Former Rolling Stones star Bill Wyman has confirmed a longtime rock 'n' roll myth - tragic Irish blues great Rory Gallagher almost grabbed the spot that was to become Ronnie Wood's in the band.
The bassist reveals Mick Jagger and Keith Richards flew Gallagher out to Holland to rehearse with the Stones after Mick Taylor quit the group suddenly at the end of 1974, and they seriously considered adding him to the line-up.
Interviewed for a new documentary about Gallagher, Wyman says, "Rory stayed two or three days there and played some nice stuff. We had a good time with him, but I think Mick and Keith felt that he wasn't the kind of character that would have fit.
"If he'd have been in the Stones, he wouldn't have been singing and that was one of his strong points. He would have just been playing (guitar) solos... and learning to be subservient to two big egos. I don't think it would have worked."
And Gallagher's friend Bob Geldof agrees. Also appearing in the film, Ghost Blues, the Boomtown Rats star adds, "He could never have put up with the b**locks of Mick and Keith, never in a thousand years... Up against Mick and Keith, he would have shot himself."
Gallagher died of complications from a liver transplant in 1995, aged 47.