For over six decades, The Rolling Stones have been more than just a band, they’ve been a cultural fault line, a swaggering embodiment of rebellion and reinvention. Now, a brand-new podcast is digging beneath the legend to explore the people, personalities, and stories that helped shape their seismic rise.
Lip Service, a new series dedicated to in-depth conversations with those who lived inside the Stones’ orbit, has just launched its first episode – and it wastes no time getting to the good stuff. Host Simon Harper, former Clash Magazine Editor-In-Chief and long-time Classic Rock contributor, opens the series with an hour-long interview with Andrew Loog Oldham, the maverick manager who steered the band from 1963 to 1967 and helped define their early identity.
“Each episode is an interview with someone who is or has been a part of their inner circle, all the way from the 60s to present,” Harper explains. “I’ve got some really great guests lined up, covering loads of bases and uncovering some amazing stories.”
Oldham’s appearance delivers exactly that. He discusses the first time he saw the Stones play live, the infamous moment Decca passed on signing The Beatles, and how the group’s defiant image wasn’t a marketing invention, it was already baked into their DNA. He’s candid about lineup tensions too, revealing why Ian Stewart was ultimately one band member too many.
The conversation doesn’t shy away from the darker corners of his life either. Oldham opens up about battling mental health struggles at the height of the band’s rise, describing weekend stays in a nursing home as a much-needed escape. “By the time everything was going nicely, I used to go in there at the weekends just to get away from everybody,” he recalls. “I’d have three meals a day, my shrink would come in and eat supper with me, and then on Monday morning I’d go back to work.”
He even shares his pick for the band’s most underrated song, though you’ll have to tune in to hear which one made the cut.
With future episodes promising more unheard stories from the Stones’ extended family, Lip Service is poised to become essential listening for fans eager to explore the untold history behind rock’s most enduring band.
The first episode of Lip Service is streaming now on all major podcast platforms.
