It’s just rock and roll… until someone starts keeping track.
From the get-go, the Rolling Stones took on their role as rock’n’roll’s ultimate rebels, creating an image that both thrilled fans and scandalized critics. Their music was boundary-pushing, and their love lives were no less so.
In The Rolling Stones: A Biography, Bob Spitz details the band’s lengthy journey and suggests that Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and their fellow bandmates became almost as well-known for their wild off-stage antics as they were for their sold-out shows and hit songs.
“The Stones have always been associated with their outrageous behavior,” Spitz noted in a conversation with FOX News Digital. “Once, Bill Wyman, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger, when they were older, decided to see how many women they had slept with over the years. The number was astonishing.”
“Bill stopped counting at around 1,800,” Spitz explained. “He had a diary where he recorded the names of all the women he had been with. Mick believed his number was in the hundreds, while Keith could only count to four on his fingers! So, when you think of them as an orgy band, it’s essential to take that into context. Keith, who often seemed the wildest, turned out to be the most romantic of the bunch.”
This revelation upended a long-held assumption in rock culture, which held that the most notorious member was also the biggest womanizer.
Spitz reached out to a spokesperson for the Rolling Stones for comment.
Richards has typically avoided disclosing his number of sexual partners. In interviews, including his memoir, Life, his focus has often been on significant relationships, like those with Anita Pallenberg and his wife Patti Hansen. He has frequently said that music and drugs were more central to his life than chasing after women.
In contrast, Wyman’s behavior fed into those stereotypes. Spitz described him as the band’s “invincible hound.”
“Bill had this tradition where he just couldn’t sleep alone,” Spitz told FOX News Digital. “Each night, he would scout out the most attractive young women near the stage. He’d pick a couple, and a roadie would whisk them backstage.”
Wyman was the oldest member of the Stones and, at first, the only one who was married. But joining the band opened a new world for him. Spitz called him undoubtedly the most extravagant of the group.
However, Wyman’s personal life stirred up controversy that went beyond the band’s usual excesses.
After marrying Diane Corey in 1959 and having a son, Stephen, they divorced in 1969. In 1989, Wyman tied the knot with Mandy Smith, who was just 18 when he was 52. Reports indicated they first met when she was only 13.
Spitz notes that this shocking relationship was “rebellious” for Jagger, whose daughters Caris and Jade are older than Smith. The rest of the band viewed Wyman’s actions as a “Riot Law.” According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Wyman later expressed regret about that marriage.
“Rock and rollers have often gotten a pass,” Spitz remarked. “As a biographer, I can’t overlook that. It’s my responsibility to address these matters.”
In his book, Spitz asserts that by the late ’60s, the romantic lives of the Stones had become so intertwined it was hard to separate them.
Richards was involved with Pallenberg, who was also involved with Jagger. Meanwhile, Marianne Faithfull had relationships with both Brian Jones and Jagger, and Jagger also slept with Jones’ girlfriend, Pat Andrews.
Jagger proposed to Faithfull in 1968, but she turned him down.
Spitz writes that it was common knowledge to Faithfull and “much of London” that Jagger had “two tumultuous relationships” with singer Marcia Hunt.
“Marianne Faithfull mentioned that Keith was the most romantic,” Spitz shared. “The night she spent with him was the most memorable of her life.”
He also claims Jones set the stage for the band’s reckless image even before they solidified their status as rock legends.
“Brian had five children by 21,” Spitz recounted. “He had to navigate post-war England alone. While this might have introduced instability, the Stones simply paid off anyone impacted by Brian’s escapades. Surprisingly, this improved their reputation over time.”
“They decided early on they were going to be the anti-Beatles,” Spitz observes. “That was part of their identity. They wouldn’t bow after every song. Wearing suits was out. They aimed to embody a different spirit, just a little arrogant and unapologetic. They wore casual clothes and openly smoked on stage. They enjoyed their bad-boy image.”
Jones tragically drowned in 1969 at just 27. The coroner ruled his death a result of misfortune.
Spitz explores how romance complicated band dynamics, sharing anecdotes like how Jagger and Pallenberg portrayed a couple in the 1970 film Performance with on-screen intimacy.
“There were quite a few explicit recordings of Mick and Anita that she had shot, which were later mixed into another adult feature,” Spitz noted, quoting a Rolling Stones employee.
Pallenberg, who passed in 2017, confirmed these events in her diary, referenced in the 2024 documentary Catching Fire.
Spitz asserts that tumult arose between Pallenberg and Richards during their time together. The house they shared became fraught, diminishing its previously laid-back vibe.
“Even Keith, who usually wasn’t easily rattled, found it overwhelming,” Faithfull recalls in the book.
After decades of affairs, divorces, and betrayals, the Stones’ narrative was anything but conventional romance.
“The bond between them is what has kept the band together through thick and thin, and there have been plenty of tough times,” Spitz shared with FOX News Digital.
“There were definitely moments when Mick and Keith weren’t on speaking terms. Times when they weren’t creating the same music. But somehow, they managed to resonate with audiences again and again.”
“Everything about the band circles back to the relationship between Mick and Keith,” Spitz emphasized. “Their trust is crucial to the band’s continuity. There were periods, particularly in the ’90s, where things were tense. But it’s a love story at its core.”
“They respect one another deeply. When Keith married Patti Hansen, who did he select as his groomsman? The very guy he wasn’t speaking to, Mick Jagger. That says it all about their connection and how much they genuinely care for each other.”
