Brian Jones was born on this date in 1942.

Though the ill fated, founding member of the Rolling Stones began his promising musical career in the footsteps of the great American blues artists like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, by the end of his short life he was immersed in the assimilation of exotic foreign influences into popular music.

Jones was of Welsh descent, born in Gloucestershire, Great Britain. and though he never shared official songwriting credits with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was his inspired musicianship that created the unique sound of many of their hits: the sitar on Paint it Black, a dulcimer on Lady Jane and mellotron in the space-rock classic 2000 Light Years from Home.

He adopted the fashion sense of a Victorian English dandy and lived a life of decadent self-indulgence and drug use.

His self-destructive, alienating behaviour caused his ejection from the band. A few weeks later, he was dead in the pool of his estate. It is alleged that he was killed by a man who had been hired to do repairs to the aging brick mansion.