by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Though he originally cut his teeth with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, guitarist Mick Taylor is best known for being a member of the Rolling Stones between 1969 and '74. Since trading in the sports arenas for smoky clubs, Taylor has served as a sideman and collaborator with Bob Dylan, Cream's Jack Bruce and Ten Years After's Alvin Lee. Although he's been a bit quiet for awhile, the past five years have had Taylor once again hitting the road, and he's on the cusp of recording his first solo record in years.

Mirror: You've described your days with John Mayall as one of your favourite times in your career.

Mick Taylor: Yeah, that was like going to university. It's when I first started to learn how to play the blues and it was my first time touring America, where I got to see Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. That was like a wake-up call. There was a really active music scene in London at the time that was a real turning point in the history of music. This so-called British invasion was really just English guys who reinvented the blues but in an accessible sort of form. There was a lot of segregation, especially on the radio, at that time, but by the time I joined the Stones in '69 we could now have BB King and Ike and Tina Turner on the bill with us.

M: What was it like working in the studio on the Stones' Exile on Main Street?

MT: We recorded it at Keith Richards' basement in the south of France. It was like a madhouse. We would usually start at night and then just come out of this dingy basement at six or seven in the morning. None of the Stones at the time, including me, realized what a special album that was while we were making it, but it's obviously a fan favourite.

M: According to books like Up and Down With the Rolling Stones and films like Cocksucker Blues, you were in the Stones at their most crazed peak. What is your craziest memory of the Stones?

MT: Oh, my God (laughs), there's so many. Okay, once we were flying from somewhere in the Midwest and were supposed to play Boston but because of bad weather our flight got diverted to Newport, Rhode Island. When we landed, Keith lashed out at a photographer and of course the police were called and meanwhile in Boston, there were riots in the city going on because of racial tension. Because of Keith's problems with the police, we were stuck in Newport and the crowd in Boston were threatening to riot as well. The mayor of Boston came down and personally guaranteed that the show would go on and even provided transportation for everybody in the crowd to get home after the show. By the time we got to Boston, we didn't get on stage until 3 o'clock in the morning and every single person waited with no incidents. It seems crazy now but at the time it just seemed typical. There was also this time we played this outdoor gig in Altamont...

With LG & the Blues Drivers at Café Campus on Wednesday, August 6, 8:30pm, $19.50

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