Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was featured in a new interview segment on CBS Sunday Morning over the weekend, and he shared some interesting news about new music that he and Mick Jagger have been working on for their band’s next album.
Richards revealed that he, Jagger and new Stones touring drummer Steve Jordan had been collaborating the previous week and “came up with some eight or nine new pieces of material, which is overwhelming by our standards!”
Jordan, who stepped in for longtime Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts when Watts became terminally ill last year, also plays in Richards’ solo band, The X-Pensive Winos, and was Keith’s main songwriting partner on the guitar legend’s three solo albums.
Richards noted about Jordan’s involvement in The Stones, “It’ll be interesting to find out the dynamics now that Steve’s in the band — it’s sort of metamorphosing into something else.”
Keith also discussed the passing of Watts, who played with The Rolling Stones for 58 years before his death at age 80 in August 2021.
“I think he’d been trying to keep [his illness] under the wraps for a while last year, so that [his death] came…as quite a shock,” Richards noted. “He had had a round with cancer a year or two before. And he beat that one. He just got hit with a double-whammy, bless his soul.”
As for whether the band discussed possibly not touring after Watts died, Keith said, “For a brief moment. I think Charlie wanted us to go on the road; he wanted the tour to happen. That’s my feeling, the last time I spoke to him.”
As reported earlier today, The Rolling Stones will launch a 60th anniversary tour with a European leg that kicks off June 1 in Madrid.
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