July 18: Ian Stewart keyboardist and co-founder of the Rolling Stones, was born on this date in 1938...

... he was 47 when he suffered a fatal heart attack and died in the waiting room of a hospital after complaining of respiratory problems.

Born at Kirklatch Farm, Pittenweem, East Neuk, Fife, Scotland, and raised in Sutton, Surrey, Stewart "Stu" started playing piano when he was six. He took up banjo and played with amateur groups on both instruments.

Ian was first to respond to Brian Jones's advertisement in Jazz News of 2 May 1962 seeking musicians to form a rhythm & blues group. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards joined in June, and the group, with Dick Taylor on bass and Mick Avory on drums, played their first gig under the name The Rollin' Stones at the Marquee Club on 12 July 1962.

Because the band's manager Andrew Oldham did not think Ian fitted the image he wanted to market and thought six was too many members, he officially "left the group" in 1963, but continued until his death as their road manager and pianist playing on all their albums for the first ten years, and on a few afterwards.

In 1975 Stewart joined the band on stage again, playing piano on numbers of his choosing throughout tours in 1975-76, 1978 and 1981-82. He favored blues and country rockers, and remained dedicated to boogie-woogie and early rhythm & blues.

In addition to his work with the Rolling Stones, he contributed to Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" from Led Zeppelin IV and "Boogie With Stu" from Physical Graffiti. Another was Howlin' Wolf's 1971 London Sessions. He also played with the back-to-roots band Rocket 88.

Ian was inducted posthumously in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 with the Rolling Stones.

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