2010
I've been resting on my laurels
Mick Jagger (January 2010): Haiti
You know, an earthquake, it's like incredibly physically damaging but it's also psychologically damaging because all the laws that govern your life, all the ground beneath your feet, everything happening to you, is destroyed in those moments. And your whole psyche is upset. And then, of course, the tremendous physical damage because the buildings are so poorly constructed, as is typical in these kinds of places. So the damage is so huge. But I think one of the - it's very gratifying to see so much outpouring of help from every country... It's a beautiful country with very welcoming people, with fantastic culture, with wonderful music, with incredible dance, and a strange history. And it's a unique country and it's just very, very sad when you see this happening to somewhere where you've been, that you've enjoyed, where people have been welcoming, where people have been lovely to you. So it's always very, very sad to see this. |
Charlie Watts (2010): Two Stone Age Stones
I don't have a - what do you call it? - machine thing (computer)... I don't have a mobile phone, either... a) I don't need one. And b) I've got no interest, really. I mean, I must admit I'm a bit of a charlatan when it comes to the mobile, because I'll often say - to Mick, for example - "Can I borrow your phone?" But I don't actually possess one of my own. Nor does Keith, by the way, who doesn't use a telephone at all. Very rarely. He very rarely rings anyone. He faxes people. He writes the best faxes in the world, but he's not a telephone man. |
Keith Richards (February 2010): The Keith doc
The film tells the story of my life, the deal with the devil and all that. Johnny (Depp) is so damn easy to talk to, so it was no sweat. |
Keith Richards (2010): The Keith book
It's the story so far, so to speak. James (Fox, the co-writer) has really put me down memory lane. It's weird, man, trying to remember everything, and then reliving it as the memory comes back. Like, Oh God, I gotta go through this thing twice! |
Mick Jagger & Keith Richards (February 2010): Upcoming release of Exile On Main Street sessions outtakes
Mick: I went back in the archives and dug out a load of things. I added some percussion and some vocals. Keith put guitar on one or two. Keith: There wasn't much to be done and I really didn't want to get in the way of what was there. It was missing a bit of body here and there, and I stroked something on acoustic here and there. But otherwise, I really wanted to leave them pretty much as they were. Mick wanted to sort of fix some vocal things, but otherwise, basically they are as we left them 39 years ago... I didn't want to interfere with the bible... They still had that great basement sound. |
Keith Richards (February 2010): Continuing adventures of the Rolling Stones?
Hey, you're asking me (if Mick wants to record another album)? You better ask Mick that one (laughs). But my feeling is that, generally, people get itchy at a certain time. I'm sort of waiting for a phone call, you know? There's no definite plans, but I can't see any of them stopping. I wouldn't be surprised if we did something later this year. I don't know how the rest of them feel about roadwork at the moment. Maybe we'll search for a different way for the Stones to go back on the road. Maybe not the football stadiums anymore. Maybe something different. You can't go around there in lemon-yellow tights forever. |
Keith Richards (February 2010): On recent Internet rumors of getting on the wagon
(Laughs) Listen, the rumors of my sobriety are greatly exaggerated. And we'll have to leave it at that. |
Mick Jagger & Charlie Watts (2010): Living in Exile
Mick: (T)here are really great things on (the album). And I spent the last six months living with it, so I know it pretty much inside out now.... I can bore people at the breakfast table about what I had to do on it. I know a lot about it, and I kind of appreciate it more. I can see the difficulties easier, but I can also see that some of it was easy and simple to do... I could write my thesis on it, if necessary. Charlie: It's just gone on a bit. I'm sure Mick's fed up with it, because he's not a great lover of yesterday. |
