The following excerpt is taken from The Original Punk – Jeff Beck Stories: From Yardbird to the Guitar Shop by Steve Rosen.

Sometime around mid-December 1974, Mick Taylor left the Rolling Stones. He had been in the band since June 1969 and played on their most legendary albums: Let It Bleed; Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out; Sticky Fingers; Exile on Main Street; Goats Head Soup; and It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll. Despite being part of the world’s biggest rock and roll band, Taylor couldn’t take another day.

“If I’d just been content to be a side man and make a lot of money,” Mick Taylor divulged, “I’d have stayed where I was, but I wasn’t content. There’s always something more I wanted to express and more I wanted to do. I went through a few years, which were kind of a bit of a wasteland, where I lost my sense of direction and my spiritual needs completely.”

Down one guitar player, the Stones put out the call. Jeff answered. “I got a call from Keith Richards,” Beck recalled. “He acted like he had known me for 20 years. He asked me to come over and play and I thought it meant just kill a weekend. So, I thought, ‘Well, it would be nice to spend a couple of days in Rotterdam [Holland].’

“I went over there and I found out they wanted me to join; I couldn’t believe that. I mean the money was tempting; I could have made a fortune and not ever have to work again. But I would have been half-dead, and my reputation would have been shot. I think things have worked out better this way; I couldn’t be happier really.”

Assuredly, his relationship with Jagger and the Stones was a love/hate thing. “I have this affection for them in a funny sort of way,” the sometimes Mick Jagger lookalike mused. “I don’t like their music at all ‘cause they were pirates; they pirated the whole thing.

“Eel Pie Island [island in the River Thames, which featured the Eel Pie Island Hotel, where everybody from the Yardbirds, the Tridents, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, the Who and the Rolling Stones performed during their nascent days] was my first introduction to this dreadful scene.

“I had a little combo from Richmond [the Tridents], but they were good though. The guy used to play the harmonica like Little Walter, and he was an unbelievable blues player and a little drummer who was 18 or 17 or something. Every group knew every other group by name and by every sort of detail; there was a hot interest then.

“I suppose it’s like if you invented something right now and it swept the nation; you’d be hot for it because it’s something you were part of from the beginning.”

When Beck quipped, “I don’t like their music at all,” what he actually meant was, “I have no respect for them whatsoever.” When questioned how he felt about the Stones going out on the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour [1989] when the bandmembers averaged an age of around 45, he responded with typically unfiltered comments. He also took a shot at the Who.

“That’s just ironic,” he mused, “these older guys coming out. It’s nothing to do with me at all. I intended to do this tour way, way back. I don’t know what motivated Pete [Townshend] to go back other than personally to see if they could do it or whether the money had anything to do with it. Or if it was just a fun thing to do for entertainment’s sake. A lot of kids would love to see that while they’re still able.

“Unfortunately, [Keith Moon] Moony isn’t around but [Simon] Phillips is in there and he’ll give them a kick up the ass. I’ve heard four tracks on the Stones’ album [Steel Wheels] and it’s really something. If they’re gonna come out with material like that, then hallelujah.

“If it had been a naff (bad) album, then I would have said for sure they’re doing it just for the money. People want to see them all up there on the stage; they don’t want to see Mick or Keith on their own in some yuppified, designer rock outfit. They want to see the Rolling Stones rolling.”

Several months later in 1986, he teamed up again to assist on Mick Jagger’s second solo album, Primitive Cool. Though he had played on seven of the nine tracks from Jagger’s first album, She’s the Boss, there he was only one amongst a cadre of lead guitarists who played. On the follow-up, he was bumped to the top of the album credits and listed as Lead Guitar: Jeff Beck.

“I did the first Jagger album [She’s the Boss], which was done just for fun, and it sounds like it,” Beck hinted. “It sounds like a good beginning to something really promising. But it was the second album [Primitive Cool] when I realized I was just slotted in as a guest, studio-type guy, and I really didn’t like that.

“I think he [Mick Jagger] had this brainwave that he wanted to put this big show together where he was the star and we were all planetary kinds of people and all [much in the same way as Rod Stewart treated Jeff during their short-lived tour). That didn’t appeal to me.

“I wanted to be in Rolling Stone number two with a tomorrow feel to it; like an experimental Rolling Stones with Jagger singing, and I was sure that’s what he wanted. As time drifted by, I realized he was determined to put these old songs on tape the way he wanted them. He wanted to produce and have a very stylized album, which I didn’t want any part of.”

If Jagger couldn’t have enticed Beck to join the Stones, he could at least have him play in his touring band. Wrong again. “He did say at the beginning of the project that he wanted me to tour as well, and I worked flat-out on the She’s the Boss album and he’d really liked that. It was only halfway through the second project that I started to back out of it.

“He liked what I was doing, but I just didn’t like the way it was going. There was rhythm guitarists every day coming and putting their 10 cents in [Living Colour’s Vernon Reid; the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart; Jimmy Rip; and Jim Barber]. I just felt like a bump on a log. I walked out of it; there was no way I could handle it.”

• The Original Punk – Jeff Beck Stories: From Yardbird to the Guitar Shop by Steve Rosen is available now from Tonechaserbook.com.

For their most recent respective releases, The Rolling Stones and Beatles bassist Paul McCartney shared a producer – i.e., producer to the stars, Andrew Watt. Not only that, though, Macca is reportedly the one laying down the low end on an upcoming Stones track, titled Covered in You, from their upcoming album (out July 10), Foreign Tongues.

“You could be a bit blasé and go, ‘Yeah, OK, so what?’ But for me, it wasn’t – it went the other way,” McCartney told NME.

“It was like, ‘Wow, there’s Mick [Jagger]! Ooh, there’s Keith [Richards]! Woah, there’s Ronnie [Wood]!’ It was exciting. It was really good. A great thing is all I had to do was play bass and not make mistakes, so it was good.”

As for Jagger, the Stones' iconic frontman revealed that the new tune required more of a “funk bass part.”

“Obviously, I’ve known Paul for ages. He’s not a stranger, but he’s never played bass with us before,” he said matter-of-factly. “It’s a different thing, you know?

“I said to Andy [Watt, producer], ‘Is he gonna be into this? Because it’s a punk tune and I want overdriven bass. It’s gonna be simple, no mucking about.’ And Paul did exactly what was needed in, like, 10 minutes.”

Now, McCartney did also play bass on Bite My Head Off, from the Stones' 2023 album, Hackney Diamonds (some Foreign Tongues tracks date back to those sessions), but these instances didn't mark the first time the two collaborated.

The Macca-Lennon powerhouse wrote the Stones’ second single, I Wanna Be Your Man, back in 1963, while the late Brian Jones also contributed to the Beatles' Yellow Submarine. Jagger, meanwhile, contributed backing vocals to Baby, You’re a Rich Man.

Another instance where the two bands collided was when members of the Beatles and the Stones did a legendary one-off performance together as part of the TV spectacular, the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, where Lennon and Richards played the Beatles’ Yer Blues in the temporary supergroup the Dirty Mac – alongside Eric Clapton and Mitch Mitchell.

In more recent news, Paul McCartney recently challenged fans to work out the mystery guitar chord that inspired his new album – and, here at Guitar World, we figured it out.

In the early '90s, the Rolling Stones began a fruitful partnership with revered record producer Don Was – but he was convinced he'd never get the gig after witnessing a rather heated discussion with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards during their first meeting.

At the time, Was had worked on studio albums with Carly Simon, Iggy Pop, and the B-52s, plus an expansive box set release with Elton John. With each new release, he was adding to his burgeoning reputation. Working with the Stones, however, was a cut above.

“The label wanted them to have a producer. They sent me to NYC while the band was auditioning bass players at SIR,” he says in a soon-to-be-published interview with Guitar World.

