Bill Wyman - Wyman: 'The Stones Didn't Respect Me'

Bassist BILL WYMAN was relieved when he left THE ROLLING STONES in 1993 - as former bandmates SIR MICK JAGGER and KEITH RICHARDS had no respect for him. Wyman, 69, shunned drug-taking other than smoking cannabis in the band's early years, and as a result was made to feel like an outcast. And he felt a there was a "lack of appreciation" - Jagger and Richards frequently expected him to drop everything when they needed him, while still refusing to cooperate when he had other plans. He says, "I'd never felt as if I was really part of the gang. For a start, I wasn't taking drugs. "Sometimes I was the only one who wasn't doing stuff, so I felt like an outcast all the time. "There was other stuff that went on, too: the lack of appreciation for what you're doing, the lack of honesty about your contribution. "The lack of them being respectful of your other life. You had to drop everything, no matter what it was, when they had the inclination. "(Drummer) CHARLIE (WATTS) would say: 'I'm sorry, I'm going to be in Zimbabwe on a wildlife thing." "But they'd say, "You're going to have to cancel."