Bill Wyman Is All About The Metal

April 17, 2007 9:18 PM

Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman has a Signature Metal Detector. It's not about security, it's about treasure hunting, baby. Let Bill tell you all about (and sell you on) his hobby. Via the J-Walk Blog.
posted by amyms (26 comments total)

It's official, he's now gathering moss.
posted by davebush at 9:40 PM on April 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

I hear it's good for finding lost royalties.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:40 PM on April 17, 2007

Exile on Nerd Street.
posted by Skygazer at 9:45 PM on April 17, 2007

He's gonna use it at Brian Jones' grave to find that bullet in ol' Brian's skull. The one Mick n' Keef put there all those years ago.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:47 PM on April 17, 2007

Those would ALL have been excellent post titles... lol... Darn.
posted by amyms at 9:48 PM on April 17, 2007

Is "Shocking Revelations About the Rolling Stones" going to be a regular feature?
posted by wendell at 9:53 PM on April 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Last weekend I spent about an hour watching a friend's husband do show and tell of all the things he's found with his metal detector over the last year. He's totally addicted. It was simultaneously incredibly sweet &... kinda pathetic. But don't tell him I said so.

He actually found a couple of cool rings. One was a little baby ring with a ruby. Another one looks like a beautiful diamond wedding ring, but the gold is cheap so it's probably cubic. It'll be a long while before his finds will pay off the cost of his detectors, but that's not what it's about for him & I know that. It's about the TREASURE. Like I said, kinda cute seeing him get all excited about it tho.
posted by miss lynnster at 10:02 PM on April 17, 2007

Is "Shocking Revelations About the Rolling Stones" going to be a regular feature?

Shocking? Oh! I completely forgot about Keith snorting (or not snorting) his dead father's ashes... I think this makes Bill look like a choir boy and/or respectable country gentleman in comparison.
posted by amyms at 10:04 PM on April 17, 2007

Apparently metal detection, not snorting one's dead father's ashes, is the world's worst hobby. Bill wins.
posted by Methylviolet at 10:18 PM on April 17, 2007

I hear it's good for finding lost royalties.

There may indeed be some lost royalties Bill is owed, but, heck, he ain't doing too bad without 'em.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:24 PM on April 17, 2007

Bill Wyman gotta eat.
posted by PenDevil at 10:48 PM on April 17, 2007

...this makes Bill look like a choir boy and/or respectable country gentleman in comparison.
That's why it's shocking! A Rolling Stone?!?
posted by wendell at 10:54 PM on April 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

That's why it's shocking! A Rolling Stone?!?

Not really, though. Charlie Watts has always been a calm, level-headed, thoroughly gentlemanly English gentleman.

But it must be said, he rushes his fills like mad.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:08 PM on April 17, 2007

I had no idea Bill Wyman had retired from the Rolling Stones -- in 1993, when he was 57 -- till now. I had to look him up on Wikipedia. Whaddaya wanna bet Mandy didn't give without taking?
posted by davy at 11:30 PM on April 17, 2007

So who threw Brian Jones in the pool?
posted by davy at 11:43 PM on April 17, 2007

So who threw Brian Jones in the pool?

My theory? The Master Musicians of Jajouka. Brian had made off with far too much of their hashish.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:11 AM on April 18, 2007

There's a particular dark place in my heart for metal detector enthusiasts, eagerly mopping up after park picnics, school outings, and beach-worthy weekends, making sure that no one going back to look for that lost treasure ever, ever finds it.
posted by dreamsign at 12:36 AM on April 18, 2007 [2 favorites]

“I like to go to the beach and bury metal disks that say ‘get a life’ on them.”

-- Some comedian whose name escapes me right now.
posted by bondcliff at 5:49 AM on April 18, 2007

I wonder if he's found any steel wheels with it yet?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:11 AM on April 18, 2007

Scuttlebutt has it that Charlie Watts has maintained a heroin habit for the past 35 years. I'm thinking he must smoke it, or he's just the kind of guy who doesn't need to ramp up his intake, satisfied with just a low, steady maintenance dose.

Wyman's gonna find something big one day, and all you doubters will eat your words.
posted by breezeway at 8:32 AM on April 18, 2007

Scuttlebutt has it that Charlie Watts has maintained a heroin habit for the past 35 years.

I thought he was famously clean after a wild period of heavy heroin, speed and booze abuse during the 80s?
posted by jack_mo at 9:21 AM on April 18, 2007

I didn't realize that the years of following my father around a cold, grey Welsh beach with a droning metal detector was actually rock and roll. I shall have to re-evaluate my self-image.
posted by humblepigeon at 9:40 AM on April 18, 2007

Sure it can find buried bits of Norman armor at the Hastings site, but it can't master the rhythm to "Sympathy for the Devil."
posted by joseph_elmhurst at 10:35 AM on April 18, 2007

I'm waiting for the device that finds abandoned shoeboxes stuffed with unmarked twenty dollar bills.
posted by mmrtnt at 12:18 PM on April 18, 2007

Scuttlebutt has it that Charlie Watts has maintained a heroin habit for the past 35 years. I'm thinking he must smoke it, or he's just the kind of guy who doesn't need to ramp up his intake, satisfied with just a low, steady maintenance dose.

Well, there certainly have been junkies like that: people who maintain an even keel, get what they need, steadily, but don't go so deep that they kill themselves with it. Apparently jazz great Art Blakey (a drummer, as well) fell into this category.

I didn't realize that the years of following my father around a cold, grey Welsh beach with a droning metal detector was actually rock and roll. I shall have to re-evaluate my self-image.

Actually, that'd probably put you in the experimental/drone music category, more than rock and roll. In which case, you might wanna chime in on the ongoing Tonic thread, perhaps with a rebuttal to some of the experimental music haters round there who've been making such a spiteful noise.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:22 PM on April 18, 2007

Horses to be sedated for Stones show?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:29 AM on April 19, 2007