Former Rolling Stones lawyer speaks to PCBA

December 16-22, 2013

By Becca Bona

For Arkansas native Bill Carter, former lawyer to the Rolling Stones, doing the impossible became a routine during his nearly 20 years of service to the classic rock legend. At a monthly PCBA luncheon recently Carter was able to share some of his experiences of what it was like to work for the band and infamous guitarist Keith Richards. 

Carter, who had a lengthy career in the secret service before taking on the Stones fell into their path when he received a call from Wilbur Mills, a prominent Arkansas congressman. At Mills’ bequest, Carter found himself on a plane to New York, unsure of what awaited him. 

“I used to tell the story that when Mills called I knew all about the Rolling Stones. But [my law partner] stopped me to correct me, she said you didn’t even know who they were, you sent me to the city library in Little Rock to find out.”

Carter’s mission, if the Stones accepted him as legal counsel, was to secure the band a visa for touring purposes. In the early 70s the U. S. banned the group from receiving a visa for fear that touring would corrupt America’s youth. 

The Stones had already hired two different sets of lawyers from New York and Washington, before settling with Carter. Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones front-man, upon meeting Carter for the first time told him, ““You’re hired. One condition. You have to meet Keith Richards, and he has to like you, because you’re really going to be representing him more than the rest of us.””

After passing Richard’s inspection over whiskey, Carter was officially hired.

His first step involved changing the minds of both the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Immigration. Carter was going to have to show the departments that the group was  not made up of “devils,” and that they were more than just a “file number.”

After a year of the two entities haggling and running on different schedules, Carter decided the state department needed to meet Jagger in person. Causing an autograph riot on the first floor put a damper on the meeting, however, Jagger saved the day when he conversed with the two officers.

“One of them had been […] a foreign service officer in China and another in the Philippines. By the time we went to that meeting Mick Jagger knew the history of China and the Philippines and he discussed it with them and asked them things about those countries. […] He was so smart and he did some research and he came to those meeting prepared, and that made the difference.”

Everything seemed to be in the clear, however, there was one catch. Carter was charged with submitting a security plan that would, “protect the youth of America” from the touring Stones.

Without batting an eye he perfected a secret service action plan and submitted it. Upon approval he received yet another bit of news, namely, he was required to travel with the group.

“There were about to be some exciting times,” he said with a chuckle. Exciting might be an understatement, but many-a-riot were diverted due to Carter’s aims.

The heart of his success for the subsequent tours was his thoroughness. Once the 1975 tour was laid out, he prepared for each stop.

 “I took the itinerary and I went to every city that was on that list and went to the mayor’s office and said, we’re going to be touring here, we’re going to be in a stadium with 75,000 people, and I need your help,” he said. 

He worked overtime to ensure that the vice squad would not have to be involved, and that violence was not an issue.

It turns out, his job was easier said than done. He had run-ins with various groups all across the U.S. that hated the band; “It was a challenge because the police wanted to arrest the Rolling Stones,” he remembered.

Perhaps most memorable, especially for Arkansans, was Richards’ and Woods’ arrest in Fordyce, Ark. The incident, which has since been recorded and rewritten not only by the media, but by Richards himself, was an ordeal for Carter. 

On a Saturday, with a few hours off after a show in Memphis, Tenn., Richards mentioned to Carter that he wanted to visit Arkansas. 

Carter told him he should avoid it, but he remembers also pleading with Richards: “If you were to drive through [it], don’t get off the interstate.”

Around 3 p.m. from the safety of a friend’s backyard barbecue in West Memphis, Carter received a telephone call from the Stones’ manager letting him know that Richards and fellow band mate Ronnie Woods had been arrested in Fordyce. 

Carter immediately chartered a plane and was in town within two hours. 

“By the time I got there kids were coming at such a fast pace, the town had swollen and the state police had already set up road blocks to keep more kids from coming in because it was obvious that there was going to be a riot,” he said. 

From Carter’s account, the band members and party were arrested after pulling out of a local restaurant mainly because “They looked very much Rolling Stones.” 

Without probable cause, a briefcase containing drugs was searched, but the briefcase did not belong to either Richards or Woods, and instead was the property of a member of the party named Fred Sessler. 

Carter demanded a hearing, and after pleading with the Chief of Police and the judge, he was finally able to charter a plane and get the group out. Richards survived with only a charge for a weapon, a misdemeanor, as he had a hunting knife in the car. 

However, Carter was able to get this charge dismissed as it was not against Arkansas statutes at the time to have this particular knife on your person.

“We made it out of town […] and the publicity of that was literally world wide. I think maybe it dawned on me the popularity of the Rolling Stones and just how powerful and strong they were,” he said. 

Fordyce is far from his biggest headache in terms of touring with the Stones, but Carter looks back on the memories with nothing but fondness. His respect for the band and for Richards in particular is nothing less than positive.

He said of Richards: “Keith’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. He’s totally honest, he is who he is. His teeth are dark, he won’t fix them, because that wouldn’t be natural, he’s just Keith Richards. And I respect him for that.”

Carter himself said the energy of the Rolling Stones was in

their “standing up for people’s rights,” and as he proved, he fit right in.