Keith Richards (March 2010): The start of an itch
(I)t's an ongoing relationship (between Mick and I). I just sent Charlie a note saying, Charlie, what's Mick doing? Should I put an available ad in Jazz News or something, like, Guitar player available? I feel a bit itchy, you know. It's been a couple years. There's something inside you that just starts to scratch. |
Mick Jagger (May 2010): Stones in Exile
There's no narrator. When we started talking about this with the director, I discussed with him, and he totally wanted to do the same thing, is that I wanted the audience to feel that they were in 1972. I didn't want them to feel that it was me and Keith sitting in armchairs, saying - showing the guitars (the songs) were played on. I've seen many of those documentaries, it's sort of a formula. So I said, I want the viewer to feel like he's there, that he or she is in that time frame as much as possible. So we used, in the end, it must have been 90% of footage from then and a tiny bit from now. And the way those two sorts of things fit together makes it - you do kind of get the vibe of the time. |
Keith Richards & Mick Jagger (May 2010): The future of the Rolling Stones
Keith: I don't know, I'm going to hopefully find out soon, I'm going to be seeing Mick next week or something, so I'm going to try and screw some information out of him. You've got to have everybody want to do it, so I usually wait for a call from Mick saying, Let's make something, let's do something, because without his actual "want to do it", then there's not much point. But I'm always working, I've got ideas for stuff, but I haven't put them together yet with Mick.... (B)ut I don't think (we'll tour) this year, not that I've heard. The suggestion is that there would be a record on instead. Mick: I don't know what the future of the Rolling Stones (is). Very good, I should think. And we look forward to doing more concerts. Yeah, I'm sure we will. |
Charlie Watts (2010): Hitting No. 1 in the UK Oh, I loved it when they said, "You're No. 1". Mick and I thought it was going to be about ten 50-year-olds buying this thing. It's amazing, really, and the documentary was OK; I thought they did a very good job. Mick as well, he did a lot of work on that. |
Mick Jagger (May 2010): Yes I'm lucky...
I think the Stones are very lucky. You always need a lot of luck. And I think they were in the right place at the right time. (Also) when we work, we work very hard. You need all those things. There's no good just being hard-working because lots of people are hard-working. But you've got to be hard-working, on your game and be lucky. Staying there... requires a certain, you know, tactics. It's like being a football (soccer) player or something, you know. If you're going to last, you've got to play a bit clever. |
Mick Jagger (May 2010): Mr. Immigration Man, let me in to your fair land
(My drug conviction) was a long time ago... Every time I come to the United States I still have to sort of go to the special place... Even though it's 40-something years ago. The marijuana conviction, yes. I have to go into a room... You can't go through - you know the immigration line? So sometimes if there is someone that knows something about how to deal with it, they can do it. But normally I have to go to a special room. |
Mick Jagger (May 2010): They're so ugly, they're beautiful...
We were young, good-looking and stupid then. Now we're just stupid. |
Ron Wood (May 2010): Sober for 60 days
I've done 60 days of clean and serene and I can't see any way of stopping. I'm doing 90 meetings in 90 days. I do a meeting every day. It's a helluva bloody thing. I go from Surrey all over London - I just go to NA or AA and just keep it going. |
Ron Wood (May 2010): An upcoming Faces reunion tour
The Stones are great about The Faces. They are encouraging. In the downtime between the Stones' activity, you might as well do something constructive and keep the chops going. |
June
14, 2010: The Rolling Stones release the documentary DVD Stones in Exile.
