THE ROLLING STONES CHRONICLE

2022

I've been around for a long, long year


   

    January 11, 2022: Ron Wood attends his friend Ronnie O'Sullivan's snooker match at Alexandra
        Palace in London, England. Mick Jagger is in Mustique, while Keith Richards is also in the
        Caribbean.


     January 13, 2022: Ron Wood catches another 2022 Masters match at Alexandra Palace.

    February 1, 2022: Ron Wood attends the unveiling of a giant abstract painting of the Rolling
        Stones, outside at the corner of Wood Lane in Shepherd's Bush, west London.


Ron Wood (February 1, 2022): The Stones: album-in-progress and shows

It�s coming along slowly. It�s the gaps in between that eat up all the time. It is a matter of getting us all together again. Everyone is in a different part of the world... So instead of putting emphasis on rushing an album, we�re doing the opposite and taking a really long time. And we�re putting live shows first.



    February 8, 2022: Ron Wood is a presenter at the UK TV BRIT Awards from the O2 Arena in London.


Mid-to-late February 2022: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, with Matt Clifford and Steve Jordan,
    holding songwriting/demo sessions at GeeJam Studios in the northeast Portland parish of
    Jamaica to reset and start up work again on the Rolling Stones' next album.


    March 3, 2022: Keith Richards is at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Ron Wood is at home in
        London.


Keith Richards & Mick Jagger (March 2022): Writing new songs together

Keith: I was working with Mick last week, and Steve (Jordan), and we came up with some... 8 or 9 new pieces of material. Which is overwhelming by our standards! (laughs)

We were spending a week together putting material together and hanging around... (It) was a very productive week. We had a setup there, bass, drums, and we got a very good sound going. Jamaica is good for sound... I was playing a lot of bass so it was taking on another angle.

We do have a lot of stuff with Charlie Watts still in the can, you know, 'cause have we were halfway through making an album when he died. But, you know, goddamn I loved that man.

This is one of the things that we're going to be having to sort out this year. Of course, if we want to carry on recording, we�re going to need drums (laughs) and it's going to be Steve Jordan.

Mick: Yeah, we�ve been doing some banging around. It�s been fun.


Keith Richards (early March 2022): Selling the Rolling Stones catalogue

Mick and I have not spoken about it on a serious level. I don't know if we're ready to sell our catalogue. We might drag it out a bit (laughs), put some more stuff in it!



    March 9, 2022: Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos rehearse at the Beacon Theatre in New York
        City.


     March 10, 2022: Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos perform three songs for the Love Rocks
        NYC charity concert at the Beacon Theatre.

    March 11-12, 2022: Keith Richards does press interviews from his home in Weston, Connecticut.

March 14, 2022: The Rolling Stones announce online a 60th anniversary tour of Europe in the
   summer, called SIXTY.


     March 18, 2022: Keith Richards' 1992 solo album Main Offender gets an expanded re-release.


    March 23, 2022: Ron Wood joins Andrea Corr and Ben Waters for a mini-set at the Roundhouse in
        London, England, as part of a charity concert for the venue.

    March 26, 2022: Ron Wood hangs out at Oswald's Club in Mayfair, London.


    Late March 2022: Mick Jagger is at his home in France.


    April 1, 2022: Mick Jagger releases the song Strange Game, for the Apple TV series Slow Horses.

Mick Jagger (late March 2022): Doing a TV theme song

Out of the blue, I got an email from a guy I didn�t know, Daniel Pemberton,. I�d heard of him, because he�d done quite a lot of TV and film music, English guy, and he�d gotten a lot of kudos, nominations for awards. He said, Would you be interested in doing this TV theme? I�m always up for doing something different.


Mick Jagger (late March 2022): Celebrating the Stones' 60th with a light touch

I�m not going to push (the 60th anniversary) that hard... The tour�s called Sixty, but apart from that we�re not going to do too much. I think that�s enough.

We�re working on the new stage, which I hope is going to look nice. I�m looking forward to touring Europe and speaking lots of different languages, even though I don�t know what I�m talking about. We�re just working out which songs we�re going to do. It doesn�t seem very long since we finished doing the US so I�m up for it and ready for it.



    April 11, 2022: Mick Jagger eats out at The Ivy in London, England.


