing on several tracks alongside Jagger (vocals), Richards (guitar) and Wood (bass) - taking notable solos on the songs "Oh Virginia" and "Zulu Warrior". A possibly apocryphal story is that after Taylor played a particularly jaw-dropping solo in the studio, Richards half-jokingly exclaimed, "That's why I never liked you, you bastard!"

In March 2010, rumours started circulating that Taylor had contributed guitar work on the upcoming Exile on Main Street special edition release. This expanded version of the original double album includes 10 outtakes/alternate versions of songs. Taylor later revealed (in an interview with a journalist from Cleveland) that he had indeed recorded new guitar overdubs for the CD, at Mick Jagger's request. On 17 April 2010 (National Record Store Day), the new Rolling Stones single 'Plundered My Soul' came out, featuring recently recorded vocals and guitars by Jagger and Taylor.

Around this time, Eagle Rock Entertainment also announced that a first official release of the concert film Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones was planned for autumn 2010. Apart from a one-off cinema screening in the past, the film had previously only been available on bootleg videos and DVDs.

In 2003, Taylor reunited with John Mayall for his 70th Birthday Concert in Liverpool along with Eric Clapton. A year later, in autumn 2004, he also joined John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers for a UK theatre tour. He toured the US East Coast with the Experience Hendrix group during October 2007. The Experience Hendrix group appeared at a series of concerts which were a homage to Jimi Hendrix and his musical legacy. Taylor played with Mitch Mitchell, Billy Cox, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin and Robby Krieger.

In recent times Taylor reunited with Ronnie Wood at a benefit gig arranged by blues guitarist Stephen Dale Petit to save the 100 Club in London, on 1 December 2010. Other special guests at the show were Dick Taylor (first bassist in the Rolling Stones) and blues/jazz trombonist Chris Barber. Taylor toured the UK with Petit, appearing as his special guest, featured on a Paul Jones BBC Radio 2 session with him and guested on Petit's 2010 Classic Rock magazine Album of the Year - The Crave".

For the 2010 re-release of Exile On Main Street Taylor recorded a new guitar part for the previously unreleased song, "Plundered My Soul".

He also helped to promote the Boogie For Stu album, which was recorded by Ben Waters to honour Ian Stewart (original Stones pianist and co-founder of the band), by taking part in a concert to mark the CD's official launch at the Ambassadors Theatre, London on 9 March 2011. Proceeds from the event were donated to the British Heart Foundation. Although Mick Jagger and Keith Richards didn't show up, Taylor noticeably enjoyed performing with, amongst others, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and Bill Wyman.

Discography:
With John Mayall's Bluesbreakers:
-Crusade (Decca, 1967/LP, 1987/CD)
-Diary of a Band Volume 1 & 2 (Decca, 1968/LP)
-Bare Wires (Decca, 1968/LP, 1988/CD )
-Blues from Laurel Canyon (Decca, 1968/LP, 1989/CD)
-Primal Solos (Decca, 1969/LP)
-Back to the Roots (Decca, 1971/LP, 2001 on 2CD)
-Return Of The Bluesbreakers (AIM, 1985/LP, 1993/CD)
-The 1982 Reunion Concert (Repertoire records, 1994/CD)
-Wake Up Call (1993)
-Silver Tones - The Best of John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers (Silvertone Records, 1998)
-Along For The Ride (2001)
-Rolling With The Blues (2003) - selection of live recordings '72-'82
-Essentially John Mayall (Eagle Rock Records, 2007) 5 CD Box Set

With The Rolling Stones:
-Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) (1969) (compilation)
-Taylor plays on "Honky Tonk Women"
-Let It Bleed (1969)
-Taylor plays on "Country Honk" and "Live With Me"
-Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! (1970)
-Sticky Fingers (1971)
-Hot Rocks, 1964-1971 (1972) (compilation)
-Exile on Main St. (1972)
-Goats Head Soup (1973)
-It's Only Rock 'n Roll (1974)
-Made in the Shade (1975) (compilation of hits 1971-1974)
-Metamorphosis (1975)
-Taylor plays on "I Don't Know Why" and "Jiving Sister Fanny".
-Sucking in the Seventies (1981) (compilation of hits, album cuts and outtakes 1974-1981)
-Tattoo You (1981)
-Taylor plays on "Tops" and "Waiting on a Friend", both tracks recorded in 1972 during the Goats Head Soup sessions.
-Rewind (1971-1984) (1984) (compilation of hits 1971-1983)
-Singles Collection: The London Years. (1989) (compilation of singles 1963-1971)
-Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones (1993) (compilation of hits 1971-1989)
-Forty Licks (2002) (compilation 1964-2002)
-Rarities 1971-2003 (2005)
-Taylor plays on "Let It Rock" (live 1971) and the 1974 b-side "Through The Lonely Nights".

Solo discography:
-Mick Taylor (1979)
-Stranger in This Town (1990)
-Arthur's Club-Geneve 1995 (Mick Taylor & Snowy White)
-A Stone's Throw (2000)
-Coastin' Home aka Live at the 14 Below (1995) re-issued 2002
-14 Below (2003)
-Shadow Man (2003)

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