38 Facts About Bill Wyman

William George Wyman is an English musician who was the bass guitarist with the rock band the Rolling Stones from 1962 to 1993.

Bill Wyman was part of the band's first stable lineup and performed on their first 19 albums.

Bill Wyman was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Rolling Stones in 1989.

Bill Wyman briefly returned to recording with the Rolling Stones in 2023.

Bill Wyman described his wartime childhood as "scarred by poverty", having survived The Blitz and enemy fighter plane strafing that killed neighbours.

Bill Wyman attended Oakfield Primary School, passing his eleven plus exam to gain entry to Beckenham and Penge County Grammar School from 1947 to Easter 1953, leaving before the GCE exams after his father found him a job working for a bookmaker and insisted that he take it.

In January 1955, Bill Wyman was called up for two year national service in the Royal Air Force.

Bill Wyman switched to bass guitar after hearing one at a Barron Knights concert.

Bill Wyman created a fretless electric bass guitar by removing the frets on a second hand UK-built Dallas Tuxedo bass and played this in a south London band, the Cliftons, in 1961.

Bill Wyman legally changed his surname to Wyman in August 1964, taking the phonetic surname of a friend, Lee Whyman, with whom he had done national service in the Royal Air Force from 1955 to 1957.

Bill Wyman wrote and sang lead on the track "In Another Land" from the album Their Satanic Majesties Request, which was released as a single and credited solely to Wyman, making it his first official solo single.

The song is one of two Bill Wyman compositions released by the Rolling Stones; the second is "Downtown Suzie", on Metamorphosis, a collection of Rolling Stones outtakes.

Bill Wyman was close to Brian Jones; they usually shared rooms while on tour and often went to clubs together.

Bill Wyman was distraught when he heard the news of Jones' death, being one of two members to attend Jones' funeral in July 1969.

Bill Wyman has kept a journal throughout his life, beginning when he was a child, and used it in writing his 1990 autobiography Stone Alone and his 2002 book Rolling with the Stones.

Bill Wyman played on The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, released 1971, with Howlin' Wolf, Eric Clapton, Charlie Watts and Stevie Winwood, and on the album Jamming with Edward, released in 1972, with Ry Cooder, Nicky Hopkins, Jagger and Watts.

Bill Wyman played bass on at least two tracks of the 1967 album I Can Tell by John P Hammond.

In 1983, Bill Wyman helped organize a fundraiser for Action Research into Multiple Sclerosis in the form of a concert tour with a group calling themselves Willie and the Poor Boys.

Bill Wyman made a cameo appearance in the 1987 film Eat the Rich.

Bill Wyman produced and played on a few albums of the group Tucky Buzzard.

Bill Wyman rarely performed vocals, but typically sang lead vocals on the Chuck Berry song "You Never Can Tell" and the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women".

Bill Wyman was a judge for the 5th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.

On 25 October 2009, Bill Wyman performed a reunion show with Faces, filling in for the late Ronnie Lane as he had previously done in 1986 and 1993.

Bill Wyman played on two tracks: "Rooming House Boogie" and "Watchin' the River Flow", the latter recorded with the Rolling Stones.

Bill Wyman later stated that he was not interested in joining the band for further tour dates in 2013.

Bill Wyman participated in a 2019 documentary, directed and written by Oliver Murray, titled The Quiet One, about his life and career.

Bill Wyman briefly returned to recording with the Rolling Stones in 2023, playing bass on one track, "Live By the Sword", on their album Hackney Diamonds.

On 9 August 2024, Bill Wyman released his ninth solo album entitled Drive My Car.

Since the late 1980s, Bill Wyman has primarily played Steinberger basses.

Bill Wyman married his first wife, Diane Cory, in 1959 and their son Stephen Paul Bill Wyman was born on 29 March 1962.

Bill Wyman had a brief relationship with one of the women and upon returning the next year on 22 February 1966 during the band's Australasian Tour found her to be absent.

Bill Wyman was told that both were living happily and the mother did not contact him when the Stones visited New Zealand a week later.

In 1993, Wyman's son Stephen Wyman married Patsy Smith, the 46-year-old mother of Bill's ex-wife Mandy Smith.

In 1968, Bill Wyman bought Gedding Hall as his country home near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk; it dates back to 1458.

Bill Wyman is a keen cricket enthusiast and admired Denis Compton and played in a celebrity match at the Oval against a former England XI, taking a hat-trick.

Bill Wyman is a lifelong Crystal Palace FC fan, attending his first match as a birthday treat with father William.

Bill Wyman is a photographer who has taken photographs throughout his career, and in June 2010 he launched a retrospective of his work in an exhibition in St Paul de Vence.

In March 2016, Bill Wyman was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was expected to make a full recovery.