5 Incredible Guest Musician Parts on The Rolling Stones’ Songs

The Rolling Stones could get a bit fractious when it came to their relationships. But they generally pulled together into an inseparable unit when they made music together, both in the studio and on stage.

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They’ve also benefited through the years from outstanding performances by guest musicians not in the band. Here are five memorable guest efforts on classic Stones’ tracks.

Bobby Keys: Saxophone on “Brown Sugar” (1971)

Bobby Keys became one of the most in-demand saxophone players of the classic rock era. The burly Texan seemed to put every bit of his frame into his notes, delivering both rock potency and soulful emotion. Although he played for a variety of prominent artists, he most frequently collaborated with The Stones. And his fiery work on “Brown Sugar” stands out among all his efforts with the band. Maybe it’s for the best that the Stones no longer play this song live. After all, it’s just not the same without the work of Keys, who passed away in 2014.

Rocky Dijon: Bongos on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” (1971)

The Stones didn’t usually go off too far into instrumental flights of fancy, even though they certainly had the chops to pull it off. They tended to focus on embellishing the basic song without diving into improvisations. “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” stands as one memorable exception. The main part of the song is a traditional Stones riff-rocker. But the second half of the track is reserved for an instrumental showcase. Rocky Dijon’s work on bongos keeps the pulse going so that Mick Taylor on guitar and Bobby Keys on saxophone could shine.

Billy Preston: Keyboards on “Shine A Light” (1972)

Mick Jagger had already begun the song that would become “Shine A Light” before the death of his former bandmate Brian Jones. When Jones died suddenly in 1969, he went back to it, making it a kind of tribute to Jones. In terms of the sound of the song, Billy Preston is responsible for a great deal of it. His piano and organ work are essential to the recording. But he also deserves credit for taking Mick Jagger to church and giving him an up-close experience of gospel music. That helped Jagger construct the uplifting vibe of the track.

Nicky Hopkins: Piano on “Angie” (1973)

We could go on and on about the piano brilliance of Nicky Hopkins. (Come to think of it, we have.) His sensitive piano playing often found a counterintuitive home within the bruising power of the Stones. And when the band opted for tenderness, Hopkins was right at home. “Angie” offers plenty of recommended characteristics. The song itself is touching, and Mick Jagger gives it a bravura vocal. But none of it would work without the dance done by Hopkins on piano and Keith Richards and Mick Taylor on acoustic guitar. Listen to how the trio mesmerizingly weaves in and out of each other’s paths.

Sonny Rollins: Saxophone on “Waiting On A Friend” (1981)

The Stones wrote the music for this classic ballad all the way back in the Goat’s Head Soup era. But Mick Jagger didn’t have any lyrics for it at the time. They put it on the back burner and revived it for the great reclamation project that was Tattoo You. At that point, Mick Jagger decided to ask jazz legend Sonny Rollins to provide the saxophone part. Rollins requested that Mick stay in the studio and dance along to the song while he played to give an idea of where the accents should be. The end result is the perfectly dreamy complement to the sweetness of the song.

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