Once the fog rises, just enough for the person to feel that their time is limited, there’s really no point in living life with much precaution. At least that was what the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones did when he realized he wouldn’t have a long and fruitful life. So, the life he chose to live was like a harbinger of the days to come.
The infamous 1960s, am I right? For many, it was the best time to be alive! Everyone who knew of anyone was partying it up. These weren’t like the parties of high schoolers but hard-core partying, where everything was a blur most of the time. With so much accessibility to drugs and alcohol, there were few and far between moments when people were actually living everyday lives.
When everything reached its peak with his ever-increasing reliance on alcohol and substances and his deteriorating mental health, Brian Jones said goodbye to the band in 1969. Bearing in mind the historical and cultural context, as mental health and addiction issues weren’t spoken about as widely as in today’s generation of rockers, it was harder to deal with, and he couldn’t recover.
Jones was in dire need of medical help, but nobody was really in that frame of mind. It’s pretty sad, really, but mental health was a taboo subject for many in the music industry until these past several years. Brian had gotten to such a place that several of his bandmates, even Keith Richards and himself, were aware that he wouldn’t make it past his 30s if he continued like that.
Richards once said:
“There are some people who you know aren’t going to get old. Brian and I agreed that he, Brian, wouldn’t live very long. I remember saying, ‘You’ll never make thirty, man,’ and he said, ‘I know.’”
Unfortunately, Jones’ and Richards’ predictions did come true as the guitarist was found in the swimming pool of his country house in Sussex. The musician was 27 when he passed away. His death made people question what was happening in the industry. Although the ’70s were as bad as the ’60s in terms of many musicians losing their lives, at least it sparked a discussion.
Amidst all the bad things that caused Brian Jones to lose his life, one thing is for sure; he will always be remembered through the Rolling Stones records he contributed to, which guided the band’s sound and style in their early days.
