Rock and roll is full of intriguing “nearly happened” moments. Jeff Beck could have joined the Yardbirds, Rudy Sarzo nearly didn’t join Ozzy Osbourne’s band (a move that kickstarted his long career), and Dave Navarro had the chance to team up with Slash in Guns N’ Roses.
And then there’s Harvey Mandel, the former Canned Heat guitarist who made his name with his deft two-handed tapping techniques in the 1970s. Mandel says he nearly became a Rolling Stone, but one person stopped that from happening.
It started with a phone call from Mick Jagger in the middle of the night in 1976. As is often the case in these stories, Mandel assumed he was being pranked.
“I thought it was somebody goofing around at first,” he tells Guitar World. “But after I talked with him on the phone for a few minutes, I realized this was Mick Jagger.
“They were in Germany at the time, and he said, ‘Well, we want you to come to Germany…’ He didn’t really say it was an ‘audition’ to join the Stones; he wanted me to come and play to be a part of the record.”
Mandel jumped at the opportunity. For that reason alone, his playing can be heard on “Hot Stuff” and “Memory Hotel” from the Stones’ 1976 album, Black and Blue. It was the first studio album since 1971’s Sticky Fingers that the band had tracked without second guitarist Mick Taylor, who left the band two years earlier.
Richards had handled most of the record’s guitar parts with Wayne Perkins, who had previously recorded with the Wailers and Joni Mitchell. Yet, despite Mandel’s excellent playing and best efforts to fit in, he says Richards blocked his path to a permanent spot in the band.
“Ronnie Wood came in the next day, and Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards were pals,” Mandel explains. “They grew up together and hung out. Mick Jagger wanted me to play. Keith Richards wanted Ronnie Wood — who won out because Keith had the power to insist that it was Ronnie Wood, or else. So I kind of got aced out.”
Wood, who had risen through the ranks as a bass player in the Jeff Beck Group and as an electric guitar player in the Small Faces, is still a Rolling Stone today. But Mandel still believes he was better suited to the job.
“Ronnie was a nice guy,” he says. “I played at his club and hung out with him a couple of times. But let’s face it: he ain’t no Mick Taylor, and he’s no Harvey Mandel. He’s what I call a C-plus guitar player.”
Let’s face it: he ain’t no Mick Taylor
Harvey Mandel
It’s a bold claim, but he feels Wood’s greatest asset was one that the band already had in its ranks.
“He had the show, and he could jump around and be part of the craziness, but he never impressed me as an actual player,” he concludes. “So, I think they would have been much better off musically if I was the one playing because they didn’t need Ronnie Wood for the show. Mick Jagger was the show.”
Mandel’s full chat with GuitarWorld.com is due to be published later this month.
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