Do You Remember: When the Bassist from The Rolling Stones Dated a 14-Year Old

Bill Wyman said it was true love when he met a teenage girl named Mandy Smith.

(Content Warning: This article discusses child abuse, grooming, and the sexualization of young girls and women.)

There are many stereotypes about rockstars that are dishearteningly true. The drugs, the groupies, the penchant for petulant jackassery. When Dave Grohl recently announced that he’d become a father once more but not with his long-time wife, there was a resounding response of, “well, of course”, because it’s the least unique thing in the world for a 50-something dude with a guitar to cheat on his spouse. One other such cliché is, unfortunately, serial predatory behaviour towards young women and girls. The history of rock is littered with stories of adolescents becoming the “girlfriends” of these leering men, and of the press treating them as the active seducers.

Jerry Lee-Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin. Ted Nugent adopted his 17-year-old girlfriend so that she could accompany him on tours. The Iggy Pop song "Look Away" makes claims that he "slept with" Sable Starr when she was 13. Steven Tyler obtained guardianship of Julia Holcomb when she was 16 (she filed suit against him in 2022 alleging sexual assault and claims that he forced her to undergo an abortion.) Priscilla Presley’s story is as much part of rock lore as her late ex-husband’s music. There were so many songs about how she was just 17, if you know what I mean. When Bill Wyman, bassist for the Rolling Stones, revealed his latest girlfriend to be a teenager when he was pushing 50, such was the accepted nature of rockstar abuses that the press treated the child as though it was her problem.