    May 7, 2022: Keith Richards and Ron Wood visit the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.


May 9-23, 2022: The Rolling Stones hold tour rehearsals in Amsterdam.


May 13, 2022: The Rolling Stones' archival live CD El Mocambo
1977 is released.
 






Mick Jagger, Ron Wood & Keith Richards (May 2022): Getting in tour shape

Mick: (I do) six weeks of practice even before rehearsals start. And I do dancing, gym, every day of the week. I don�t enjoy it very much, but it has to be done.

Ron: (I like a green juice) and after all my battles in recent years with the big C, I try to keep moving, keep my joints warmed up � stretches and stuff.

Keith: I may or may not have a stiff drink (before the show), but usually I don�t. You know, you grow out of everything. I�ve spent all my life giving up things, so that�s about it now.


Mick Jagger (May 2022): Missing Charlie

I don�t really expect him to be there any more if I turn round during a show. But I do think about him. Not only during rehearsals or onstage, but in other ways too. I would have phoned him up and talked about last night�s Arsenal game because he supported Tottenham and I�m Arsenal. I miss him as a player and as a friend. In the show, when we come to the front and bow at the end, there�s no Charlie. He�d always be the last one down. I�d go: Come on, what have you got to do? He�d be fiddling with his sticks because he always had to have them in a row before he�d get off the seat.


Mick Jagger, Ron Wood & Keith Richards (May 2022): Close ties within the band

Mick: Getting more mature (explains why we're closer). I�m not joking. It�s true, and it�s taken a long time. We�re in a very immature business. I�m under no illusions about that. But it doesn�t mean that you have to be immature.

Ron: We�ve matured among ourselves. The attitudes within the band are no longer throwaway. It used to be all Oh, crawl back under your rock. I had many years of Shut up, you�re the new boy, that kind of feeling, but now every tour has a changed demeanour. Mick�s been through so many different moods and images in his life, and he�s come back to this really warm person. Keith too.

Keith: I�m amazed by how tight we all are. Mick and I are still firmly at the reins... We still don�t know what the reins do, though.


Mick Jagger (May 2022): Rocking in our Seventies

Rock & roll, or any kind of pop music honestly, isn�t supposed to be done when you�re in your seventies. It wasn�t designed for that. Doing anything high-energy at this age is really pushing it. But that makes it even more challenging. So it�s, like, OK, we�ve got to fucking do this right, but it�s got to be as full-on as possible. Of course you could do another type of music � we�ve got lots of ballads. I could sit on a chair.


Keith Richards (May 2022): New album next year

We already had some stuff cut with Charlie. It should be coming next year.



May 26, 2022: The Rolling Stones arrive in Madrid, Spain.


May 28-30, 2022: The Rolling Stones work through final stadium rehearsals at Wanda
    Metropolitano in Madrid.


    May 31, 2022: Mick Jagger visits the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.


June 1, 2022: On Ron Wood's 75th birthday, the Rolling Stones kick off their 2022 SIXTY Tour
    of Europe with a concert at Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid. Out of Time from 1966
    is resurrected.

June 3, 2022: The Rolling Stones arrive in Munich, Germany.

June 5, 2022: The Rolling Stones perform their 10th concert since 1982 at the Olympiastadion
    in Munich.


June 7, 2022: The Rolling Stones arrive in Liverpool, England.


June 9, 2022: The Rolling Stones perform for the first time in Liverpool, since 1971, at the
    Anfield football stadium, and bring out for the occasion I Wanna Be Your Man.

June 10, 2022: The Rolling Stones' archival live blu-ray/CD Licked Live
in NYC (from 2003) is released.
 






    June 10, 2022: Mick Jagger visits the home where his paternal grandfather lived, and the church
        where he was the organist, in Greenfield in Greater Manchester.
June 11, 2022: The Rolling Stones return to Amsterdam in The Netherlands.
June 13, 2022: In Amsterdam the Rolling Stones do a soundcheck at the Johan Cruyff ArenA,
    then are forced to postpone their concert later that evening after Mick Jagger tests positive
    for the Covid-19 virus.


June 14, 2022: The Rolling Stones announce their planned concert in Bern, Switzerland, on
    June 17 is postponed as well.


