# Brian Jones
**Brian Jones** (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist who founded the Rolling Stones in 1962, named the band after a [Muddy Waters](https://www.edgepedia.org/muddy-waters) song, and served as its initial leader before being dismissed from the group weeks before his death at 27.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) • [2](https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Jones%2C_Brian)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | 1942, Cheltenham, England; 3 July 1969, Cotchford Farm, Sussex, aged 27[2](https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Jones%2C_Brian) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) |
| Founding role | Placed an ad in *Jazz News* in May 1962, aged 20, forming the band; named it after the Muddy Waters track "Rollin' Stone"[3](https://olli.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/course/documents/Fab%20Four%20and%20the%20Stones%20course%20description%2C%20syllabus%20and%20week%20outline.pdf) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) |
| Early leadership | Signed the band's first management and recording contracts and received 75% of Stones fan mail in the early years, per former bassist Bill Wyman[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) |
| Musical role | Multi-instrumentalist who brought slide guitar and harmonica to the Stones' recordings[4](https://creditosocial2023.patos.pb.gov.br/virtual-library/ZdjU71/9OK172/history-of-rolling_stones.pdf) |
| Tuning influence | Taught Keith Richards open G tuning, a blues staple that helped define the Stones' sound[5](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/paul-trynka/brian-jones/) |
| Dismissal | Jagger, Richards, and Charlie Watts told him on 8 June 1969 that he was no longer a member; he was found dead in his swimming pool three and a half weeks later[6](https://rollingstonesdata.com/articles/the-day-brian-jones-was-dismissed-from-the-rolling-stones-1969/) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) |
| Cause of death | Coroner's verdict was death by misadventure; his liver and heart were enlarged by sustained drug and alcohol use[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) |
## Early life
Jones grew up in [Cheltenham](https://www.edgepedia.org/cheltenham), the son of Lewis, an aeronautical engineer and piano teacher, and Louisa, who played organ at the local Baptist church.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) The household was strict and conventional; his father disapproved of his obsession with jazz and blues and pressed him toward a "proper" job.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) At 17 he was banished from his parents' house, and by the time he formed the Rolling Stones at 20 he had fathered three children by three different girlfriends.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) His first serious girlfriend, Valerie Corbett, became pregnant when both were 16, and the child was given up for adoption.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview)
## Founding and leading the Rolling Stones
In May 1962 Jones placed an advertisement in *Jazz News*, and within months the group was playing live.[3](https://olli.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/course/documents/Fab%20Four%20and%20the%20Stones%20course%20description%2C%20syllabus%20and%20week%20outline.pdf) He recruited [Mick Jagger](https://www.edgepedia.org/mick-jagger), Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, and [Charlie Watts](https://www.edgepedia.org/charlie-watts).[7](https://www.the-independent.com/independentpremium/long-reads/rolling-stones-brian-jones-b2337755.html) The band's name came to him while he was on the phone with a venue owner: asked what they were called, he spotted a Muddy Waters LP containing "Rollin' Stone" and answered on the spot.[6](https://rollingstonesdata.com/articles/the-day-brian-jones-was-dismissed-from-the-rolling-stones-1969/)
Before the group had a manager, Jones rang venues in London and beyond to book gigs, signed the early management and recording contracts, and, as [Bill Wyman](https://www.edgepedia.org/bill-wyman) recalls, received 75 percent of all Stones fan mail.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) He shaped their early sound in the style of the American blues musicians he worshipped, and taught Richards the open G tuning that became a signature of the band's guitar style.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) • [5](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/paul-trynka/brian-jones/) Paul Trynka, a former editor of *Mojo* and *Guitar* and the author of the 2014 biography *Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones*, concludes that Jones was the band's unrivaled leader in its first years.[5](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/paul-trynka/brian-jones/)
## The multi-instrumentalist
Jones's strength was color rather than songwriting. He brought slide guitar and harmonica into the band's palette, giving the Stones distinctive textures on their recordings.[4](https://creditosocial2023.patos.pb.gov.br/virtual-library/ZdjU71/9OK172/history-of-rolling_stones.pdf) His plaintive slide playing on "No Expectations" from *Beggars Banquet* (1968) returned to the guitar style that had launched his career.[8](https://www.guitarworld.com/features/how-brian-jones-mick-taylor-ronnie-wood-made-the-rolling-stones-what-they-are-today)
## Decline and dismissal
Jones's influence in the band began to diminish in the mid-1960s when Jagger and Richards established themselves as the group's songwriters, a skill Jones notably lacked.[9](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/brian-jones-mn0000618445) • [10](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/brian-jones-rolling-stones-documentary-b2436982.html) Manager Andrew Loog Oldham pushed the band away from the blues-covers identity Jones had conceived, kept Jones out of interviews, and, according to director [Nick Broomfield](https://www.edgepedia.org/nick-broomfield), "set the members against each other".[10](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/brian-jones-rolling-stones-documentary-b2436982.html) From around 1967 Jones grew estranged from the band, increasingly isolated and unhappy with its musical direction.[11](https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/just-why-was-brian-jones-so-important-to-the-rolling-stones/)
By the *Beggars Banquet* sessions in 1968, producer Jimmy Miller described him as "sort of in and out"; fly-on-the-wall footage from [Jean-Luc Godard](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-luc-godard)'s *Sympathy for the Devil* shows him turning up too stoned and sleepy to play, or not appearing at all.[12](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/singles-albums/i-used-to-accommodate-him-id-isolate-him-put-him-in-a-booth-and-not-record-him-the-others-particularly-mick-and-keith-would-say-just-tell-him-to-get-the-hell-out-beggars-banquet-the-album-that-was-the-turning-point-for-the-rolling-stones) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) With an American tour approaching, Jagger, Richards, and Watts visited his London home on 8 June 1969 and told him he was no longer in the band.[6](https://rollingstonesdata.com/articles/the-day-brian-jones-was-dismissed-from-the-rolling-stones-1969/) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) Richards later said Jones had expected the news and "wasn't surprised".[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) Jones issued a statement saying he wished to pursue his own music: "I want to play my kind of music, which is no longer the Stones music."