Ron Wood (July 2010): Dismissing the latest "Rolling Stones to retire" rumours
We have all agreed th(e next tour) won't be the last time. Everyone's rocking. |
Charlie Watts (September 2010): The next Stones tour
We're having discussions for the moment. We're telling ourselves that, if we do something, it'll be next year or in two years. We're getting at an age where you can't project yourself too far into the future. Celebrating our 50 years onstage would be incredible... With the Stones, it's like the army, I stay ready. We'll start up when Mick and Keith get bored. For the moment, I'm waiting. Keith should release his autobiography soon. It should be funny. But, you know, it doesn't interest me to read the Rolling Stones' history. I'm already in it! |
Ron Wood (September 22, 2010): Seeing Mick and the Stones' future Mr. Jagger is in town, he’s around the corner at another hotel here in New York, so I’ll probably get together with him. We’re just going to hang, probably go for a meal, and catch up. I haven’t seen him for a few months. I think everybody is itching to put their two penny worth in about what’s going on (with the Stones). Mick’s been very supportive. They’ve been doing the Exile, which has had a rebirth. Mick and Keith and Charlie have been really happy with that, and I’ve been off doing my stuff. We can’t wait to get back together again as a unit. But we don’t have any plans just yet.... They've said (the next Stones tour would be the last) for the last 30 years. (laughs) So I don’t know. All I know is, Charlie’s out there playing with his jazz band. He’s over in Europe at the moment, having a great time, ’cause he loves to play. Mick’s doing various projects. Keith’s being a pirate and enjoying life with Johnny Depp. I’m going to see Keith probably next week as well. He’s over in England filming. So, yeah, it’s all exciting stuff. I saw Charlie again a couple of weeks ago. I gave him a copy of my album. He loves Jim Keltner, who’s playing a lot on it. So he said, Anything Keltner’s involved with is all right with me. |
Ron Wood (September 2010): Hanging out with Clinton
It was a last-minute thing. I had no idea I was going. It was a bit like being at a lecture, but I got to hang out with Bill afterwards, which was cool. He gave me a hug and said I want your new album and then he said I've got your paintings up in my house, in my office, and I told him, You've got some more coming. I really like him. He's a really down-to-earth guy and I think he's the best president they've had since Kennedy. He's the most popular at least. |
Ron Wood (September 2010): Seeing Mick I just saw Mick and we're getting on together better. He's been very supportive with my recent developments and my sober trail. I think he's very pleased with the fact that I'm more focused and I'm taking care of my life. |
Ron Wood (September 2010): Putting the album out and living sober (M)y time in 2009 was spent drying out and getting into rehab and painting again. In this day and age, where there's no record companies, I sat on the tracks. I didn't know quite what to do. Then I got together with Eagle, and I thought Oh, this is a blessing. A record company, I’ve found one! They were very keen. The last time I did (rehab) on my own. Through the strength of the fellowship, you know, I was going to AA, and I made a decision: Okay, I can’t carry on nibbling, saying I’m drying up and then having a drink again. It was just boring. I’d been there and done it, and I just decided to say, Hang on, I’m a much better person, I’m much more creative when I’m in control and focused. So that’s the way I am today, and I’m very happy with it... I’ve always thrived on getting a drive from different emotional circumstances that I’m going through. I’ve certainly been through the mill in the last few years, with leaving home and everything. But it’s all in a positive way. There were no bad vibes. (This album) was just something I had to do to strive for my own freedom. I’m not getting any younger. I thought, I’ve got to live life and be more responsible in my own way. (N)ow I've really nailed it, and I feel comfortable with my sobriety. I'm seven months in now, and I really feel good about that. |
Ron Wood & Charlie Watts (September-October 2010): Stones Summit Meeting on the horizon Ron: (W)e're due for our summit meeting, where we all sit around a table and bullshit.... Everyone's got itchy feet. We'll know something by December. Charlie: Well, it's always been "next year" - it's been like that for two years. We'll go on the road when Keith's bored, when his book's out of the way and he's bored, and Ronnie's bored. At the moment, they're both not bored. Bored enough, I mean. So I think that will happen. How long and how we do it will be another thing. It takes a lot of thought, an awful lot, and it usually takes a lot of time. |