    June 15, 2022: Mick Jagger posts online that he is feeling much better.


 June 19, 2022: The Rolling Stones fly from Amsterdam to Milan, Italy.


 June 20, 2022: The Rolling Stones announce the postponed concert in Bern is cancelled because
    of difficulties in rescheduling.


 June 21, 2022: The Rolling Stones resume their tour with a concert at San Siro stadium in Milan.


 June 25, 2022: The Rolling Stones perform at Hyde Park in London, England, 9 years after their
    previous appearances, as part of the British Summer Time festival.


 July 3, 2022: The Rolling Stones play at Hyde Park again.
July 7, 2022: The Rolling Stones perform their rescheduled concert at the Johan Cruyff ArenA in
    Amsterdam.
July 11, 2022: On the eve of the 60th anniversary of their first ever public performance at the
    Marquee Club, the Rolling Stones play their first concert in Brussels, Belgium, since 1976, at
    King Baudoin Stadium.
July 15, 2022: The Rolling Stones perform at Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, Austria. A boys'
    and a girls' choirs are invited from Kyiv, Ukraine, to sing along to You Can't Always Get
    What You Want, as a sign of support for Ukraine in the ongoing war with Russia.

July 19, 2022: The Rolling Stones play Groupama Stadium in Lyon, France.


July 23, 2022: The Rolling Stones perform at the Hippodrome de Longchamp in Paris, France.


July 25, 2022: The Rolling Stones fly into D�sseldorf, Germany.


    July 26, 2022: Mick Jagger celebrates his birthday in D�sseldorf on a night out listening to and
       watching traditional German music and dancing.

July 27, 2022: The Rolling Stones perform in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, 24 years to the day since
    their last appearance, at Veltins Arena.


    Mid-to-late July 2022: Producer Andrew Watt is invited by Mick Jagger to attend the Rolling Stones'
        next recording sessions in late September with a view to producing the new album.


 July 29, 2022: The Rolling Stones arrive in Stockholm, Sweden.


July 31, 2022: The Rolling Stones play Friends Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.


August 3, 2022: The Rolling Stones conclude their 2022 SIXTY Tour with a concert at the
    Waldb�hne in Berlin, Germany.


     August 15, 2022: Ron Wood co-hosts and performs on the UK radio program The Blues Show
        with Cerys Matthews.


     August 21, 2022: Mick Jagger attends a Coldplay concert at Wembley Stadium in London, England


    August 25, 2022: Ron Wood is in Dover, England, welcoming his wife Sally who has swam across
        the English Channel for charity.

   
    September 14, 2022: Ron Wood has dinner with sons Jesse and Tyrone at Scott's in Mayfair,
        London. 


    September 27, 2022: Mick Jagger has dinner in Paris, France, with daughter Georgia May and ex-
        wife Jerry Hall during Fashion Week.


    September 28, 2022: Mick Jagger flies from Paris, France, to New York City.


Mick Jagger & Keith Richards (August-September 2023): Deciding to reset the Rolling Stones' album-in-progress

Mick: I told Keith, I think some of the tracks are good, but most of them are not as good as they should be. I think we should give ourselves a deadline, and then we should go out and tour the album. And then he looked at me, and he said Yeah, OK. That sounds like what we used to do.

Keith: With Charlie leaving us, I think we needed to make a new mark with Steve. To reset the band was important.



September 29-October 9, 2022: The Rolling Stones start recording sessions afresh for their
    album at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. The song Dreamy Skies is recorded during
     these sessions. Producer Andrew Watt mostly plays an observer role.

Andrew Watt (September 2023): Staying quiet

(I kept quiet) because I didn't want to be the new guy saying, Hey, why don't you try this out? They would have showed me the door, right?



    October 2, 2022: Mick Jagger attends the opening of the play Leopoldstadt on Broadway in New
        York City, along with other celebrities, including film director Steven Spielberg


    October 13 2022: Back in London, England, Ron Wood is interviewed by UK TV at Kenwood House,
        on the day before his pop up painting exhibition opens.


Ron Wood (October 14, 2022): Album progress and touring next year

We're working now to finish off the studio album that we've been working on for years. So we're bringing that to a head and things are going really well now. We've just come back from New York. We're finishing off in L.A. in a couple of weeks' time. And hopefully we'll have a new package to bring, the best one of the last 15 years I reckon.

