"Like you don't use rent boys."

From what I remember, Mandy Smith was pimped out at night clubs to celebrities by her mum. She was preyed upon by all the adults who should have protected her.

Some of us never condoned it or thought any of this was OK.  Mandy was 13

He gave me a fiver to get him fish and chips. I ran to the chippy and back, so it wouldn't get cold. Gave him the hot food and his change. He counted every penny and questioned whether it was all there, as if I'd kept some of it. Didn't like him, to be honest.

Back in the day, Jimmy Page had a 13 yr old traveling with him and Led Zeppelin.

I was a young man working in the motor trade, with teens through to sixty year-olds, during Wyman's 'affair' with Mandy Smith. All of us thought Wyman was a disgusting, filthy pervert.

Wyman's relationship with Mandy Smith disgusted me at the time. My youngest sister was a similar age to Mandy.

I don’t think the argument “it was a different time” is valid. I remember reading about the relationship when it happened and thinking it was creepy and wrong. It’s the first thing I think of when I see Wyman’s photo all these decades later. I’m glad he’s out of the band. I miss Charlie Watts. I don’t miss Bill Wyman.

I enjoy listening to your analysis as well as seeing your photography. I think I thought for many years that fame or a glamorous lifestyle makes someone interesting, when that isn’t necessarily the case. I watched an interview with Orson Welles and he described meeting Adolf Hitler at a dinner before the 1930’s. The interviewer (Dick Cavett) asked Orson what his impressions were regarding the man. Orson said he was unremarkable and that he left such a little impression on him that he could  barely remember meeting him.

I think the only decent rolling stone was Charlie Watts.

Bill Wyman has been bashed for his relationship with Mandy Smith, and rightfully so. That said, in MY humble opinion, every adult in Mandy Smith's life failed her. She was a child when she encountered Bill Wyman. The question I have always had about this is, WHERE was her mother? WHY did she allow her young teenaged daughter to become involved with a middle-aged man? Was Mandy's father in her life? It seems to me that everyone who should have stopped this fiasco failed her. Again, these are just my thoughts on the Bill Wyman and Mandy Smith mess.

Bill was only able to join the Stones because he had an amp. He formed a great rhythm section with Charlie, but he was older than the others and much less glamorous.
He took a lot of abuse from Mick and Keith, but he held on desperately to stay in the band, knowing full well that this was his only chance at the glamorous life of a rockstar.
In his biography, you can read between the lines that he hated it. That strange life gave him a strange personality.

Mick Taylor, the guitarist for a few years, saw that much more clearly and left quickly because he knew how destructive the Stones would be to his life.
Charlie probably saw it as well, but he consciously dissociated himself from them and had nothing to do with them outside of the music.

But Bill stayed too long, and some of Jagger's toxicity rubbed off on him.

I'd forgotten about that. Was in my teens so you don't much notice that type of tabloid gossip (mercifully). Such a total creep.

All the Stones seemed to be in a state of arrested adolescence for many decades . Why so surprised ?

Bill Wyman is a few years older than me but not much. A 47 yr old man dating a 13 yr old child was not ok then. It wasn’t ok for Jerry Lee Lewis. It wasn’t ok for Elvis. Yes it happened and the press treated it with more laxity but the average person in the 60’s or 70’s thought it was creepy as f**k.

I tried to avoid as much exposure to the Mandy Smith thing as possible as the relationship was as seedy as the media's making allowance for it.

Erm, actually I remember thinking that this was not ok even back then . As if the whole Bill n Mandy thing wasn’t wrong enough on its own But her mum? …She was fame hungry and exploited her own daughter. Really grim even then.

I shot Bill Wyman about 8 years ago for a Japanese guitar magazine. I was told by his 'people' that it wasnt a photo shoot.. so i got him to stand over by the window ( in Sticky fingers) and i shot about 4 frames.

Thought it was disgusting at the time…still is.

When I was in high school in the 70s, we used to cruise Central Avenue in Phoenix Arizona. One of my girlfriends was 16 and met a gorgeous guy cruising who was in his 20s. Her parents allowed her to date him and while still in high school they got married in a huge Catholic wedding. Older men hit on teenagers all the time and while I felt uncomfortable, and for better or worse it was a reality in that era.