Today I’d like to celebrate the memory of English guitarist, sitarist, flutist, dulcimer player…well, basically multi-instrumentalist Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones. Better known to the world as just Brian Jones, This man deserves to be remembered as the important figure in the history of rock that he most certainly is.
In May 1962 Brian Jones posted an ad in Jazz Weekly, looking for musicians to form a band. Keyboardist Ian Stewart was among the first to answer, and was soon followed by singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. More musicians came and went, among them bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts. This line-up played their first gig together in mid-January 1963, calling themselves The Rolling Stones. Rarely has the cliche “the rest is history” been more applicable than here. And this particular history was started by Brian Jones.
As many of his peers in the 1960’s, Brian Jones eventually got serious problems due to various substances. It came to the point that he felt he wasn’t able to carry on, so he left the Stones in June 1969. Less than a month later, 55 years ago on this day, he sadly passed away, only 27 years old. Let’s raise our glasses to Brian Jones, without whom we would not have the Rolling Stones we know today 
The Rolling Stones - 19th Nervous Breakdown
The Rolling Stones - Lady Jane