Letter Of Brian Jones’ Estranged Father Featured In Documentary

Brian Jones, the original leader of the Rolling Stones, has a letter from his estranged father featured in a new documentary about the band. Jones, who had three children by three separate women by the time he was 20, had already established the famed band that would ultimately dismiss him when he sent the undated statement to mend fences with his family.

In the last scene of Nick Broomfield’s latest film, The Stones and Brian Jones, the rocker’s ex-girlfriend Linda Lawrence reads the letter from Lewis Jones that she had kept in her attic for decades.

The letter reads: “My dear Brian, we have had unhappy times and I have been a very poor and intolerant father in so many ways. You grew up in such a different way than I expected you to. I was quite out of my depth… I don’t suppose you will ever forgive me, but all I ask is for just a little of that affection you once had for me. This is a very private and personal note so don’t trouble to reply. Love, Dad.”

Although it is unknown if Jones really read the letter or not, the film does have a brief exchange in which he discusses the importance of family. “A child is a thing to be loved. A child is the manifestation of both parents and both parents see themselves in the child… he’s a reflection of their own personality,” the rocker explains. “So, one day, when he grows up, he’s going to assert his own personality, which may well differ from the outlook and personality of his parents, who immediately feel upset… They feel they have lost him.”

The upcoming documentary will focus more on Jones’ troubled personality instead of the rumors that surrounded him, even until his death. “Brian was essentially a helpless child who craved his parents’ approval,” Broomfield explained. “After he was thrown out of their house at 17, he would somehow find families that would look after him. Basically, he would charm his girlfriends’ parents and move into their family nest like a cuckoo. Invariably, they would look after him until they found out that he had got their daughter pregnant.”