By the release of the Stones' album Beggars Banquet, Brian Jones was only sporadically contributing to the band. Jagger stated that Jones was "not psychologically suited to this way of life". His drug use had become a hindrance, and he was unable to obtain a US visa. Richards reported that, in a June meeting with Jagger, Richards, and Watts at Jones' house, Jones admitted that he was unable to "go on the road again," and left the band, saying "'I've left, and if I want to I can come back'". On 3 July 1969, less than a month later, Jones drowned under mysterious circumstances in the swimming pool at his home, Cotchford Farm, in Hartfield, East Sussex.
On 5 July 1969, two days after Jones' death, the Rolling Stones played a previously scheduled show at Hyde Park, dedicating it as a tribute to him. In front of an estimated 250,000 fans, the Stones performed their first gig with their newest guitarist, Mick Taylor. At the beginning of the show, Jagger read an excerpt from Shelley's poem Adonaïs, an elegy written on the death of his friend John Keats, After which they released thousands of butterflies in Jones' memory before starting the show with a song by Johnny Winter, "I'm Yours and I'm Hers". During the concert, they included two songs never before heard by the audience from two forthcoming albums, "Midnight Rambler", "Love in Vain" (Let It Bleed – released December 1969), and "Loving Cup" (appeared on Exile on Main St. – released May 1972). "Honky Tonk Women", released the previous day, was also played at the gig.
Jagger has had an intermittent acting career, his most significant role being in Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg's Performance (1968), and as Australian bushranger Ned Kelly in the film of the same name (1970). He composed an improvised soundtrack for Kenneth Anger's film Invocation of My Demon Brother on the Moog synthesiser in 1969.