Ian “Stu” Stewart

Ian started playing piano at the age of six

He also played banjo, and played both instruments in bands as a young man

He loved blues, R&B, Boogie-Woogie, and big band jazz. He was the first respondent to answer an ad that guitarist Brian Jones had placed when he was looking for musicians to start an R&B band

Guitarist Keith Richards would say of Ian “He used to play boogie-woogie piano in jazz clubs, apart from his regular job. He blew my head off too, when he started to play. I never heard a white piano player play like that before”.

The Stone’s manager felt that 6 band members were too many and also that Stu didn’t fit the image of the group, so he asked him to be their road manager instead, which is what he became. He did, however, contribute keyboard parts to almost every Stones album in a session capacity until his passing

Stu playing with Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, and Alexis Korner