“Mick and Keith came over and sat on either side of me, and both started talking at the same time. Neither one of them yielded to the other guy. My head was whipping back and forth like I was watching a ping-pong match.

“Best I could tell: Mick [Jagger] was outlining what he wanted in a producer, and Keith [Richards] was explaining why they didn’t need a fucking producer,” he laughs. “This went on for about two minutes, which, in that situation, is an excruciatingly long time!”

Eventually, a silence blanketed the room.

“Then Keith said, ‘Are you sure you want to be the meat in this sandwich?’” Was recalls. “I walked out convinced I’d never see them again.”

But he would see them again. Perhaps more incredibly, he even got a small repent out of Keef.

“Four days later, Keith called, apologized for being curt, and said maybe they could use a producer,” says Was. “He told me that he wanted to use Don Smith as the engineer for [1994 LP] Voodoo Lounge because Don had done such a great job on his two solo records with The Expensive Winos. However, Mick wanted a neutral partisan behind the board. Keith wanted me to talk with him about it.”

Four days had passed, but the pair were still at odds. So, once again, Was found himself in the thick of it. But luck was on his side.

“Well, it turned out that I'd been working with Don Smith a lot, that I loved his work, and thought he would be perfect for the album,” he explains. “So, I called Mick and told him that Don was my choice, not just Keith's. Mick relented and, when I called Keith to tell him that Don Smith was in, he said, ‘Your name's not Don Was - it's Don Is.’

“I was hired, and the same pattern of shuttle diplomacy continued for the next 25 years.”

Together, they made four records. They followed up Voodoo Lounge with Bridges to Babylon in ‘97. Eight years would pass until LP three, A Bigger Bang, saw the light of day, and another 11 after that for Blue & Lonesome, with a smattering of live albums, greatest hits packages, and deluxe reissues scattered among them.

The band then turned to hotshot producer Andrew Watt for their 2024 comeback album, Hackney Diamonds, and one GW scribe believes it features some of their finest fretwork in decades. It even saw the band reuniting with former bassist Bill Wyman, despite him not liking the track he played on.

With Don Was, the band found not only a top-quality producer, but a peace maker more than happy to mediate himself with Jagger and Richards’ politics.

The full interview with Don Was will be published in the near future.

Jimmy Rip isn’t sure he has a signature sound. “I’ve never looked for one,” he says. “People do say they can tell it’s me on a recording. I can’t! I’m always trying to change according to the situation I’m in.”

The New York City native adds: “I used to practice to the radio, spinning that dial like a roulette wheel. I was always trying to mold to the music; I had a studio musician’s way of thinking about it even then.”

He was in demand for a number of years, appearing on hundreds of albums including material by Mick Jagger and Tom Verlaine. But he says things have changed: “Is there a session player scene anymore?

“I’m probably way too far removed from it to say anything relevant. These days, with the ability to self-publish, it’s probably better to make the music that means the most to you, try to get it into as many eyes and ears as possible, and see what happens.”

He reflects on turning 70 next year, saying: “I’m always aware of the fall that comes after pride, but some things make me happy when I look back. I’m so grateful to be healthy, and to still have the energy for new things that keep life interesting.”

What inspired you to pick up the guitar?

“My older brother played. He always had bands rehearsing in the basement of our parents’ house in Queens. About six years old I began to sneak his guitars out of the case while he was at school.

“When he moved on to a red Hagstrom II, I was given his first guitar, a Zimgar hollowbody, which looks kinda like a Gibson Byrdland. I still have it. I use it all the time. It’s a great guitar, now with P-90s and a Bigsby. Everyone who touches it falls in love with it.”

Once you got into session work, what did your rig look like?

“I first got paid to play when I was 12. By the time I was 15 I was playing every weekend in bars and dances around NYC. I had fantastic gear – the things we all look at now as holy grails were just used stuff back then. When I was 16 I had a ‘64 ES-335 and one of Jim McCarty’s Marshall Plexi 50s, with ‘Cactus’ stenciled on the back!”

Did Jim give that to you?

“I bought it at Sam Ash in Hempstead, New York, for a couple of hundred bucks. I always say I shoulda just stopped buying, selling and trading then! There were no books and very few magazines to hip you to what great gear actually was.

“But my older brother had great taste in music and gear. I grew up playing in the basement through his black panel Super Reverb and Bassman, with a pair of Altec Voice of the Theater cabinets for a PA. I was so lucky!”

When you worked with Mick Jagger, were the likes of Mick Taylor, Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards ringing in your ears?

“If you were a guitar player born sometime in the ‘50s there’s no way you could escape having Ronnie, Mick and Keith in your brain. It was the language of the music closest to my heart; and their influences also became my influence. Thank God there was a huge well for us all to drink from!

“I first met Mick when I got called by the film director Allan Arkush to be in a video he was making for Bette Midler. She had covered Beast of Burden and he wanted some rock ‘n’ roll lookin’ guys to be in the video as her band.

“I didn’t know Mick was gonna be in the video. We met at the catering table, hit it off, and hung out a bit after that, runnin’ around NYC. A couple of years later, in 1987, when he was putting together a band to make his second solo disc, Primitive Cool, I got the call.

“When he put the band together to tour that album, I became the musical director. It was all off-the-charts talented musicians like Joe Satriani, Doug Wimbish and Simon Phillips. The only direction they needed was not to play too well – something I was more than qualified to do!”

How was it working with Jerry Lee Lewis on Last Man Standing?

“I had nothing but a blast making that record. Needless to say, Jerry’s dangerous reputation preceded him, but in the four years it took to finish that record, we did nothing but laugh and rock. My dear friend Kenny Lovelace – Jerry’s guitar band leader for 55 – and myself were the guitarists on every track.

“And there was the greatest guest list on any disc in rock history. If you’re only speaking about the guitar players there was Jimmy Page, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton and Neil Young.

“I traveled around the world for four years, recording the 22 guests in total in some crazy places – hotel rooms, rehearsal rooms and kitchens. I had a mic, a preamp, a laptop, and a relentless drive to show the world how great Jerry Lee still was.”

You joined Television in the 2000s.

“I joined in 2007, but you have to remember I started playing with Tom Verlaine in 1981, so altogether there was a 42-year history. I was with Tom when he took his last breath; one of the worst days of my life. I’m still very, very sad that he’s not here to play those amazing songs.

“I can hear his infinitely imaginative playing from five feet away. We could keep everyone near us on an airplane awake with our endless laughing. He is so sadly missed.”

What gear did you bring to the Television party?

“I’ve always tried to have one of everything to cover all the bases. I never thought of myself as a Gibson guy or a Fender guy or whatever. I’m always surprised when I see photos and I’ve always got a Telecaster in my hands.

“When Tom was playing Jazzmasters, that sound – later with his lipstick tube pickup – and the punch of the Tele seem to go real well together. There was a period when he put lots of keyboards on his records. I was a very early user of Roland‘s synth guitars, and I wound up using one stage with him a lot. Damn, it was so hard to keep that module in tune!”

Television's guitar parts are more complex than they seem. What was the key to mastering them?

“I don’t know if I did – those songs never seemed simple to me! But I was so used to playing with Tom when I joined Television that it was just more of the same to me. THeom really liked chord voicings in a certain way.

“He didn’t want any thirds in the chords a lot of the time. He liked the tonality to be a bit ambiguous. He had the sharpest ears – he could hear the air-conditioning duct rattle from the other side of a theater or a pre-amp tube about to go bad, and it all bugged the hell out of him. Soundchecks were sometimes a bit exacting!

