Classic Rock Magazine is reporting that former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor is virtually destitute.

Now living in a small, rundown house in Suffolk, apparently with mounting unpaid bills, the 61-year-old told the Mail On Sunday:

“In 1982 they stopped paying me [royalties]. They’d signed to a different record company and had new contracts and were advised they didn’t need to pay me any more.

“I should have got a lawyer. But instead I called them rude words and asked how they could just stop paying me. They all know it’s not right. In fact it is outrageous. They get all the money and I get the plaudits and praise, even from Mick. I’ve tried to talk to Mick a couple of times, but I realize that hiring a lawyer is probably the only way they’ll take me seriously. But they figure I’m not going to do anything about it.”

Yet, despite his financial problems Taylor – who replaced Brian Jones as the Stones guitarist in 1969 – has no regrets about quitting the band in 1974:

“People are always asking me whether I regret leaving The Rolling Stones. I make no bones about it – had I remained with the band, I would probably be dead. I was having difficulties with drug addiction and couldn’t have lasted. But I’m clean now and have been for years.

“My life is so much better now than being a drug-ravaged member of the Stones. So no, I don’t regret leaving. But people who really know me ask another question – whether I regret joining the Stones. To me, that’s far more astute.”