Rolling Stones Trivia
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50 free Rolling Stones trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
45 free Rolling Stones trivia questions with answers. The Rolling Stones have been going since 1962, which is a lot of trivia. This quiz runs from Mick Jagger meeting Keith Richards on a Dartford railway platform and Brian Jones naming the band off a Muddy Waters LP, through the Marquee debut, the Ed Sullivan lyric change, the Redlands drug bust, Satisfaction, Paint It Black and Sympathy for the Devil, Jones's death and Hyde Park, Altamont, the tongue logo, tax exile at Nellcôte, Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood, Some Girls and disco, Start Me Up, Steel Wheels, Bill Wyman leaving, Charlie Watts, and Hackney Diamonds with Lady Gaga and Paul McCartney. Easy questions ask who sings and what the logo is; the hard ones want the gardener who inspired Jumpin' Jack Flash, the cook who baked the Let It Bleed cake, the number of children Jagger has and how many reggae takes of Start Me Up were thrown away. Written for lifelong fans, pub-quiz teams and anyone who has argued about Brian Jones versus Mick Taylor. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the band, its members, albums and songs, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Kent town did Jagger and Richards grow up and reconnect at the station in 1961?
Dartford
Dartford railway station, 17 October 1961: Jagger was carrying Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records, which told Richards they shared an obsession with American blues.
Q 02Which multi-instrumentalist founded the band in 1962 and named it off a Muddy Waters LP?
Brian Jones
Brian Jones named the band in 1962 while looking at a Muddy Waters LP that included the track 'Rollin' Stone'; he led the group in its early years.
Q 03At which London venue did 'the Rollin' Stones' play their first show on 12 July 1962?
The Marquee Club
The Marquee Club, then on Oxford Street, hosted the first gig billed as 'the Rollin' Stones' on 12 July 1962, filling in for Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated.
Q 04Which founding Stones keyboardist was pushed out by Andrew Loog Oldham but stayed as road manager until 1985?
Ian Stewart
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the band in 1989, four years after his death.
Q 05Which provocative headline did Andrew Loog Oldham engineer to make the Stones the anti-Beatles?
Would You Let Your Sister Go with a Rolling Stone?
'Would You Let Your Sister Go with a Rolling Stone?' ran in Melody Maker in March 1964, a line Oldham pushed to cast the band as the scruffy anti-Beatles.
Q 06How did Keith Richards come up with the riff for '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction'?
He wrote it in his sleep and taped it on a cassette
He wrote it in his sleep and taped it on a cassette: Richards woke in a Clearwater, Florida hotel in May 1965, recorded the riff, then dozed off, leaving snoring on the tape.
Q 07'Paint It Black' (1966) was the first chart-topping single to feature which instrument?
Sitar
Jones also added marimba to 'Under My Thumb' and recorder to 'Ruby Tuesday'. All five Stones shaped the arrangement.
Q 08What word replaced 'the night' when the Stones sang 'Let's Spend the Night Together' on Ed Sullivan in 1967?
time
Sullivan made them sing 'Let's Spend Some Time Together' on 15 January 1967; Jagger rolled his eyes at the camera each time he reached the word time.
Q 09For what was Mick Jagger sentenced to three months in prison after the 1967 Redlands raid?
Possessing four amphetamine tablets
Possessing four amphetamine tablets, bought legally in Italy, earned Jagger three months in 1967; after The Times asked 'Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?', the Court of Appeal set the jail term aside.
Q 10The title of Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967) is a play on words found where?
Inside a British passport
Inside a British passport the text reads 'Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State requests and requires...', which the 1967 title parodies; the album's lenticular 3D cover was widely mocked.
Q 11'Jumpin' Jack Flash' was inspired by the clumping footsteps of whom outside Richards' country house?
His gardener
His gardener, Jack Dyer, clumping past Redlands in wellington boots woke Jagger and Richards one morning; Richards said 'that's Jack, jumpin' Jack', and the 1968 single returned them to hard rock.
Q 12Which Russian novel did Mick Jagger cite as an inspiration for 'Sympathy for the Devil'?
The Master and Margarita
The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov's novel, reached English readers in 1967 and gave Jagger the devil-as-narrator idea; Richards suggested turning the Dylanesque folk draft into a samba.
Q 13Which French director filmed the Stones recording 'Sympathy for the Devil' for his film One Plus One?
Q 21At which December 1969 free concert did Hells Angels fatally stab Meredith Hunter?
Altamont
Altamont Speedway, 6 December 1969: Hells Angels, reportedly paid in $500 of beer on the Grateful Dead's advice, stabbed Meredith Hunter during the Stones' set; three others died in accidents that day.