“In 2013, when we started to play the entire Marquee Moon record at shows, I had to go in deep and really study Richard Lloyd’s parts. What Richard played on that record is so beautiful; to get those amazing lines into my hands was a pleasure. But not easy.”

You've worked with Debbie Harry, Mariah Carey and Rod Stewart. What’s the key to covering so many diverse sounds?

“Well, it all goes back to jamming with the radio and spinning that dial around, trying to figure out how everything fits together. Playing with all those kinds of legendary people, there’s also the nerves factor.

“Whether you’re a superstar or you’re just coming up, we’ve all come from the same place. We were all a little bit nerdy sitting in our rooms, practicing endless hours, trying to make dreams come true. I always remembered that when I was with someone about whom most people would ask, ‘Weren’t you nervous?’”

What’s your rig like these days?

“I’m the same as I ever was. I’ve got probably 30 guitars and only a couple of them are kind of frivolous ‘just because I want one’ guitars. All the rest are tools of the trade to cover all of the sounds that the songs I encounter.

“Of the 300 or so guitars that have passed through my life, there’s maybe five that I wish I had back. They’re now all worth so much money that short of a Lotto win, that ain’t happenin’… But I’ve got a couple of great Telecasters, a couple of great Stratocasters, a couple of great two-humbucker guitars.

“I’ve got a couple of great single P-90 guitars and my Hagstrom II. I have a 1957 Gibson J-50 that I’ve played on a couple hundred records; it’s the only acoustic that I ever use in the studio. I have a 1965 Jazzmaster that Tom gave me just before he left us.

“And I have Tom‘s first guitar, a 1959 Gibson LG-2, which is one of the most mojo-filled guitars I’ve ever touched. Every time I pick it up I’ll play something I’ve never played before. Tom wrote most of the Marquee Moon songs on it. It’s so very special to me that it never goes outside.”

What’s next for you?

“I lived in Argentina for the last 16 years and produced 20 records there – some gold and platinum sellers. I was a total stranger when I arrived there, and it was not an easy thing to do. I made four discs there with my band, Jimmy Rip & The Trip, and I managed to keep it together for 15 years, playing the biggest stages around South America.

“Now I’m back in the States. In the fall I’ll have my YouTube channel up. I’ll be driving around the country in my camper, telling my rock ‘n’ roll stories and meeting up with old friends so we can tell our stories together.

“I’ll be back in Argentina in December for a few weeks to play some shows. Then I’ll be doing some shows in the US, performing some of Tom’s music – focusing on his solo songs with a very special band. There’s so many wonderful songs of his that need to be in the air.”

• Follow Jimmy Rip on his social channels.

Aside from being one of the pioneers of the two-handed tapping technique that gained steam in the post-Van Halen era, Harvey Mandel made his mark on rock ‘n’ roll history as a member of the Woodstock-era Canned Heat, as well as playing side-by-side with John Mayall. And oh, he was also almost a Rolling Stone...

“I was living in LA at the time. In the middle of the night, suddenly, I got a call, and it’s Mick Jagger,” he tells Guitar World. “I thought it was somebody goofing around at first, but after I talked with him on the phone for a few minutes, I realized this was Mick Jagger.

“They were in Germany at the time, and he said, ‘Well, we want you to come to Germany…’ He didn’t really say it was an ‘audition’ to join the Stones; he wanted me to come and play to be a part of the record.”

Despite playing on Hot Stuff and Memory Motel, which would later be released on 1976’s Black and Blue, Mandel asserts that Keith Richards blocked his trajectory to becoming a Rolling Stone.

“Ronnie Wood came in the next day, and Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards were pals,” he explains. “They grew up together and hung out. Mick Jagger wanted me to play. Keith Richards wanted Ronnie Wood, who won out because he [Keith Richards] had the power to insist that it was Ronnie Woodor else. So, I kind of got aced out.”

In his heart of hearts, however, Mandel still believes that he was the one who should have landed the highly coveted gig.

"Ronnie was a nice guy. I played at his club and hung out with him a couple of times. He was actually a really nice guy – but let’s face it: he ain’t no Mick Taylor, and he’s no Harvey Mandel. He’s what I call a C-plus guitar player,” he says matter-of-factly.

“He had the show, and he could jump around and be part of the craziness, but he never impressed me as an actual player. So, I think they would have been much better off musically if I was the one playing because they didn’t need Ronnie Wood for the show. Mick Jagger was the show.”

In the wake of the news that John Mayall has died at the age of 90, the guitar world has come out to pay tribute to the influential British blues pioneer.

Mayall – who masterminded the Bluesbreakers, brought blues to a new audience in the UK in the ’60s, and gave a platform to a number of guitarists all destined for greatness – passed away in his home in California on Monday (July 22) surrounded by his family.

In an especially touching post on Instagram, Joe Bonamassa calls Mayall “a wonderful guy that changed the game for all of us”, and said it was “an honor of a lifetime” to have called him a friend.

“I loved this man. I loved this man's music,” Bonamassa writes. “Any suburban white kid at all interested in the blues from the 60s, 70's 80's or 90's learned to play guitar from the "Beano" album.

“John's importance in music is as profound as the guitarist that he hired. Yes, he employed Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Mick Fleetwood, Mickey Waller, Andy Fraser, Walter Trout and countless other legends of the blues with The Bluesbreakers but there is something more though than just his musical legacy.”

Trout, who played with Mayall in one iteration of the Bluesbreakers, also paid tribute to his friend and former bandmate, writing, “He is and will always be my musical mentor. We just lost a giant. I loved him like a father, and I always will.”

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, who linked up with Mick Taylor after the guitarist left the Bluesbreakers, praised Mayall for his “wonderful eye for talented young musicians” and called him “a great pioneer of British blues”.

“He… had a wonderful eye for talented young musicians, including Mick Taylor – who he recommended to me after Brian Jones died – ushering in a new era for the Stones,” Jagger says.

Further tributes can be found below.

Living Colour bassist Doug Wimbish has collaborated with Spector's USA Custom Shop to create two new Doug Wimbish USA Custom Series basses, inspired by the bass models that have accompanied him throughout his career.

According to Spector, these signature basses "faithfully replicate Wimbish's originals, down to the smallest details like neck contours and nut widths."

In addition to the design, the two models, DW-4 and DW-5, come fully equipped with customized EMG pickups, wound to match Wimbish's 1987 Spector to capture his distinct tone.

“Spector took the time to get every little nuance right, and that to me is dedication and being thoughtful enough to know ‘I want to nail it,’ and they did,” remarks Wimbish. “I’m able to pick these instruments up for the first time and play them like I’ve already had them for years.”

The basses feature a maple body with quilted maple top, paired with a three-piece hard rock maple neck and 24-fret pau ferro fretboard.

Two EMG DW Signature pickups are adjusted by controls for master volume, pickup blend, bass cut/boost and treble cut/boost.

Other specs include a brass nut and bridge, plus Spector-branded Gotoh tuners.

In an interview with Spector, Wimbish recalls the moment he adopted Spector basses as his go-to instruments. “I was with Jeff Beck, we were recording with Mick Jagger what was to be his Primitive Cool record. 

“It just so happens that Kramer [Guitars] was there to show some instruments to Jeff and I, and I was fortunate enough to be able to have my tech Pierre mention to the folks at Kramer that Doug is really interested in checking out Spector basses. Fortunately I got the bass, I was able to record the album, and everybody loved the sound.” 

Wimbish's 1987 5-string Spector bass was the ninth five-string bass Spector ever made. Therefore, in addition to the standard four-string version, the signature model pays homage to this piece of history through a five-string version that replicates the original’s slightly unrefined headstock design.

Priced at $6,339.99 and $6,639.99 respectively, the DW-4 comes in Amber Stain Gloss and Black Stain Gloss finish, while the DW-5 is offered in Dark Blue Stain Gloss and Faded Natural Gloss. Every bass purchase comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by Doug Wimbish himself.

