The video says it all.
Police in starched blue uniforms. Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood looking like the rock stars they were then and now.
Jaunty caps. Sunglasses. Cigarettes.
Ronnie Wood, the newest member of the Stones, smoking a cigarette in the police department for goodness sake!
Outside fans in overalls and T-shirts trying to snap a picture of two famous musicians who ended up in rural Fordyce of all places.
On July 5, 1975, the Stones — who were and still are one of the hottest bands on the planet — played a show in Memphis, a stop on their Tour of the Americas. (More on that tour below).
Everywhere the Stones went in 1975 they were seen an outlaw and outrageous rock band doing whatever they wanted to do whenever they wanted.
After a show in Memphis, Keith and Ronnie decided to drive to their next tour date in Dallas as tourists.
Keith and Ronnie, along with two other people, rented a yellow 1975 Chevy Impala. They stopped for lunch at the 4-Dice Restaurant and Station. (The restaurant is no longer there.)
According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Wood “hit the buffet, going back for seconds on the fried chicken. Richards ordered the sixteen-ounce T-bone and tried brown gravy over his French fries on the recommendation of waitress Wanda Parnell. They left a $1.65 tip and autographs.”
Editorial sidenote: With that kind of tip even in 1975, maybe they earned trouble.
After eating at the restaurant, two Fordyce police officers pulled over the Impala driven by Keith. Uh-oh, the officers thought they smelled marijuana. Drama ensued.
A judge issued a search warrant, and police didn't find marijuana. But they did discover two grams of cocaine in a briefcase belonging to passenger Fred Sessler. Sessler died in 2000 on Keith's birthday at age 77. He was a long-time friend of Keith's and dubbed an honorary Rolling Stone. Ronnie would later describe Sessler as a “sex-fuelled, vodka charged, coke mountain.”
The Impala was impounded.
The police cited Keith for carrying an illegal weapon—a hunting knife. But the Fordyce police were easy on the band and never even put them behind bars.
Thankfully, the Stones just happened to have an Arkansas lawyer at the time, Bill Carter, who got the Brits released after Keith posted $162.50. He was supposed to appear in court but forfeited his bond.
The group opted to fly out of Dallas County by a plane waiting at the local airport.
In 2006, then Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee submitted an application of clemency on behalf of Keith to the state Parole Board. It was approved and Huckabee signed it. Huckabee once told me in an interview that he dreamed of having Keith on his TV show.
That hasn't happened, but he did land Bill Carter, the Stones’ attorney until 1990.
Watch Bill Carter talk about the Fordyce Stones drama with Huckabee.
Keith never forgot the Fordyce incident. His 2010 best-selling memoir kicked off about the Fordyce arrest.
Read an excerpt here.
Watch news coverage from July 1975 here:
Got a story about the Rolling Stones in 1975? Drop us a line at southarkansasreckoning@proton.me.
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