## Death
Jones was found dead in the swimming pool of Cotchford Farm, his home in [East Sussex](https://www.edgepedia.org/east-sussex), on the night of 3 July 1969, three and a half weeks after leaving the band.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) His girlfriend Anna Wohlin and Janet Lawson discovered him in the water.[13](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-real-brian-jones-515556.html) The coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure, noting that his liver and heart were greatly enlarged by sustained drug and alcohol consumption.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) Contrary to legend, the coroner's report found little evidence of drugs in his system; his blood alcohol level corresponded to roughly three and a half pints of beer.[13](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-real-brian-jones-515556.html)
His death has attracted sustained speculation. Wohlin and the 2005 film *Stoned* advanced the claim that Frank Thorogood, a builder working at the farmhouse, was responsible; Thorogood supposedly confessed on his deathbed in 1993.[13](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-real-brian-jones-515556.html) • [14](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jun/07/brian-jones-laura-jackson-rolling-stones) In 2010, Sussex police reviewed the death and concluded there was no new evidence to contradict the original verdict.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) Broomfield's 2023 documentary *The Stones and Brian Jones* deliberately avoids the murder theories, presenting Jones instead as a psychologically fragile figure unprepared for fame.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview) • [15](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_stones_and_brian_jones)
## Legacy
In 1989 the Rolling Stones were inducted into the [Rock and Roll Hall of Fame](https://www.edgepedia.org/rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame), and Jones's signature appears on the inductees' plaque alongside the other members.[16](https://rockhall.com/inductees/rolling-stones/) As a record collector and traveler he also pioneered what became world music exposure: the album *Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka*, recorded in Morocco in 1967, was heralded as groundbreaking and anticipated later projects by [Peter Gabriel](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-gabriel) and [Paul Simon](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-simon).[10](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/brian-jones-rolling-stones-documentary-b2436982.html) Bill Wyman's summary is blunt: "He formed the band."
## References
1. [Sean O'Hagan (2023). 'He epitomised the dazzling 60s and then was gone': the inside story of Rolling Stone Brian Jones. The Guardian.](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/07/nick-broomfield-brian-jones-rolling-stones-arena-documentary-interview)
2. [Jones, Brian, Astro-Databank](https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Jones%2C_Brian)
3. [Fab Four and the Stones course syllabus, UC Berkeley OLLI](https://olli.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/course/documents/Fab%20Four%20and%20the%20Stones%20course%20description%2C%20syllabus%20and%20week%20outline.pdf)
4. [Formation and Early Days, History of the Rolling Stones](https://creditosocial2023.patos.pb.gov.br/virtual-library/ZdjU71/9OK172/history-of-rolling_stones.pdf)
5. [Paul Trynka (2014). Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones. Kirkus Reviews.](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/paul-trynka/brian-jones/)
6. [The Day Brian Jones Was Dismissed from the Rolling Stones, 1969, RollingStonesData](https://rollingstonesdata.com/articles/the-day-brian-jones-was-dismissed-from-the-rolling-stones-1969/)
7. [No Jones, no Stones: the band's forgotten founder, The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/independentpremium/long-reads/rolling-stones-brian-jones-b2337755.html)
8. [How Brian Jones, Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood made the Rolling Stones, Guitar World](https://www.guitarworld.com/features/how-brian-jones-mick-taylor-ronnie-wood-made-the-rolling-stones-what-they-are-today)
9. [Brian Jones, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/brian-jones-mn0000618445)
10. [Jim Farber (2023). Drugs, jealousy, Nazi costumes: The harrowing story of Brian Jones. The Independent.](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/brian-jones-rolling-stones-documentary-b2436982.html)
11. [Why Brian Jones Was So Important To The Rolling Stones, uDiscover Music](https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/just-why-was-brian-jones-so-important-to-the-rolling-stones/)
12. [Beggars Banquet, the album that was the turning point for the Rolling Stones, MusicRadar](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/singles-albums/i-used-to-accommodate-him-id-isolate-him-put-him-in-a-booth-and-not-record-him-the-others-particularly-mick-and-keith-would-say-just-tell-him-to-get-the-hell-out-beggars-banquet-the-album-that-was-the-turning-point-for-the-rolling-stones)
13. [Louise Jury (2005). The real Brian Jones. The Independent.](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-real-brian-jones-515556.html)
14. [The life and death of Brian, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jun/07/brian-jones-laura-jackson-rolling-stones)
15. [The Stones and Brian Jones, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_stones_and_brian_jones)
16. [The Rolling Stones, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame](https://rockhall.com/inductees/rolling-stones/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musicians and ensembles › Individual musical biographies › Rock, metal, and popular-band musicians › British Invasion and 1960s beat*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 20, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license