For more information about the new Doug Wimbish USA Custom Series basses, head over to Spector. 

You'd be forgiven for greeting the announcement of The Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds – their new first album of original material in 18 years – with a bit of skepticism.

For one, the band lost Charlie Watts – the ever-steady drummer who was a cornerstone of their sound and, other than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the band's sole constant member over the last 60 years – in 2021. 

Then, there was Hackney Diamonds' inevitable high-profile rollout – a live-streamed Q&A with Jimmy Fallon, and a music video featuring Hollywood it-girl Sydney Sweeney. 

Granted, the band have earned their imperial status many, many times over, but the main question hanging over all this pomp and circumstance was clear: can the Rolling Stones – now together for over 60 years, and whose principal members are either in or rapidly approaching their 80s – still make a great record?

Well, let's start the answer with the song that got the aforementioned glossy video treatment – Hackney Diamonds' opener and lead single, Angry.

Angry greets listeners – from its opening bars – with a striking illustration of what's old and what's new with this rock institution. On the latter front, there's the backbeat from new drummer Steve Jordan – steady, like Watts, but significantly more muscular. On the former, though, there's Ronnie Wood and Mr. Keith Richards. 

Reminiscent of the none-more-iconic opening riff to the Stones' last true mega-hit, Start Me Up, Keef's rhythm guitar hook makes Mick Jagger's job on Angry a whole lot easier, freeing him up to swoon and shout to his heart's content. Jagger, a great-grandfather of three, cries “We haven't made love and I wanna know whyyyyyyy” as Richards and Wood dutifully keep up the riffwork behind him. It's familiar. It works. It's fantastic.

Off to a flying start, the album then serves up the phenomenal Get Close, a swaggering rocker with an absolutely dynamite riff – arguably Keef's finest of the 21st century to the date. His interplay with Wood is spellbinding, and fits like a puzzle piece with Jordan's strutting backbeat and the celebratory sax solo that enters the picture around the song's halfway point.

Richards recently told Guitar Player that the Stones are “all about teamwork,” and it's the enduring strength of that spirit that really makes Hackney Diamonds shine. Just listen to Depending On You, where the band's two-guitar tandem recede and let Jagger do the melodic heavy lifting, especially in the song's soaring chorus. Keef sits back and reacts to Jagger with evocative fills and responses – just as stellar a supporting player as he was in his prime.

Darryl Jones, the Stones' long-serving live bassist, was unable to contribute to Hackney Diamonds due to other commitments, leaving a low-end gap that was filled by Richards, Wood, and even the band's former bass guitar player, Bill Wyman. Another bassist to feature on the album is a lefty you might have heard of, named Paul McCartney.

Just as Jordan gave the band some 21st century muscle on drums, the rotating carousel of bassists makes for some colorful, convention-breaking moments, none more so than McCartney's fuzztastic four-string break on the roof-raiser Bite My Head Off.

Using a Univox Super Fuzz circuit-loaded ‘64 Höfner gifted to him by Hackney Diamonds producer Andrew Watt, McCartney makes the band sound more early-noughties NYC than Swinging Sixties London. 

It's far from the only time Watt – the superstar producer who, in just the last couple of years, has brought incredibly vital music out of veterans like Pearl Jam, Ozzy Osbourne, and Iggy Pop – and his vintage gear stable make a mark on the record.

Though Richards has long had the same guitar amp setup in the studio – a trio of enviable vintage Fenders and an early-Sixties Watkins Joker – Watt brought to the studio five (!) amps that had been worked on by the great Alexander Dumble, of which Richards took a particular shine to a Dumble-modded '58 Fender Twin. 

Wood, meanwhile, alternated between his trusty mid-'50s-era Stratocaster, and the Zemaitis he used on the Faces' iconic song, Stay With Me.

It's a fantastic-sounding blend of the old and the new, gear-wise – perfectly reflective of how the Stones were able to let one of music's most in-demand producers fully take the reins on Hackney Diamonds, without losing their soul, or any of their still-ample charm.

Speaking of charm, after ripping through a number of other strong tracks – including the album's penultimate number, a stunning gospel blowout titled Sweet Sounds of Heaven – the Stones end their new album by taking things all the way back to the beginning. And we do mean all the way back.

Richards uses a 1930 Gibson L-4 acoustic given to him by Watt – and chosen for its similarity to the Gibson L-1 associated with Robert Johnson – to run through Muddy Waters' Rolling Stone Blues, the song that gave the Stones their name and that – incredibly, after all these years – the band had never covered. 

With all of the tabloids they've appeared in, and all of the stadiums they've taken over around the world, the Stones end their new album with the simplest of acoustic blues jams. Close your eyes, and it'll sound like a window into what Mick and Keith's first rehearsals might have sounded like, over 60 years ago.

Richards has insisted that there is no greater meaning about the band's future in choosing to end the album with this cover, but either way, it's a perfect note on which to close a record that finds the Stones embracing new tools and new sounds, but never straying from their spirit and heritage. It makes you wonder why people still even bother telling the Greatest Rock 'n Roll Band in the World to 'hang it up already'...

Released during the first week of June 1965, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction was the first US #1 for The Rolling Stones. It embodied the idea of writing a song around a riff, rather than a vocal melody or chord progression. “It was the song that really made The Rolling Stones,” Jagger once told Rolling Stone magazine. “It changed us from just another band into a huge, monster band.”

By the mid-60s, the songwriting partnership of Jagger and Richards had become the most powerful force within the group, with the remaining Stones sidelined, no matter what their contribution, never receiving any songwriting acknowledgments. “I always resented those moments where I’d come up with a bass riff that meant much more to a song than just providing a supportive rhythmic underbelly,” said former bassist, Bill Wyman. “My contribution always seemed to be played down.”

Such as Satisfaction? Often cited as an obvious example. “Whatever Mick and Keith might say, the fact of the matter is that – to me, and many music lovers in the know – my bassline made that song just as much as Keith’s guitar riff.”

It all began during the Stones’ 1965 tour of America. “I wrote Satisfaction in my sleep,” said Richards in his autobiography, Life. “I had no idea I’d written it, it’s only thank God for the little Philips cassette player. The miracle being that I looked at the cassette player that morning, and I knew I’d put a brand-new tape in the previous night, and I saw it was the end. It was just a rough idea. There was just the bare bones of the song, and it didn’t have that noise, of course, because I was on acoustic… but the bare bones is all you need.”

Mick Jagger finished the verses a few days later. In the BBC documentary, My Life as a Rolling Stone, Jagger revealed how Richards couldn’t foresee the song reaching any level of credible success. “There’s this motel in Clearwater, Florida, and I remember sitting with Keith and writing the song. Our manager Andrew Oldham said, ‘This is like a number one single, this is great!’ Keith was like, ‘I don’t really like it. It can’t come out as a single.’”

Wyman might argue that his contribution was overlooked and undervalued  – yet, according to Keith Richards, “Bill Wyman is an incredible bass player. I’m still always amazed by Bill’s tastefulness in his bass playing. He’s a very discerning and sensitive musician. He might be embarrassed by that, but I got to say it. He’s like the top bass player for me.”

Despite Rolling Stone magazine naming Wyman among the top 50 greatest bassists of all time, he has often undersold his talent. “There must be hundreds of better bass players than me,” he told Rolling Stone in 1974. “I mean I could never play like Jack Bruce. If I was ambitious in that direction I’d practice, but I don’t. All I do is provide a bottom-end for the band. You’ve got to build that foundation, and that’s what Charlie and I did with the Stones. It’s just making a foundation for other people to get off on and be extroverts. You know, you can sit in the back and just watch them and say ‘here they go again.’”

