The Rolling Stones’ Hell-Raising Original Ringleader
According to this very publication, the Rolling Stones’ new album Hackney Diamonds is the best the English rockers have sounded “in about half a century,” so there’s no better time for the new documentary The Stones and Brian Jones to hit theaters (and VOD).
When documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield was just 14, he had a chance encounter with Rolling Stones co-founder (and original ringleader) Brian Jones on a train. Six years later, after being kicked out of the rock group, the drugged-out guitarist was found lifeless at the bottom of his swimming pool in 1969 at the age of 27. In the decades since, the 75-year-old filmmaker — who’s made docs on everyone from serial killer Aileen Wuornos and Sarah Palin to Biggie & Tupac — has wondered why the rock stair on the train died so young.
“[Jones] was by himself on the train, I knocked on the door, and we chatted for about twenty minutes,” Broomfield tells Rolling Stone. “He was extremely middle class and polite and revealed that he was a trainspotter. He loved trains. And about six years later, he died. I always wondered what happened to that person who seemed so together, happy, famous, and successful.”
Watch the trailer for The Stones and Brian Jones here:
As for the surviving Stones’ involvement, Broomfield says he knows Mick Jagger and some of the guys, but “they’re extremely controlling,” so he didn’t involve them in the doc.
“One of the reasons there are no films about this period is because no one’s ever been able to make one. So, we just made this film and showed it to people afterward,” he says. “Bill Wyman came onboard, which was great because he was the guy who was the diarist and note-keeper of the Stones. He has all these diaries in his study — every day he kept a notebook of what happened.”
Broomfield reveals it took several years for him and his team to amass all the archival material used in The Stones and Brian Jones, and “most of the footage hasn’t been seen before.” He employed three archivists full-time and collected a ton of material because he wanted to keep audiences in the Sixties and not pull them out of it with present-day sit-down interviews.
“When we showed the film to Bill Wyman, the guy who has all the footage and is the archivist, he was amazed because he hadn’t seen it before,” shares Broomfield. “I think when you can surprise the Stones’ own archivist, you’re doing OK.”
The Stones and Brian Jones is “a celebration of the Stones” that explores “the power struggle that happened” between Jones and Mick and Keith, says Broomfield. And it should put to rest any bizarre conspiracy theories surrounding Jones’ death.
“It lifts the lid up and closes it again pretty quickly [on them],” explains Broomfield, adding, “Brian was in such a bad way that he was his own worst enemy.”
The Stones and Brian Jones will be released Nov. 17 in theaters and on VOD by Magnolia Pictures.