Ron Wood (September 2010): Shredding fingers (W)hile the Stones are on the back burner, I shall keep my chops together. I've got to keep my fingers hard. (A Stones tour shreds your fingers.) Oh, yeah. You usually shred them during rehearsals and spend the tour healing up. Soaking your fingers in vinegar helps. Krazy Glue is the woman's way out (laughs). Pure alcohol is the best toughener, and malt vinegar is a close second. If I used alcohol, I'd end up drinking the fucking saucer I put it in. |
Keith Richards (October 2010): Mick on The Book I had a feeling Mick would have no problem with the truth. (He read it and) was a bit peeved about this and that. (But) Mick and I are still great friends and still want to work together. (Laughs) Can you imagine if life went along smoothly and everybody agreed? Nothing would happen. There'd be no blues. There'd be no Happy. Funnily enough, it was the weirdest thing he wanted taken out. I mean, look. You know, I love the man. I've known him since I was four years old, right. But the bit he wanted taken out was how he used a vocal coach. Everyone knew it anyway. It's been in a million interviews, but for some reason, he was like, You know, could we leave that out? And I went, No! I'm trying to say the truth here. |
Ron Wood (October 2010): Back onstage (J)ust being on stage again, my fingers are throbbing like Popyeye! It's great doing my own show, its' like doing a painting, it's like, This is mine. I just played more or less a whole set of never heard before songs. I was honoured that the crowd liked it. |
Keith Richards (October 2010): Two men and a baby You put your finger on it... Mick is very much interested in controlling things and I'm very much interested in being uncontrollable (laughs)... (Mick and I) are fighting for the Stones, in our own way. And that's what brings a great band together. You don't do it on milk and honey... Mick's my greatest mate, you know, and we have this baby called the Rolling Stones. And we may have different ideas at certain times of how to bring baby up, you know (laughs), but it's a damn good baby. |
Keith Richards (October 2010): The extended gap and the baby's future Mick and I are still great friends and still want to work together... There's no point in me saying, The Stones have gotta go to work if Mick doesn't feel like it. It's tiring trying to get everyone's enthusiasm up at the same time. And a lot of times it isn't there. But when it is, it's fantastic. And you have to pick those moments, in order to still be the Stones again. (Right now w)e're whispering - I wouldn't say talking. I'm getting hints. And I'm always ready. Mick and I spoke about a month ago in New York. It's at that mumbling stage. But I had some outtakes from the last sessions we did (for A Bigger Bang) and said, Just to jog your memory... So there's interaction. You don't want to push it too hard. (I'm maybe the catalyst) in that if there is a hint that they want to work, it drifts to me as a touchstone. Because they know I will say yes. I'm confirming what is already sort of confirmed in their minds. What I hope is that when we take these extended gaps, usually, when we come back together, something different comes out of it. You never know what that will be until you get there, when the ingredients are mixed. (W)e'll be on the road again in the future. Yeah. On the road. I think it's going to happen. I've had a chat with... Her Majesty. Brenda. |
Keith Richards (October 2010): I've Got My Own Book to Do I read Bill Wyman's book, but after three or four chapters - where he's going [assumes dull, priggish Wyman monotone], And by that point, I only had £600 left in Barclays Bank, I was like, Oh, Bill. You know what I mean? You're far more interesting than that; do me a favour. And Mick attempted it once, and ended up giving the money back. It was ten, fifteen years ago, and he'd keep ringing up and going [does Mick impression], 'Ere, what were we doing on August 15, 196-somefink? I'd be like, Mick, you're writing it. I can't remember. And knowing Mick, there would have been a morass of blank chapters - because there would have been a lot of stuff he would have wanted to put to one side, hur hur. |
Life co-author James Fox & Keith Richards (2015): Autobiography as therapy James Fox: He touched on these very sad things that still haunt him, and it visibly affected him at the time. We had to go very gingerly. Keith's way was to give himself a bottle, give himself protection, to create this kind of boundary so that you can go on creating inside it. I think he denied all this stuff with the help of lots of substances for a very long time. Keith: (Writing the book) drained more out of me than I had thought. I can play two Stones shows a day and I'm OK, you know? But the prolonged research, and your whole life is coming back in front of you - oh, man. |
November 2, 2010: Keith Richards' compilation album Vintage Winos is released.