Wyman eventually left the band in 1993, with ex-Miles Davis sideman Darryl Jones making his debut a year later on the group’s Voodoo Lounge album. Had Wyman any views on how Darryl has fitted in? “He’s all right,” Bill conceded in an 1995 interview, “I suggested several excellent young players who would’ve fitted the bill, but Mick and Keith wanted someone flash and funky.”

Bill Wyman’s documentary The Quiet One is available to stream on-demand in HD directly from Bill’s site. Visit billwyman.com for more info

When we look back on the '80s, we often think of a time when glamorous, MTV pop metal was the dominant force in guitar-driven music. It was an era when mad scientist shredders wielded technicolor slabs of mahogany, alder, and basswood in the name of glammed-out splendor.

And while these heroes of all things six-string defined the decade, another side of the proverbial coin remains. By the mid-'80s, rock and metal had saturated the charts, leaving some listeners looking for new and exciting ways to take in guitar theatrics.

To that end, players like Eddie Martinez – who starred across hit records by Robert Palmer, Mick Jagger, David Lee Roth, and most famously, Run-D.M.C. – made their mark.

When asked about his enduring influences across the genres during the '80s, Eddie Martinez quips: "Every session I've ever done, I had to give as much as I could. The truth is, in the session world, that is how you got called back.

"In most sessions back then, there weren't even charts. Sometimes if I was lucky, there would be a rough chart that was practically empty. Or you wrote out your own chart. It was my job to think of things, making hooks or finding hooks within hooks, or voicing chords in a particular way."

"Style comes from a philosophy of musical approach, and I think I've delivered that," Martinez continues. "So, regarding influence and meaning, I believe that comes from the fans because they've attached their meaning to what I have done. I'm so grateful for that. All I know is that I gave my all on those songs, and for people and musicians to attach that special meaning and significance is the proverbial icing on the cake. All I know is that I had so much fun creating it, and this kind of response all these years later is incredibly gratifying."

These days, Martinez is still active. Some 40 years after he shook up the world of guitar through his inspiring, genre-breaking leads and smoother-than-smooth rhythms, the NYC native has stopped championing the good word of multi-genre dominance. Still, even with his strides to ingratiate the guitar into the fabric of hip-hop, Martinez feels there's still work to be done.

"I don't think the guitar is properly represented in hip-hop yet," Martinez insists. "I believe there's a lot more room for guitarists to make a statement in hip-hop. That said, it has to come from an authentic place, and it must be the artist's vision. I like what the Beastie Boys did with the sounds on Sabotage, but man, that was last century.

"I believe I made a statement with [Run-D.M.C.'s] Rock Box and King of Rock because it was organic, authentic, and the first. What inspires me today is when I hear a musician playing, and they have the freedom to their expression that is unbridled."

Busy at work on his latest music, Eddie Martinez set his guitar aside for a moment, dialing in with Guitar World to talk influences, touring with Blondie, being a hitmaker in the '80s, and the secret to good hip-hip guitar.

What first inspired you to pick up the guitar?

"The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show was the initial spark. So many of my friends and contemporaries feel the same way. The music was like a breath of fresh air, and it rang differently in my ears."

Who were your primary influences?

"Then the next wave for me was Hendrix, Clapton, and Jeff Beck. Hearing Hendrix's Are You Experienced was a game changer. It sounded as if it was from another world with an enormous vibe. I can remember just being blown away and wondering how those sounds were made. I saw Hendrix three times live, and he was incandescent. He literally reinvented the electric guitar and the infinite possibilities of the instrument. Hendrix was my North Star."

What was it about Beck that stood out most for you?

"What can be said about Jeff Beck that hasn't already been said? Out of all the greats, I believe I've seen Jeff Beck live more than any other guitarist. I saw the first Jeff Beck Group with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart in the late '60s and have been a fan ever since. His evolution as a guitarist through the years was incredibly inspiring to me. I'm so lucky to have seen the arc of this incredible guitarist while we had him.

"His voice on the instrument was singular; he was one of the people doing things on guitar that still has us scratching our heads. I'm so lucky that I was able to play with him and to get to know him while recording Mick Jagger's first solo album, She's the Boss. He was very kind to me, and his passing was such a huge loss for us guitarists."

And how about Clapton?

"Eric Clapton has been such an incredible ambassador of the blues. In many ways, my introduction to the great American blues guitarists was through Clapton and Hendrix. How ironic that one of the true American art forms was discarded by us Americans only to be championed by the British, contributing to its resurgence.

"I still get goosebumps when I hear him switch to the bridge pickup on the solo for I Feel Free off the Fresh Cream album. The volume of what Clapton has done with his personal evolution of what the blues means to him as well as his body of work, makes him a complete artist. I had the privilege of recording with him in the late '80s, which was amazing."

How did touring with LaBelle in the '70s allow you to hone your chops?

"My takeaway from my experience with LaBelle was learning how to accompany great singers. That has been extraordinarily important to me as a musician. I got firsthand experience of what dynamics means from a vocalist's point of view. These are essential things for any musician or performance artist.

"Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx, and Sarah Dash had incredible voices. They had power and grace and projected their presence to the furthest seat in the theater. I was lucky to experience that for a year and a half. Musically, it was a high-energy gig, and you had to be on your toes. We did a lot of TV spots as well, which was an entirely different experience entirely."

How did you get hooked up with Blondie in the early '80s?

"A friend of mine called and told me Blondie was holding auditions and gave me a number to call. I then set up an audition. I had done tours with jazz fusion drummer Lenny White, as well as tours with Stanley Clarke and George Duke prior to this. Even though I considered myself more of a rocker than a fusion guy, I presumed that they thought I wouldn't fit in.

"So, I went to the audition with the intent of having fun regardless of the outcome. I went to the audition with a black Strat, dimed the Marshall, and played with intensity and attitude. Debbie [Harry] and the rest were super-cool to me. I left the audition feeling content that I had thrown caution to the wind and just played. By the time I took the D train uptown to my apartment in the Bronx, there was a message with a number for me to call. I called and was offered the gig. So, I presumed wrong – you never know how these things turn out."

What memories do you have of the "final" tour?

"I remember there being trepidation with Blondie touring because Chris [Stein] was unwell. But we went out there and toured the US. The tour was short-lived, and Chris's ailment was the reason the tour was canceled, and to my knowledge, Debbie didn't want to do it without Chris, which is entirely understandable. It was a great experience, and I dug banging out those crunchy punk-pop gems."

Not long after, you featured on Robert Palmer's Riptide. What was your approach, and how did your playing impact the sessions?

"My approach was to serve the songs and to collaborate musically with the producers and artists. Each of those records were all so different regarding approach. The most important thing for me was to elevate the song, which means, 'What can I contribute guitar-wise to make it better?'

"Most times, you have to come up with parts, musical hooks, motifs, et cetera. You can't be set in stone, and you need to listen to everyone playing and use your instincts to find parts. Although I had played on hit records before Riptide, I believe my work with Robert Palmer was the first time that I could entirely be me. Robert Palmer, Bernard Edwards, who produced, and Jason Corsaro, who engineered, were incredible to work with. I was able to incorporate huge rock sounds as well as lush pop and funk tones that were orchestrated to propel the songs.

"I also felt good that I had developed a signature sound with that album. I knew Addicted to Love was a hit after we recorded that track. You best affect the sessions by coming up with hooks that elevate the track and make it stronger than when you first walked into the studio.

"Through the years, there were so many sessions that the songs presented were mere skeletons that I had to flesh out with the parts and sounds I heard, and they became hits. People don't realize how much session musicians contribute to the magic of hit songs. It's a kind of rarefied air, and it's what we're paid to do."

