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William George Wyman was born in London and joined The Rolling Stones in 1962. The following year the line-up was completed with the addition of Charlie Watts and the legend was born. The band was later described by Geoffrey Cannon as, "Perverted, outrageous, violent, repulsive, ugly, tasteful, incoherent. A travesty. That's what's good about them."
Bill is now the owner of The Ripple Group of companies and the London based Sticky Fingers restaurant. In 1993, he married Suzanne Accosta and together they have three young daughters - Katharine Noelle, Jessica Rose and Matilda Mae. Bill has an older son Stephen from a previous marriage.
To date, Bill has released two books. The first was his autobiography Stone Alone: The Story of a Rock and Roll Band, (1990) and his second was Wyman Shoots Chagall, (1998). This charming limited edition book presented a selection of informal photographs taken by Bill of the late artist Marc Chagall. Each book came with a CD of classical music entitled, The Chagall Suite - written and arranged by Bill Wyman and Mike Batt. Previous solo recordings include, Monkey Grip, Stone Alone, Bill Wyman and (Si Si) Je Suis un Rockstar, reached The Top 20 in a variety of countries.
In 1985 he recorded, Willie and The Poor Boys, with Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, Andy Fairweather-Low, Chris Rea, Paul Rogers and Jimmy Page, to raise money for ARMS (The Multiple Sclerosis Charity) and released a second album, Willie and The Poor Boys Live, with Gary Brooker and other musician friends.
Bill Wyman has been seen in films, Sympathy for the Devil, Gimme Shelter, Ladies and Gentlemen and Rolling Stones, Let's Spend The Night Together, Digital Dreams and Rolling Stones in IMAX, Larger Than Life. Bill wrote the soundtrack for The Ryan O'Neal, Omar Sharif and Anne Archer film, Green Ice and contributed to the soundtracks for two Dario Argento films Bill's restaurant Sticky Fingers - which an American critic called, "The San Lorenzo of burger restaurants" - has recently reached its eleventh anniversary and over the years has won a variety of high profile awards. Most recently, Michael Winner presented Sticky Fingers with The Sunday Times award for Best Hamburger of 1999.
In 1996, in conjunction with his co-writer Terry Taylor, Bill Wyman decided to form a new band who would play a mixture of jazz and blues - music which first inspired Bill to pick up a bass guitar. The band, whose members include Georgie Fame, Albert Lee, Martin Taylor and Gary Brooker became Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.
The Rhythm King's first album Struttin' Our Stuff was released in 1997 and the second Anyway The Wind Blows in 1998. Anyway The Wind Blows was met with great reviews from magazines such as Q and Mojo and stormed to the top five of the Jazz and Blues album charts resulting in a successful UK tour. ‘Groovin’ The Rhythm Kings third album was released by their new label Papillon on 15 May 2000. The title track, a cover of the Young Rascals' classic, was released as the band's first single on 17 April 2000. The album met with rave reviews reaching number 1 in the Jazz & Blues charts for 5 weeks and successfully entered the national charts.
Critical Praise for "Double Bill"
"What's remarkable is the ease with which the Bill Wyman/Terry Taylor writing team have seamlessly created 11 originals that, sitting alongside their vintage counterparts, sound authentically of the same era. Wyman has found his niche...a worthy exploration of music for music's sake. There is much to learn and more to appreciate."
- Blues Revue