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
Jagger was carrying Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records, which told Richards they had a shared obsession.
Q 02Which multi-instrumentalist founded the band in 1962 and named it off a Muddy Waters LP?
Brian Jones
One of the tracks on the record was 'Rollin' Stone'. Jones was the band's undisputed leader in its early years.
Q 03At which London venue did 'the Rollin' Stones' play their first show on 12 July 1962?
The Marquee Club
They have played more than two thousand concerts since. The Cavern is in Liverpool.
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?
He also wrote sleeve notes urging fans to mug a blind beggar to raise money for the album.
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
Jagger wrote the lyrics by a pool in Clearwater, Florida four days before the session. A Maestro fuzzbox gave the riff its snarl.
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
Jagger rolled his eyes at the camera every time he sang it.
Q 09For what was Mick Jagger sentenced to three months in prison after the 1967 Redlands raid?
Possessing four amphetamine tablets
Richards got a year for allowing cannabis to be smoked at his house. Both sentences were overturned on appeal after The Times asked who breaks a butterfly on a wheel.
Q 10The title of Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967) is a play on words found where?
Inside a British passport
'Her Britannic Majesty requests and requires...'. The lenticular 3D cover was widely mocked as a Sgt. Pepper knock-off.
Q 11'Jumpin' Jack Flash' was inspired by the clumping footsteps of whom outside Richards' country house?
His gardener
Jagger and Richards had been woken by him one morning. The single marked the band's return to hard blues-rock after psychedelia.
Q 12Which Russian novel did Mick Jagger cite as an inspiration for 'Sympathy for the Devil'?
The Master and Margarita
Bulgakov's book had just come out in English in 1967. Richards suggested turning Jagger's Dylanesque folk song into a samba.
Q 13Which French director filmed the Stones recording 'Sympathy for the Devil' for his film One Plus One?
Jean-Luc Godard
Q 21At which December 1969 free concert did Hells Angels fatally stab Meredith Hunter?
Altamont
The Angels were reportedly hired for $500 worth of beer on the advice of the Grateful Dead. Three others died accidentally that day.
Q 22The Stones' tongue-and-lips logo was inspired by the stuck-out tongue of which deity?
Kali
It was created for the band's own label, Rolling Stones Records, in 1970 and became the band's general logo.
Q 23Which pop artist conceived the Sticky Fingers cover, with its working zip that revealed underwear?
Andy Warhol
The zip damaged the records in shipping, so it was later moved. It earned a Grammy nomination anyway.
The film captured the 'who who' backing vocals turning into 'woo-woo' on the first take.
Q 14Why was the release of Beggars Banquet (1968) delayed for months?
The label rejected the graffiti-covered toilet cover
It came out with a plain white invitation-card sleeve instead. The original cover 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
Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience drummed. The Stones shelved the whole film until 1996, reportedly because The Who 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 was 27. His home, Cotchford Farm in Sussex, 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
He first played with Mayall at 17 when Clapton failed to show. He left the Stones at the end of 1974.
Q 18'Honky Tonk Women' was written on holiday in which country, inspired by rural 'caipiras' met there?
Brazil
Jagger and Richards were on a ranch in Matão, São Paulo. A country version, 'Country Honk', appears on Let It Bleed.
Q 19Which then-unknown cookery writer baked the cake on the cover of Let It Bleed?
Delia Smith
The cake sits on a stack including a pizza, a bicycle tyre and a film canister on a record spindle.
Q 20Which American singer's guest vocal on 'Gimme Shelter' was the Stones' most prominent female contribution for 54 years?
Merry Clayton
Lady Gaga finally matched it on 'Sweet Sounds of Heaven' in 2023, which producer Andrew Watt said almost embodied Clayton.
Q 24'Wild Horses' and 'You Gotta Move' were recorded in December 1969 at which Alabama facility?
Muscle Shoals Sound
They cut three songs there in three days between tour dates, days before Altamont.
Q 25Exile on Main St. was largely recorded at a villa in the south of France because the band had become what?
Tax exiles
Financial mismanagement by Allen Klein left them owing years of back tax. Richards rented the villa in Villefranche-sur-Mer.
Q 26According to Keith Richards' memoir, who is the song 'Angie' about?
No one in particular
He says he picked the name at random before he knew his baby would be a girl called Angela. It topped the US chart in 1973.
Q 27Ronnie Wood joined the Stones in 1975 from which band, alongside Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones?
Faces
He and Stewart had left the Jeff Beck Group together in 1969 to form it with the ex-Small Faces.
Q 28Which Some Girls single, with a 'Special Disco Version' 12-inch, reached number one in the US in 1978?
Miss You
It was the band's first dance remix. The album was Jagger's answer to disco and punk.
Q 29'Start Me Up' began life in 1975 as a reggae track under what title?
Never Stop
Producer Chris Kimsey found two rock takes buried among about fifty reggae versions and rescued it for Tattoo You.
Q 30Tattoo You (1981) is mostly made up of what?
Studio outtakes from the 1970s
Jagger and Richards were barely speaking, so associate producer Chris Kimsey raided the vaults and added new vocals.