The Stones’ Latest British Invasion
Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood talk about the band’s first U.S. tour since 2015 — and the new music on the group’s horizon
Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood on the band’s first U.S. tour since 2015.
It’s not lost on Keith Richards how remarkable and improbable it is for the Rolling Stones, after 57 years as a band, to be preparing for yet another U.S. stadium tour. “I really can’t put words on it,” says the guitarist, 75. “It’s amazing. I never expected to get around to Louis Armstrong status, you know?”
Even as peers like Paul Simon and Elton John say goodbye to the road, the Stones are ramping up. The latest leg of their No Filter Tour kicks off April 20th at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. Between then and the final show in Chicago, on June 25th, they’ll play 14 cities, with audiences totaling close to 1 million people. “[America] is really our first hunting grounds,” Richards says, recalling how the group first toured the
U.S. in a station wagon in 1964. “Quite honestly, I can’t believe I’ve been around this long, man. I’ve watched this country grow up.”
On the first two legs of the No Filter Tour, which hit European stadiums starting in the fall of
2017, the Stones played several raucous blues covers from 2016’s Blue & Lonesome. They also revived rarities like 1976’s “Fool to Cry,” 1967’s “She’s a Rainbow” and their cover of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” which became a frequent highlight. “Mick was having a lot of fun with it, especially with the harp at the end,” says Richards. “[Those shows] felt so good. Everyone looked at each other saying, ‘No, we’re just getting going!’ That’s when the idea came to play the States.”
Now, for their first U.S. shows since the Desert Trip festival in 2016, the Stones are planning to revamp their set with extended rehearsals. “It’s kind of like pulling out a great car that’s been sitting on the blocks for nine months — you’ve got to break it in again,” Richards says. Mostly, though, he finds rehearsals fun; he mentions that he’d like to try bringing back the Stones’ cover of Solomon Burke’s soul classic “Cry to Me.”
Guitarist Ronnie Wood has his own list of songs he hopes to play, including “Beast of Burden” and “Play With Fire,” recently performed in Hamburg, Germany — for the first time in nearly 30 years. “Mick didn’t realize what a great song it was,” Wood says.
While Jagger is the group’s chief set-list architect, he’s open to suggestions at soundcheck or in his hotel room. “He’ll be quite honest — like, ‘We played it here last time’ or ‘That doesn’t work here,’ ” says Wood. “Or he may just go, ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea.’ You never quite know what to expect, but you always get a bit of a reason not to perform it.”
For Richards, this tour will be different for a more personal reason: He has stopped drinking, for the most part. “It’s been about a year now,” Richards says quietly. “I pulled the plug on it. I got fed up with it.” While he admits he still has “a glass of wine occasionally, and a beer,” it’s a major step for a guy whose hedonism is a key part of his legend. “It was time to quit,” Richards says. “Just like all the other stuff.”
Wood, who got sober in 2010 after decades of substance-abuse issues, couldn’t be happier about the news — and he’s already noticing big changes in his friend. “He’s a pleasure to work with,” Wood says. “Much more mellow. He’s open to more ideas, whereas before I’d kind of grit my teeth and go, ‘He’s gonna give me some shit for saying this.’ Now, he’ll say, ‘That’s cool, man.’ ”
Richards says that he felt a difference onstage at the band’s early-2018 shows: “It was interesting to play sober.” Adds Wood, “We’re weaving [guitar parts] a lot more conscientiously now.
We’re much more aware of the gaps and the spaces between. We’re in our seventies, but we’re still rocking like we’re 40-year-olds, you know?”
The Stones plan to bring those good feelings into the studio as they continue work on their first LP of original songs since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. Though Jagger and Richards have been writing and recording together for the past three years, Wood says they recently listened to 12 or so tracks and decided to keep working. “Mick and Keith wanted to make sure the songs were really good, so we’ve sort of taken a step back again, have a listen, put more into the pot,” says Wood.
Last year, drummer Charlie Watts — the group’s oldest member, at 77 — hinted at retirement, saying “it wouldn’t bother me” if the band stopped. But Wood waves off that idea. “He thrives on the music, whether he’ll own up to it or not,” he says.
Richards, meanwhile, says he’s taking the future “one tour at a time.” So far, so good: Stones sources say the upcoming dates are selling out even faster than 2015’s Zip Code Tour. “Maybe this will be the last one,” Richards admits, although he hopes it isn’t. “It’s what I do, man. Give me 50,000 people and I feel right at home. As Ronnie and I often say before we go on, ‘Let’s get onstage and get some peace and quiet.’ ”