And you will be seeing us live again next year, hopefully, too.



Mid-October 2022: Mick Jagger and Andrew Watt meet up in Paris, France, to review the
    Rolling Stones' recordings and demos worked on thus far, to prepare for the upcoming
    sessions in Los Angeles. Soon after Andrew Watt meets up with Keith Richards in New York
    City to do the same thing.


Andrew Watt (September 2023): Pre-producing Hackney Diamonds

In mid-October, I flew to Paris to get with Mick. We listened to everything they recorded at Electric Lady, and we listened to stuff they recorded in Jamaica. We listened to stuff from the past that they recorded with Don. We listened to demos. We listened to over 100 songs, no question. We started picking the things that we liked and talking about things that could change. After that experience, I flew to New York and did the exact same thing with Keith .If we could get the best Keith stuff on display, and weave the guitars between Ronnie and Keith, and then get Mick�s vocals on top of that, then this is going to sound like the Stones. Then I went to L.A., and I listened with Ron again. And we talked about what was important to him and making sure there were some great moments for leads.


Mick Jagger & Keith Richards (August-September 2023): Setting a deadline

Mick: I said to Keith, If we don�t have a deadline, we�re never going to finish this record. So I said, The deadline is Valentine�s Day 2023. And then we�re going to go out and tour it.. Otherwise, we�re just going to go into the studio, for two weeks, and come out again, and then six weeks later, we�re going to go back in there. Like, no... That�s what we used to have to do. You know, you�ve got to finish Exile on Main Street because you�ve got a tour booked.

I was actually really worried because nobody had any fucking urgency to do a record. Everyone seemed happy to do a tour every few years and nothing for the rest of the time. In the old days, the tour used to be a promotion for the record and the record was the thing. These days you make loads of money on the road and you don�t make much money on the record, which means you�re still selling tickets even when you don�t have a new album to promote. And you end up thinking They just want to hear "Paint It Black". They don�t want to hear anything else. They�re quite happy. Who cares about our new record?

Keith: Yeah, it took a while to get it going, but when we finished touring last year, Mick and I decided, Let's just blitz a record, man, because we were being too relaxed about it and not really putting it together. We sort of made a project of it and said, Let's get a guy that can push this thing with us. Mick found Andy Watt, and I've got to say, it was quite an experience working with him. He's very young, very enthusiastic, and we worked very fast on it once it got going. Initially, I was almost a little skeptical that we would ever finish another album, because it's been so long since we put new stuff out. For a minute, I was sort of waiting to see what would happen.

Mick: And Keith went Well, it�s a bit optimistic. I said I know, but you�ve got to be optimistic. In the end, Keith was very supportive, which I was surprised about because I thought he was going to say I can�t be fucking bothered. Can�t be doing that. I want a break, I don�t want to be working in December. But he didn�t. In fact, he worked very hard. I don�t think Keith�s worked that hard in years. Ronnie was very keen too...



    Mid-to-late October 2022: Mick Jagger travels to Italy, where he engages in songwriting.


    October 18, 2022: Ron Wood attends the launch of Pattie Boyd's (ex-wife of George Harrison and Eric
        Clapton) new book at The Lower Third in London, England, along with Jimmy Page.
c. October 21, 2022: The Rolling Stones, without Mick Jagger initially, resume and/or prepare
    for more recording sessions for their next album at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles,
    California.


    October 28, 2022: Death of rock & roll legend and Rolling Stones influence Jerry Lee Lewis.


    October 29, 2022: Mick Jagger leaves Italy (from his location in Sicily).


    October 31, 2022: Ron Wood celebrates Halloween in Los Angeles.


    November 1-3, 2022: Mick Jagger is in Mexico City.


November 4, 2022: Mick Jagger joins up with the Rolling Stones recording sessions in Los
    Angeles and the main recording sessions for the new album start in earnest. Angry is the first
    song recorded, on the first day.


Keith Richards & Mick Jagger (September 2023): Blitzkrieging at Henson

Keith: I�ve never ever not had fun recording, but this one had real urgency and energy. We blitzkrieged that thing.