Keith Richards (November 2010): The Stones soon There are gems in the vault, but more interesting to me is that everybody's ready to go out there again. Who said it should stop and who said when? That's what we want to find out. We'll know when it really comes to an end, with a crashing halt. After these many years working together, we have a lot of unfinished stuff to work on that we had to leave off the last album. And knowing Mick, as I do, he's a very prolific writer. And I have ideas, and we'll put them together in December or January, something like that... We're looking forward to working. |
Mick Jagger (November 2010): Save London's 100 Club This is really bad news if another great venue is threatened with closure. There's a real need for these places - they have a connection with the past. And what is important is that you have places where bands can cut their teeth and places of a certain intimacy and size, that new bands can experiment in. There aren't that many great places in London, or indeed any city, that you can say that about. We never played the 100 Club when we first started. We couldn't get a gig. |
Keith Richards (November 8, 2010): Yes, it's going to happen I get whispers, ideas. I have a feeling that we'll be working next year. I don't know if it'll be in January but next year if all goes well. I get the feeling that Mick wants to get on the road. |
Ron Wood (November 10, 2010): Ron Wood, Honorary Exile On Main Street Member I was just with Mick and Charlie this afternoon and they said to say Thanks a lot - and why weren't they invited?. And I said, Because you were on the album! There's no point to these awards if you were actually on it. But I have played these songs for the last 30 years and it's about time that I collected. So thanks a lot! |
Mick Jagger (2010): Anti-nostalgia Mick Personally, I think it’s really quite tedious raking over the past. Mostly, people only do it for the money... You don’t want to end up like some old footballer in a pub, talking about how he made the cross in the cup final in 1964. |
Mick Jagger (2010): Mick, relationships and Chekhov I don’t know what "grown-up" means. If you mean you’re being supportive of someone who has a life, I’d say I’ve always done that. I used to support Marianne Faithfull’s career when I was, like, 22. I used to read her scripts with her. If it was The Three Sisters, I’d be the other sisters. I was supportive, and she’d support me too. So, no, I disagree with that. I try and help L’Wren. You always try and help whoever you’re kind of dating. I always help them out in one way or another. When I was living with Jerry Hall, I used to help her pick her model pictures, or if she was doing a stage thing, I’d read her plays with her. I mean, that’s what you do, and vice versa, they do the same for you. |
Ron Wood (December 2010): When's the next get-together? I'd love to do (the Glastonbury festival in 2011). I'm always up for the festivals. As far as the Stones are concerned, we haven't had a get together for three years but it's high time. |
Keith Richards (December 2010): A glimmer of light on the horizon My usual phrase about this is I wait for a phone call, from somebody that's got a scratch, or an itch, which I mean Mick. Well I saw Mick in the city, in New York, and I kind of got the itch (laughs)... Shouldn't we do something? It becomes so formal sometimes with Mick. Nobody wants to broach the subject first. It's certainly not gonna be me because I know that... - you see, when you're doing this, if the front man isn't the impetus, isn't the man that wants to, and you've got to poke the front man and say Do something, then forget about it. You've got to have the want-to-do-it for the man's that gonna be out there doing it... But so I kind of got a hint of an itch from Mick (laughs) and we started to talk about possibilities of next year and how to do it... How to make the Stones grow up is our big problem right now (laughs)... And I also spoke to Charlie about it when he was here a month or two previous to that. And I know that he's got the gleam in the eye... No, it's not like the other times and the fireworks... So we're thinking of, we're working on our different concepts and ways of doing it that will work for us and also work for the audience. And that's the story so far, I cannot give away anything more (laughs)... Yes, (it might extend to recording), that might even come in front... There is a glimmer of light on the horizon. I can't wait to get back at work after two years of looking backwards. |
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