Ian Stewart (musician)

On 19 April 2011, pianist Ben Waters released an Ian Stewart tribute album, entitled Boogie 4 Stu. One of the songs recorded for this album was Bob Dylan's "Watching the River Flow", played by The Rolling Stones featuring Bill Wyman on bass. This was the first time since 1992 that Wyman joined his former band.

In his 2010 autobiography Life, Keith Richards says: "Ian Stewart. I'm still working for him. To me The Rolling Stones is his band. Without his knowledge and organisation ... we'd be nowhere."

According to a Sunday Herald article in March 2006, Stewart was the basis for a fictional detective:

The Rolling Stones played a tribute gig with Rocket 88 in February 1986 at London's 100 Club, and included a 30-second clip of Stewart playing the blues standard "Key to the Highway" at the end of Dirty Work. When the Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, they requested that Stewart's name be included.

Stewart contributed to The Rolling Stones' 1983 Undercover, and was present during the 1985 recording for Dirty Work (released in 1986). In early December 1985, Stewart began having respiratory problems. On 12 December, he went to a clinic to have the problem examined, but suffered a massive heart attack and died in the waiting room. Stewart was 47 years old.

In 1981 Stewart and Charlie Watts contributed to the song "Bad Penny Blues", which appeared on the album, These Kind of Blues by The Blues Band, and was a founding member, with Watts, of Rocket 88.

Stewart contributed to Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" from Led Zeppelin IV and "Boogie with Stu" (which was also named after his nickname) from Physical Graffiti, two numbers in traditional rock and roll vein, both featuring his boogie-woogie style. Another was Howlin' Wolf's 1971 The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions album, featuring Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Klaus Voormann, Steve Winwood, and Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. He also played piano and organ on the 1982 Bad to the Bone album of George Thorogood and the Destroyers. He also performed with Ronnie Lane in a televised concert.

On 5 January 1966 Bill Wyman produced "Stu-Ball" for Ian Stewart and the Railroaders at IBC Studios, London with Stewart on piano, Wyman on bass, Keith Richards (guitar) and Tony Meehan (drums).

Stewart contributed piano, organ, electric piano and/or percussion to all Rolling Stones albums released between 1964 and 1986, except for Their Satanic Majesties Request, Beggars Banquet, and Some Girls. Stewart was not the only keyboard player who worked extensively with the band: Jack Nitzsche, Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, and Ian McLagan all supplemented his work. Stewart played piano on numbers of his choosing throughout tours in 1969, 1972, 1975–76, 1978 and 1981–82. Stewart favoured blues and country rockers, and remained dedicated to boogie-woogie and early rhythm & blues. He refused to play in minor keys, saying: "When I'm on stage with the Stones and a minor chord comes along, I lift me hands in protest." In 1976, Stewart stated, "You can squawk about money, but the money the Stones have made hasn't done them much good. It's really gotten them into some trouble. They can't even live in their own country now," referring to band members' tax exile status to minimize tax obligations on their high incomes and royalty payments.

In early May 1963, the band's manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, said Stewart should no longer be onstage, that six members were too many for a popular group and that the older, burly, and square-jawed Stewart did not fit the image. He said Stewart could stay as road manager and play piano on recordings. Stewart accepted this demotion. Richards said: "[Stu] might have realised that in the way it was going to have to be marketed, he would be out of sync, but that he could still be a vital part. I'd probably have said, 'Well, fuck you', but he said 'OK, I'll just drive you around.' That takes a big heart, but Stu had one of the largest hearts around."

Stewart, who loved rhythm & blues, boogie-woogie, blues and big-band jazz, was working as a shipping clerk at a London chemical company when he was the first to respond to Brian Jones's advertisement in Jazz News of 2 May 1962 seeking musicians to form a rhythm & blues group. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards joined in June, and the group, with Dick Taylor (later of the Pretty Things) on bass and Mick Avory (later of the Kinks) on drums, played their first gig under the name the Rollin' Stones at the Marquee Club on 12 July 1962. Richards described meeting Stewart thus: "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." By December 1962 and January 1963, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts had joined, replacing a series of bassists and drummers.

Ian Andrew Robert Stewart (18 July 1938 – 12 December 1985) was a Scottish keyboardist and co-founder of the Rolling Stones. He was removed from the line-up in May 1963 at the request of manager Andrew Loog Oldham who felt he did not fit the band's image. He remained as road manager and pianist for over two decades until his death, and was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the rest of the band in 1989.