Untold Stories of Miles Davis, Sting, and a Life Spent Playing Bass for the Greatest Artists Who Ever Lived
Darryl Jones has played bass on some of the most significant stages and recordings in the history of popular music. He joined Miles Davis's band as a teenager, went on to record and tour with Sting, Peter Gabriel, Madonna, and others, and has been the bassist for the Rolling Stones since 1994 -- one of the most enduring tenures in rock history. He has been in the room for more defining moments in modern music than almost any living musician, and he has largely kept the stories to himself until now.
In this conversation with Elmo, Darryl Jones opens up about all of it -- what Miles Davis was actually like in those sessions, the inside story of joining the Stones and what thirty years on that bandstand has taught him, the specific craft behind playing bass at the highest level across genres, and the untold stories he has been holding for decades. This is one of the most historically rich conversations Go With Elmo has ever produced.
"Miles didn't teach you music. He put you in a situation where you had no choice but to find music you didn't know you had."
His account of what it was actually like to be in Miles Davis's band as a young player -- the sessions, the demands, the specific things Miles said and did in the room, and what it taught him about music and about himself that nothing else could have. The untold stories from one of jazz's most mythologized figures, told by someone who was actually there.
The full story of how he became the Rolling Stones' bassist in 1994 -- the call, the audition, what Keith and Mick were like in that first session, and what it has meant to hold that chair for thirty years. His account of what the Stones are like from the inside and what makes them still one of the greatest live bands in the world.
What three decades on the Rolling Stones bandstand actually looks like from where he stands -- the tours, the recordings, the specific musical relationships, and what has kept him in that role long after most musician-band relationships would have ended. His perspective on what makes the Stones work and what his role within that has evolved into.
His account of recording and touring with Sting and Peter Gabriel -- what each of them is like as a musical collaborator, what they demanded from the musicians around them, and the specific stories from those sessions and tours that have never been told publicly. Two of music's most exacting artists, described from the inside.
His fully developed philosophy of what it means to play bass at the highest level across rock, jazz, R&B, and pop -- what the instrument's role actually is, what the great bass players understand that most people don't, and what he is still working on after a career spent at the top of every genre he has entered. The view from one of the most experienced positions in modern music.
His account of what it means to have been present for this much music history -- the weight of it, the gratitude, and the specific things he understands now about the musicians he played with that he couldn't have understood at the time. His reflections on a career that has placed him at the center of modern music for over four decades.
The Miles stories: Darryl's specific and previously untold accounts of what Miles Davis was like in the sessions -- the commands, the silences, the specific musical decisions, and the moments where he realized he was being taught something he had no language for yet. The most historically valuable part of this conversation, and the reason it belongs in the archive of Miles Davis documentation.
The Stones origin story: his specific account of how he got the call, what the audition was like, and the first tour -- what he noticed immediately about how the Stones work, what surprised him, and the specific moment when he understood he was going to be there for a long time. One of rock history's great lateral moves, explained by the person who made it.
On playing with Sting: his candid account of what Sting is like as a musical collaborator -- the precision, the demands, and the specific musical conversations that made those sessions what they were. His account of what it takes to be the bassist in a room where the leader is himself a world-class bass player.
His advice on the instrument: his specific, earned advice for anyone serious about the bass -- what the great players have in common that most bass instructors never talk about, what he wished he had understood earlier, and what he still practices. The most practically useful part of one of the most historically rich conversations in Go With Elmo's history.