In 1992, Bill Wyman quit the Rolling Stones after 30 years. That's when his blues odyssey began.
The former bassist for the legendary British group, now 64, has spent his recent years researching, collecting and -- with his current group The Rhythm Kings -- performing the classic blues music that drove the Stones in the first place.
Those interests have culminated in a new book, Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey: A Journey To Music's Heart And Soul, which has Wyman in Toronto this weekend to promote, along with co-author Richard Havers.
"I've always wanted to do things like this, but I never had the time," he said yesterday during an interview at a downtown hotel. "When I left the band, I could focus on a project and just work right the way through until I can see it completed. That applies to every project I've done since then."
For the record, those also include running a restaurant, the London burger joint Sticky Fingers, photography and archeological digs on his Suffolk estate.
Asked if all that still beats playing in the world's most venerated rock band, Wyman didn't blink.
"Yes," he said. "When I played with the Stones I was playing the same songs for 25 years, and I knew if I stayed another 10 years I'd still be playing the same songs 10 years later. That's the way of the pop world. In my band I can pick up any song from the '20s to the '70s, of any style, by anybody from a Fats Waller to a Billie Holiday to a Ray Charles to a J.J. Cale. It's much more interesting."
Wyman stated flatly that he doesn't foresee a time when he might play with the Stones again.
As for what he misses about his old group?
"Not a thing. I see them all the time," he added, referring to Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood. "I always had a good relationship when I was in the band. We played for 31 years and it was lovely. When I left there was a bit of aggravation from Mick and Keith, particularly because they lost control of me. Charlie, I was still great friends with. I still saw Woody a lot. Now I see Mick a lot as well. We all get on very well, visit each other's houses and get together for dinners and holidays. Our children mix. It's social now, like family. But I don't ever want to go back and they know that. I get the occasional message through the grapevine -- 'If you're not doing anything for the next two years we might have a job for you.' Things like that are just amusing. I don't take them seriously and neither do they."
It takes just a glance at Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey to see that, while the bassist might not just play music, he is marginally obsessed by it.
Laid out like a colourful textbook, Blues Odyssey uses maps, sidebars and excellent artwork and photo archives to trace the musical genre's history from the days of the slave trade.
Wyman is known for his meticulous eye for detail. His autobiography Stone Alone was loaded with Stones facts and treated everything from the band's interpersonal relationships to how many women Wyman bedded as history for the telling.
"It was matter-of-fact: This is what happened," he said. "I've kept a diary since 1959. I know what happened because every day I wrote it down.
"But I think as a musician, researching and writing about the history of the blues lends this book a bit more credence. I played with a lot of these people, recorded with them and saw them live. I just wanted to write a book that everybody could read and make it totally illustrative. You see where the railways were, where Highway 61 was. It gives it a whole new interesting way of getting into it. It sort of de-mystifies it."
Wyman will appear today at Indigo Books in the Manulife Centre at 2:30 p.m. to sign copies of the book.
