Will the Rolling Stones Continue to Tour?
For the previous a number of a long time, followers have been speculating on simply how lengthy the Rolling Stones will proceed, properly, being the Rolling Stones. More particularly: How lengthy will they proceed to tour?
“The band still sounds very good, and it doesn’t sound much different from before, and you all liked me before, so you’re going to like this, probably,” Mick Jagger advised Rolling Stone in 1995, evidently unfazed by the concept that some individuals thought the band too previous to maintain enjoying dwell. That similar 12 months, the Stones wrapped up the Voodoo Lounge Tour, the third highest-grossing outing of their complete careers.
That was practically three a long time and 10 live performance excursions in the past and the Rolling Stones are nonetheless promoting out exhibits throughout the globe. On July 21, they will play the closing present of their 2024 North American Hackney Diamonds Tour, which naturally has followers questioning: then what?
The solely individuals who actually know the reply to that query are Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, the three remaining Rolling Stones. The former two are each 80 years previous, and Wood is 77, and whereas there may be nothing to say age precludes the chance of extra touring, it is value noting.
Who Will Drum?
The very first thing that have to be thought of because it pertains to the Stones’ touring future is the query of who will function drummer. In 2021, Steve Jordan, a longtime collaborator of Richards’, was tasked with the daunting duty of changing Charlie Watts, who handed away in August 2021. Jordan was frank at the time about the weight of the job.
“There are people that don’t understand that I lost a friend,” he defined to Vanity Fair then. “So they’re happy for me, but they don’t understand that I’d rather not have this be the case. But the Rolling Stones have really, really done everything in their power to make the transition smooth and sympathetic and empathetic. They’ve been cognizant of everyone’s feelings. I personally appreciate that.”
Jordan appeared the greatest man for the job and has held down the beat for the entirety of the Hackney Diamonds Tour. But it is completely potential that somebody apart from the Stones might want to guide him for gigs in the close to future, which might necessitate discovering one other substitute.
Mick Jagger Isn’t Slowing Down
Jagger will flip 81 years previous on July 26, however if you happen to’ve seen him acting on this present tour, you recognize that he exhibits virtually no indicators of his age — or the incontrovertible fact that he had coronary heart surgical procedure in 2019 — dancing and skipping his means up and down the cat stroll stage.
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When requested by author David Fricke in 2021 about whether or not that 12 months’s No Filter Tour could be the Stones’ final, Jagger made clear nothing in any respect was sure.
“I’ve been asked that question since I was 31,” he stated (through Reuters). “And your answer is the same. I don’t know. I mean, anything could happen. You know, if things are good next year and everyone’s feeling good about touring, I’m sure we’ll do shows.” (They did certainly tour in 2022, although not in 2023.)
Keith Richards Appears Indestructible
There might not be a rock star who has cheated demise extra instances than Richards, and his angle towards future touring mirrors Jagger’s.
“My answer is I’m not Nostradamus,” he advised The Guardian in 2023. “Of course it’s going to end some time, but everybody is in good fettle. There’s no particular rush. We’re having great fun doing this. And this is what we do.”
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He admitted in the similar interview that his age and a few arthritis in his fingers has affected the means he performs the guitar, but when something it is helped him change into much more resourceful with the instrument.
“[W]hen I’m like, ‘I can’t quite do that any more,’ the guitar will show me there’s another way of doing this,” he defined. “Some finger will go one space different and there’s a whole new door just opened here.”
Ronnie Wood Tours Differently Than Before
The Rolling Stones are many issues however one factor they don’t seem to be is 20-something years previous anymore, and meaning taking new approaches to touring, which will be extraordinarily bodily taxing.
“I like to have my green juices now and I do workouts with my trainer, just light workouts and stretches to keep my circulation going, which is what you need when you’re older,” Wood stated to The Sun again in April. “It’s always a big party on the road, but I like to have my quiet time.”
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Wood additionally would not seem to be taking something off the desk, together with the chance of headlining Glastonbury once more.
“Me, I’d love it,” he advised NME in 2023. “I think it’s a must. If not next year, then…If not the Stones then the Faces. It’ll be me, Rod [Stewart] and [drummer] Kenney [Jones]. That’s not out of the question, you know. I know they want to do it…”
More ‘Hackney Diamonds’ Dates
Two issues are for sure. One is that none of the three core members of the Rollings Stones’ have declared something about retiring from touring. The different is that the band is most positively open to bringing the Hackney Diamonds Tour to extra nations outdoors North America.
“We’ll consider those offers, where we’re going to go and where it will be fun, you know?” Jagger advised Reuters final month. “It could be Europe, could be South America, could be anywhere.”
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Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