Was it the same during the recording of Steve Winwood's Back in the High Life?

"Those recordings were kind of happening around the same time, I believe. It was an incredible and busy time. Busy is good. Steve Winwood was a joy to work with, as well as Russ Titelman, who produced the record. I had worked with Russ before, and it was always a blast. He loves that greasy and smelly funk part on a pop tune.

"On Higher Love and Freedom Overspill, it was mostly single-note funk lines that helped the track swing. I call that inside-the-track smelly stuff. It isn't frontal guitar for the most part, but they are parts that help make the song feel like a record, as is said in the business. I knew that Higher Love was going to be a huge hit, as well. I believe it won a Grammy for song of the year in 1986."

That leads us to David Lee Roth's Crazy from the Heat…

"Crazy from the Heat was a total blast. Dave was absolutely cool and professional. He expressed his gratitude for all of us being able to be there for the sessions. The tracks were cut live in Studio A at the Power Station. There were minimal overdubs on those tracks cut at the Power Station.

"On that project, as it was a live date, you get to feel how the song is evolving relative to what parts to play and what sounds to choose. When I saw a chart for California Girls, the first thing that crossed my mind was, 'Power chords would be cool on that pop masterpiece.' It worked. Ted Templeman was also great to work with; the sessions went very smoothly, and the rest is history."

As you were working on Mick Jagger's She's the Boss, did you feel pressure to play in the style of Keith Richards?

"I felt no pressure to play like Keith and was there to be myself. I could tell that when Mick showed us a song on guitar, he must've learned how to play from Keith. The way Mick swung on the guitar was reminiscent of Keith's pocket.

"I was allowed to be myself, and when working with Bill Laswell and Nile Rodgers, they want you to be creative and to be you. It was also great collaborating with Nile Rodgers, who lived just around the corner from me in the Bronx in our high school days. He's one of my oldest friends."

You mentioned earlier working alongside Jeff Beck during the She's the Boss sessions. What were your takeaways?

"I played with so many rhythm sections on the sessions for that album and recorded with Jeff Beck, which was special. It was kind of trippy in a good way playing with Jeff. His flow and trend of thought when recording was incredible, but I couldn't dwell on recording with such an iconic guitarist because I had a job to do: contribute and serve the music.

"They had been recording for a while before I got there with no keepers. On my first day, we cut She's the Boss, and that was a keeper. Sly [Dunbar] and Robbie [Shakespeare] said they were happy I was there and doing my rhythm parts. That was very nice of them. We recorded at Compass Point, Nassau, Bahamas, and the Power Station in NY."

What memories do you have of performing with Mick at Live Aid?

"Without a doubt, that was the fastest, most amazing 20 minutes of my life. I have a great memory of the night before Live Aid in an empty JFK stadium with only Mick, Tina [Turner], Daryl Hall, John Oates, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, G.E. Smith, myself, and the entire band. We went through the songs with Mick and Tina, and the energy that we produced in an empty stadium was unforgettable.

"It was surpassed the following night in front of 85,000 people. The energy we created on that stage was matched by the audience. I've never ever felt that kind of reciprocal energy before or since. It was next-level. I still remember being in the motorcade heading to the stadium the night of the gig, eating red lights like it was going out of style."

How did you first become involved with Run-D.M.C.?

"Larry Smith, who produced Rock Box and King of Rock, was a good friend and bassist. We played in a lot of bands in our younger years. There was a point where he jumped into the hip-hop scene, and I started to get into the touring and eventual session scene. Larry fully immersed himself in what was happening in the hip-hop world. I remember the first hip-hop sessions I did was for Kurtis Blow. But the first big guitar was on Rock Box."

How prevalent was guitar in hip-hop to that point?

"Mind you, I had been playing with all sorts of artists from LaBelle, Robert Palmer, Winwood, and Jagger to Yoko Ono and wasn't confined to one genre. But for guitarists that were in the hip-hop scene, I would imagine it was the beginning of something eventually incredible. But at first, the guitar wasn't a primary instrument in hip-hop. It was beats, bottom, and DJs doing their thing, spinning, and scratching. Luckily, Rock Box changed that with a new flavor that made the guitarist crank up on some beats."

Can you recount the recording of Rock Box?

"When I first heard Rock Box, it was sparse. It was a DMX drum machine, a bass guitar, and the tinkling synth motif, Run-D.M.C. rap, and Jam Master J's vibe. Larry Smith asked me to put big rock guitar on it, and I went to work. I reinforced the bass line with massive-sounding guitars, built on some of my riffs, harmonized them, and then soloed over the whole track. It was a guitar orchestra.

"It was great to have that canvas to put my vibe on, and it was a total blast. This is a clear example of elevating a track and using my style of guitar in propelling that piece of music. You don't press a preset button and get that performance. It's what a lot of people don't realize and that a lot of other great studio guitarists never get credit for.

"How often have you heard studio players say, 'Well, I got to the session, and the sheet music was blank but had one chord symbol, so I built on that.' That's the way it was in many cases. Nevertheless, I'm grateful that I contributed in a big way and helped it be a worldwide iconic hit.

"I've said this before: I felt great when I left the studio that night, but I didn't know it would have such an enormous historical impact. You never know sometimes… it became the precursor for a whole new thing."

What gear did you use during the recording of the track?

"I recorded Rock Box with my Hamer Prototype, my hitmaker back then; it was used on Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love and David Lee Roth's California Girls. I also used a Music Man 2x12 combo that was a studio amp and a Boss OD-1. I wanted big authentic, crunchy guitars with all that analog fatness and no buzzy-sounding stuff.

"It's been well accounted for that the big guitars took Run DMC by surprise, and they weren't happy at first. But it all worked out in the end because that record blew up and changed everything. It became an iconoclastic track."

How did you develop the distorted guitar sound you deployed across King of Rock?

"On King of Rock, I used another studio amp. I believe it was a Sound City head and 4x12 cabinet. The sound was big and had a bit more edge to it that was appropriate for the irreverence of the track. The whole track and video were just a killer metaphor with trashing convention. Doing the video with Larry "Bud" Melman [aka Calvert DeForest] was dope.

"It was something where I had a sonic idea of where the guitar should be perspective-wise compared to everything else. The big guitar was so successful with Rock Box that I wanted to do something in that tradition but slightly different. There was plenty of space to be huge, but it's something that I ultimately felt instinctively. I think King of Rock is slightly edgier than Rock Box and pairs with the comic irreverence of the video."

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Robert Palmer's Simply Irresistible. What gear and approach did you deploy?

"Oh, that was a fun track, and I heard all sorts of things on that one! Robert was such a brilliant composer. He knew how to structure a song and leave enough space for guitars. Hearing his music was inspiring, and he loved me pushing the envelope, which I did on the solo that he called 'Large Marge' from the Pee-wee Herman movie [Pee-wee's Big Adventure]. 

"I was able to incorporate some things that were intervallic, chromatic, quasi-bebop, and whole tone in my solo. I came up with big guitar hooks on that track as well. I used Marshall JCM800s modified by Harry Kolbe in NY. I then used a KOLBE box converting speaker level to line level and had a Yamaha power amp to drive, I think, six 4x12s.

"After the tracks were cut, I also put a guitar D.I. with engineer ET Thorngren with a Pro Co Rat to give a sonic point to that massive 4x12 barrage. On that track, I used a Jackson Soloist that Grover Jackson personally gave me, as well as a Hamer 12-string that's tucked in the mix."

Which sessions mean the most to you?

"I believe the three Robert Palmer albums, as well as Jagger’s first solo record, have a lot of significance. Plus, recording with Ryuichi Sakamoto, my band Distance, and my solo album No Lies.

