Bassist Bill Wyman recounted in his memoirs, “Stone Alone”:
“Everyone got a poor reception from a mixed crowd of cowboys and kids,” he wrote. “We had to go on after some performing monkeys. What were we doing here? People didn’t know whether to take us seriously or as a joke.”
The monkeys were the world famous Marquis Chimps, who got star billing. The Stones shared the stage that opening weekend with Bobby Vee and George Jones.
Guitarist Keith Richards, in his book, recalled a “freak show” with circus seals. With Richard one never knows, but former manager Andrew Loog Oldham apparently hasn’t forgotten the same hallucination.
“First U.S. tour was pretty diverse. We did play after performing seals” in San Antonio, Oldham said via Twitter.
Ten minutes into their act, the group was booed, sneered and laughed at and some even say they were hit by vegetables.