Mick: We went into it pretty fired up and once we got started we just went through it. Every day was like kind of like banging through two or three songs. And so you keep the excitement, you�re not like doing 100 takes of everything, you�re doing 4-5 takes and then you move on to the next one, and move on to the next one. And then� at the end of the day you see what you've got and if you haven't got it you might do it next week... But you�re not, like, doing take 117. So that you don�t get bogged down in conversations about whether this song�s a good one, whether this song�s worth it... Even if it�s a nice song, if it�s not done with enthusiasm, it doesn�t really get to you, does it?



November 8, 2022: The Rolling Stones record the basic track for the song Sweet Sounds of Heaven,
    with Stevie Wonder.


    November 10, 2022: Ron Wood attends a fundraising event for Project Zero at the West Hollywood
        Edition Hotel in Los Angeles.


    November 12, 2022: Mick Jagger attends Leonardo DiCaprio's birthday party at a private mansion
        in Beverly Hills.


 November 18, 2022: The likely date when Paul McCartney visits the Rolling Stones at Henson
    Studios and the band records the song Bite My Head Off.


    November 20, 2022: Mick Jagger and Ron Wood attend Elton John's final North American concert at
        Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.


Mick Jagger (September 2023): Working out rhythms with Steve Jordan

Because we don't have Charlie, so that's a huge difference in doing these sessions that we talked about. So though I play with Steve a lot, you know I play with Steve on the road and I also play with Steve in the studio. I mean I've done demos with Steve before and� he's very enthusiastic so that's always good. And I mean think I have a really good understanding with him. You know I'm interested in grooves as my thing you know. I'm not just only interested in melody, lyrics, but I'm interested in grooves. What groove should this song be in? What do I think for this band that fits this groove for this song? And because the Rolling Stones are a certain kind of band, you can�t do ANY groove you want. You want it to be the perfect groove for THIS band. So Steve and I will work on the grooves, as I used to work with Charlie on the grooves. So it�s like experimenting. I would just hang a bit late at night when everyone had gone home, just pick up a guitar and say, OK, so tomorrow we�re going to do this one, remember this one - because there were SO many songs that it was hard for everyone to remember. So we're going to do this one tomorrow and I�m bit worried about this. Should it be like this? Should the bass drum be like this? Should the tempo be like this? So Steve and I would work on that.


Steve Jordan (September 2023): The changing musical dynamics without Charlie

I'm not, like, a tribute band drummer. That's not my goal here. Where Charlie would do his interpretation of a Fred Below thing, I do full Fred Below, because I know where Chartie was coming from, what his intent was. I'm pushing the a band a little more. Charlie's relationship with Keith was almost: he waited for Keith. Counterpunching, kind of. But I'm not waiting for Keith. My version of playing with Keith is: I gotta drive.



November 26, 2022: Singer Dua Lipa visits the Rolling Stones' recording sessions at Henson
    Studios.


    November 29, 2022: Ron Wood meets up with Dolly Parton in Los Angeles.


    December 6, 2022: Ron Wood visits the Flour Shop in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, with his wife and
        twin daughters.


    December 8, 2022: Mick Jagger and Melanie Hamrick celebrate their son Deveraux's 6th birthday in
        Los Angeles.


c. December 9, 2022: The Rolling Stones conclude their sessions at Henson Recording Studios.


Mid-to-late December 2022: Back in London, England, the Rolling Stones, without Keith Richards,
    start work on overdubbing vocals at Metropolis Studios. Along with Elton John, Bll Wyman
    drops by to overdub his bass on one song.


Andrew Watt (September 2023): Bill and Charlie reunited

We moved to London for the Christmas season. And that�s when we had Bill Wyman come in and play bass. I was like Why don�t we get Bill to play? Mick was like Let�s see what Keith thinks and see if that�s a good idea. And Keith thought it was a good idea. Mick sent Bill an email, and he said he would love to. We got him to play bass on one of the songs with Charlie, which was fabulous.



    December 13, 2022: Mick Jagger and Ron Wood attend a Christmas party in Chelsea, London.


    December 14, 2022: Mick Jagger and his brother Chris watch the band Slim Chance perform at The
         Half Moon pub in Putney, London.


    December 16, 2022: Shirley Watts passes away in Devon, England after a short illness.

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