"I released a solo album a few years ago titled Akosua, and it's on iTunes. I'm finishing up on a new EP titled Elephant, which contains tunes that I recorded years ago with the late engineer and producer Jason Corsaro that I feel still rocks. Then another new LP which I'll start recording later this year."

Do you prefer vintage guitars or new ones?

"I have vintage Fenders and CS and Masterbuilt Fenders as well as vintage Gibsons and Murphy Lab Gibsons. I also have John Suhr guitars that are excellent. It's all about application for me and what will do the job. I personally like to mix it up with Saul Koll guitars, Ronin, Nacho, and Clive Brown guitars, as well.

What amps and other gear are you using? Are you okay with Kempers, or do you prefer tube amps?

"I use Bludotone, Suhr, Benson, Fender, and Boogie amps. I haven't used a Kemper, but I'm having a lot of fun with the Fractal FM9. There's a use and purpose for all the modern technology, but I lean towards tube amps."

Are you a pedal addict? If so, which do you like?

"Yes, I'm a pedal addict. I currently like Crazy Tube Circuits Starlight and Unobtainium pedals and the Kasleder Toxic Twins pedal, Eventide H9, Benson pedals, as well as the Suhr Discovery analog delay, which sounds beautiful."

Do current trends alter your present-day technique at all?

"I'm amazed at what some of the younger players are doing on the instrument technique-wise, and still blown away by what legendary cats like John McLaughlin are still doing. For me, it's about expanding my vocabulary on the instrument. It could be the smallest thing or perhaps a riff or a phrase that I've never played before. Those little things blow my mind, as well as finding new ways to make a statement.

"I believe listening to other styles of music inspires me very much, and I particularly love film music. I love listening to Thomas Newman, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Lyle Workman – who happens to be a monster guitarist – and Alexandre Desplat, to name a few. It makes me think and phrase differently when I pick up a guitar after listening to a film score."

What's the secret to good hip-hop guitar playing?

"I don't know if there's a secret or not, but you have to tap into the spirit and vibe of the hip-hop track. You need to be funky when needed and when to be rude with powerful big crunchy guitars or any type of guitar regardless of style. But the most important thing is being open to different styles and being authentic in your approach."

Footage has emerged online from the Rolling Stones’ first post-lockdown No Filter concert – the band’s first tour gig since the passing of drummer Charlie Watts.

Though the legendary rock outfit performed a 14-song set as part of a private party last week organized by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, their weekend performance – which occurred at The Dome in St. Louis on September 26 – marked the first time the Stones have played in front of the public proper since Watts passed away.

As such, it was only the second time they had taken to the stage with fill-in drummer Steve Jordan since news of Watts’ death broke, with the band paying tribute to their longtime bandmate from the outset.

The start of the show saw a series of images and video footage of Watts projected onto the monitors and, after the band performed set openers Street Fighting Man and It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, Mick Jagger took the opportunity to pay tribute to the departed drummer.

Standing hand in hand with Keith Richards, Jagger said, “This is our first tour we’ve done without him. All the reaction from you guys, and all the things that you’ve said, have been really touching and we want to thank you all very much.

“We’ll miss Charlie so much both on the stage and off the stage,” concluded Jagger, before dedicating the band’s third song of the evening, Tumbling Dice, to the late drumming icon.

Tumbling Dice was followed by Under My Thumb and 19th Nervous Breakdown, with Richards then taking out his acoustic guitar for a fan-requested rendition of Wild Horses.

A number of other Stones classics made the cut, with Honky Tonk Women, Paint It Black and Sympathy for the Devil all featuring on the main setlist, before the band reemerged for Gimme Shelter and (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.

Jordan – who has previously played with John Mayer, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart and more – was already announced as the No Filter tour stand-in drummer earlier this year after it was announced that Watts would sit-out the US run of dates due to health concerns. 

He also has an extensive musical history with Keith Richards, whom he played alongside as part of the guitarist’s side-project, The X-Pensive Winos. 

Charlie Watts passed away at the age of 80 earlier this year. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Jagger reflected on the loss, saying that Watts was the one who “held the band together for so long”.

“He was the rock the rest of it was built around… The thing he brought was this beautiful sense of swing and swerve that most bands wish they could have,” Jagger said. “We had some really nice conversations in the last couple of years about how all this happened with the band. It’s a huge loss to us all. It’s very, very hard."

The Rolling Stones are next scheduled to play on September 30 at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

For a full list of tour dates, head over to the official Rolling Stones website.

Here at Guitar World, Thursday’s our favorite day of the week. No, not because it’s so close to the weekend – well, maybe – but because we get to wax lyrical on the six-string soundbites from the past seven days that have most piqued our interest.

This week, we’ve got a brand-new Black Keys cover of a John Lee Hooker classic, a hot new slide-heavy take from Brian May Guitars-repping wunderkind Arielle, an ‘80s-inspired cut from hardcore punk revivalists AFI and a Covid-inspired Mick Jagger/Dave Grohl collaboration, to name a mere few.

So switch off, unwind, and allow us to feed your mind with the latest and greatest tracks from the ever-expanding guitar sphere.

The Black Keys - Crawling Kingsnake

Having conquered arenas, pushed the boundaries of their sound in entirely unexpected directions and branched out on their own with solo albums and production work, Akron, Ohio’s finest blues-rock duo have come full circle on their new album, Delta Kream. 

Featuring 11 covers of blues standards from the likes of R. L. Burnside, Ranie Burnette, Junior Kimbrough, Big Joe Williams and more, the album promises to take the duo back to the bare-bones, fuzz-blasted-guitar-and-drums sound of their early work.

In that vein, the album’s first single, a loose and limber take on John Lee Hooker's Crawling King Snake, is a veritable bounty of guitar greatness. 

Having as much fun as it sounds like he’s had on tape in years, Dan Auerbach keeps it simple vocal-wise, mostly letting his guitar do the talking. With slide acrobatics galore, riffing straight from the swamps and fire-and-brimstone soloing – wedded perfectly to Patrick Carney’s strutting groove – this hypnotic jam will serve to remind skeptics of the air-tight chemistry and vision that made this duo one of the 2010s biggest breakthrough rock acts. (JM)

AFI - Dulcería

Davey Havok, Jade Puget and co teamed up with The Smashing Pumpkins’s mastermind Billy Corgan for this ’80s, new wave-inspired single, the latest track to be released from forthcoming album, Bodies.

Puget deploys some tasty clean tremolo’d lines (and we’re talking both whammy bar and amplitude modulation here) on Dulcería, while waves of synths recall the Pumpkins’ recent Cyr effort.

“Billy and I have a great creative connection when we’re writing together,” says Puget. “It was inspiring to work with such a talented and legendary songwriter and Dulcería is a testament to that.” (MAB)

 Julian Lage – Boo’s Blues 

Taken from his upcoming album Squint, released on June 11, and following on from the recently released Saint Rose, Boo’s Blues is quite simply Julian Lage at his best, with his undisputed grasp on improvisation and masterful art of fingerboard navigation on show in full force.

In a track that largely shies away from playing single-note exchanges – barring a handful of flawless melodic runs – Boo’s Blues boasts a bounty of double-stop slides and a cascade of string-combining riffs, with subtle nuances each time the hook comes around courtesy of Lage’s exploratory and inquisitive approach to melody development.

It’s a Lage track, therefore it’s a tour up and down the fretboard that leaves no stone unturned, no fret unplayed and no listener disappointed. Strap in for the ride and let this jazz extraordinaire in his prime take you on a journey to all four corners of the fingerboard and back – you won’t regret it. (MO)

Light The Torch – Wilting In The Light

The first Light The Torch material since 2018’s Revival, Wilting In The Light comes ahead of the band’s sophomore full length, You Will Be the Death of Me. It sees Howard Jones and co engage in the same super-melodic, but equally-heavy metal that encapsulated their first album, though this time with Whitechapel drummer Alex Rudinger behind the kit.