Q 22The Stones' tongue-and-lips logo was inspired by the stuck-out tongue of which deity?
Kali
Kali: Jagger showed designer John Pasche an image of the Hindu goddess with her tongue out, and Pasche's 1970 design for Rolling Stones Records became the band's general logo.
Q 23Which pop artist conceived the Sticky Fingers cover, with its working zip that revealed underwear?
Andy Warhol
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard shot the Olympic Studios sessions in June 1968 for One Plus One, capturing the 'who who' backing vocals turning into the song's 'woo-woo' chant.
Q 14Why was the release of Beggars Banquet (1968) delayed for months?
The label rejected the graffiti-covered toilet cover
The label rejected the graffiti-covered toilet cover, so Decca shipped the album in December 1968 in a plain white invitation-card sleeve; the toilet-wall artwork was restored on later reissues.
Q 15Which one-off supergroup with Lennon, Clapton and Keith Richards on bass played the 1968 Rock and Roll Circus?
The Dirty Mac
The Dirty Mac played 'Yer Blues' with Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience on drums; the Stones shelved the film until 1996, reportedly because The Who had outplayed them.
Q 16How did the band's founder die in July 1969, less than a month after leaving?
He drowned in his swimming pool
He drowned in his swimming pool at Cotchford Farm, Sussex, on 3 July 1969, aged 27; the house had belonged to Winnie-the-Pooh author A. A. Milne.
Q 17Which guitarist, poached from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, joined in 1969 to fill the founder's spot?
Mick Taylor
Mick Taylor, who had replaced Peter Green in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, joined in June 1969 and left the Stones in December 1974.
Q 18'Honky Tonk Women' was written on holiday in which country, inspired by rural 'caipiras' met there?
Brazil
Brazil: Jagger and Richards were staying on a ranch at Matão, São Paulo state, in early 1969, and the caipiras there shaped the song; the country version 'Country Honk' is on Let It Bleed.
Q 19Which then-unknown cookery writer baked the cake on the cover of Let It Bleed?
Delia Smith
Delia Smith, then a young home economist, baked the cake for designer Robert Brownjohn's 1969 cover; it sits on a stack with a pizza, a bicycle tyre and a film canister.
Q 20Which American singer shares the vocal with Jagger on 1969's 'Gimme Shelter'?
Merry Clayton
Merry Clayton was called in late one night in 1969 to trade lines with Jagger on 'Gimme Shelter'; her voice famously cracks during the final 'rape, murder' refrain.
Andy Warhol conceived the 1971 Sticky Fingers sleeve, executed by Craig Braun; the working zip dented stacked records in transit until copies were shipped with it pulled halfway down, and the cover earned a Grammy nomination.
Q 24'Wild Horses' and 'You Gotta Move' were recorded in December 1969 at which Alabama facility?
Muscle Shoals Sound
Muscle Shoals Sound, the Sheffield, Alabama studio founded by the Swampers rhythm section, hosted three days of sessions from 2 December 1969, squeezed between US tour dates.
Q 25Exile on Main St. was largely recorded at a villa in the south of France because the band had become what?
Tax exiles
Tax exiles: years of unpaid British tax after Allen Klein's management left the band unable to afford to stay, so in 1971 Richards rented Villa Nellcôte at Villefranche-sur-Mer and its basement became the studio.
Q 26According to Keith Richards' memoir, who is the song 'Angie' about?
No one in particular
No one in particular, Richards wrote in his 2010 memoir: 'Angie' was a random name sung before he knew his unborn child would be a girl called Angela; the single topped the US chart in October 1973.
Q 27Ronnie Wood joined the Stones in 1975 from which band, alongside Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones?
Faces
Faces formed in 1969 when Wood and Rod Stewart, fresh from the Jeff Beck Group, joined the remaining Small Faces; Wood left for the Stones in 1975 and Faces split that December.
Q 28Which Some Girls single, with a 'Special Disco Version' 12-inch, reached number one in the US in 1978?
Miss You
Miss You topped the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1978; its 'Special Disco Version' 12-inch was the band's first dance remix, and Some Girls answered disco and punk alike.
Q 29'Start Me Up' began life in 1975 as a reggae track under what title?
Never Stop
Never Stop was the reggae working title; producer Chris Kimsey found two rock takes buried among dozens of reggae versions, and one of them became the 1981 single.
Q 30Tattoo You (1981) is mostly made up of what?
Studio outtakes from the 1970s
Studio outtakes from the 1970s make up most of the album: with Jagger and Richards barely speaking, associate producer Chris Kimsey raided the vaults for unfinished tracks dating back to 1972 and the band added new vocals.