“The album was a welcome distraction, and we dumped every emotion we had into YWBTDOM,” says vocalist Howard Jones. “Everything we went through individually and together with this album drew Fran, Ryan, and I together. I couldn't be more proud of this album knowing I made it with my family.” (SR)

Lucy Dacus – Hot & Heavy 

This week, the welcome news came that Lucy Dacus would soon return with Home Video, her third album and the follow-up to 2018’s devastatingly brilliant Historian.  

Filled to the brim with nostalgia, yearning, anxiety and a touch of melancholy, Hot & Heavy – the album’s second single – is a lyrical masterclass that dazzles with crackling imagery. 

It’s a lot to unpack, and Dacus’s longtime musical partners-in-crime – Jacob Blizard, Collin Pastore and Jake Finch – give the song everything it needs to breathe, unfurl and build itself up. 

Hot & Heavy is layered enough that you may not even notice Blizard’s scene-coloring six-string embellishments – as rich and multi-faceted as Dacus’s narrative – until your second or perhaps even third spin.

Dacus told us in 2018 that, with Blizard and Pastore, she had “built a vocabulary over time that we didn’t even know we were building,” and that unspoken but profound musical chemistry shines brightly on Hot & Heavy. (JM)

Red Fang - Arrows

Rejoice, for the Portland riff merchants have returned for 2021 – although new album Arrows was actually recorded way back in December 2019 – and this new single is a typically punishing onslaught of fuzz and distortion.

But while the track’s driving stoner riffage is Fang-tastic (sorry – no, really) as always, it’s the metal-tinged outro that cuts as sharp as the katana the band wield throughout the most excellent music video. (MAB)

 Arielle – Inside & Outside 

We’re mere weeks away from Arielle’s hugely anticipated follow-up offering Analog Girl In A Digital World, and the Austin-based singer-songwriter has once again teased what’s in store with the release of new ‘70s-inspired single, Inside & Outside.

Despite the excitement surrounding the quirky Brian May Signature model, it must be remembered that it is merely a tool with which the guitar phenom executes her out-of-this-world guitar work. Ever the sculptor when it comes to lead line construction, the opening exchanges of Arielle’s new track pairs smooth slides with oversized acoustic strums, before the final act delivers a series of delay-soaked slide stabs and rapid-fire scale licks.

If, for whatever reason, you need a friendly reminder that Arielle is indeed one of the most tasteful players around today, the Fleetwood Mac-flavored Inside & Outside serves as a whistle-stop tour through her ever-expanding, guitar-soaked sonic universe – one that will have you counting down the weeks for May 7 when that album is finally released. (MO)

Mick Jagger – Eazy Sleazy (feat. Dave Grohl)

Many artists have penned tunes pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic, and this week Rolling Stones leader Mick Jagger added his into the mix. Together with Dave Grohl, the pair reference “TikTok”, “Zoom calls”, and “virtual premieres” over a quintessentially classic-rock arrangement of distorted guitars, pummeling rhythms and earworm hooks.

According to Grohl – who handled guitar, drums and bass duties on the track – it was “beyond a dream come true” to join Jagger on Eazy Sleazy. “It’s hard to put into words what recording this song with Sir Mick Jagger means to me,” he wrote in a Twitter post. “And it’s the song of the summer, without a doubt!” (SR)

DMX - X Moves (Ft. Bootsy Collins, Steve Howe & Ian Paice)

The loss of Earl Simmons – known as DMX – to a heart attack last week was a devastating one for music. One of hip-hop’s most singular, charismatic MCs, Simmons could take whatever track was thrown his way and steal the show, though never in a self-serving way – it was just near-impossible to take your eyes and ears off of him.

His death gives the triumphant, nimble X Moves, a newly-released collaboration pairing Simmons with a dream-team power trio – funk master Bootsy Collins on bass, Yes’s Steve Howe on guitar and Deep Purple’s Ian Paice on drums – a bittersweet edge. 

Simmons (with some help from Collins, who offers up a typically cosmic verse of his own) dances over Paice’s funky and, of course, thunderous rhythm and Howe’s tightly coiled riffing, with characteristic lyrical jabs and sleights of hand. Though playing for the song throughout, Howe matches Simmons’ explosive delivery with some high-arching leads of his own – always in just the right places.

What a wonder it would have been to see this unlikely quartet tear the roof off with this tune live… (JM)

Silverstein - Bankrupt

Silverstein were on the verge of setting out on a 20th anniversary tour when Covid hit. Instead, the post-hardcore heroes used that time to write and record new material, including this rager of a single.

Bankrupt displays all the hallmarks of a band who, even two decades in, are still updating and refining their sound. Josh Bradford and Paul Marc Rousseau deploy a colossal slow-bend juggernaut of a main riff here, while the metalcore-inspired production touches add a vital edge. (MAB)

Venues – Shifting Colors

German five-piece Venues have the perfect cocktail of modern metal elements: destructive breakdowns, pounding guitar riffs and endlessly catchy vocal hooks courtesy of clean vocalist Daniela 'Lela' Gruber. And they showcase it with full force on new single Shifting Colors.

The Evanescence-style single-note piano intro might have you fooled as to where the track will take you, but the band is on hand within a few seconds to remind you exactly who you’re listening to.

Throughout, the group weave almost-pop-style vocal melodies into drop-tuned heavy metal riffage – helped by unclean vocalist Robin Baumann – constructing a track that’s sure to get the pit spinning and the crowds screaming when it’s taken to the stage. (SR)

girl in red – you stupid bitch 

Weeks after she released the lead single from her upcoming debut album, girl in red has returned with new track you stupid bitch – a certified high-octane indie-rock head banger that will force itself onto the playlists of guitar fanatics around the world.

No tentative steps are taken by girl in red – aka Marie Ulven – in her latest outing, which throws listeners in at the deep end via a riotous, guitar-heavy opener. While gain-infused power chords descend down the fingerboard, fuzz-drenched lead lines and vocal hooks join forces with a wall-shaking bass and drum machine to form an impervious wall of ridiculously tasty, unrelenting rock sound.

If girl in red isn’t currently on your radar, she most definitely should be, and You Stupid Bitch is merely a taste of what this guitar-slinging alt-pop star has in store for us when if i could make it go quiet is released on April 30. (MO)

Mick Jagger and Dave Grohl have teamed up for a surprise lockdown-themed single, Eazy Sleazy.

The six-string-heavy track – which sees the Foo Fighters frontman handle electric guitar, bass and drum duties – was released yesterday (April 13) via Mick Jagger's YouTube channel.

In the video's description, the Rolling Stones leader explains: “I wanted to share this song that I wrote about eventually coming out of lockdown, with some much needed optimism.” Listen to the TikTok-themed, Zoom call-referencing punk anthem below.

Retweeting Mick Jagger's initial promo tweet of the track, Dave Grohl wrote: “It's hard to put into words what recording this song with Sir Mick Jagger means to me. It's beyond a dream come true. Just when I thought life couldn't get any crazier... and it's the song of the summer, without a doubt!”

Eazy Sleazy is, of course, only the latest in a string of lockdown collaborations featuring Dave Grohl. In the past few months alone, the Foo Fighters man has teamed up with Nandi Bushell, joined Paul McCartney and Joe Walsh on Ringo Starr's latest EP Zoom In, and partnered with St. Vincent for a cover of Nine Inch Nails Piggy.

He's even written a book – The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music – which sees him share “a collection of memories of a life lived loud”, from “hilarious childhood mishaps, touching family moments, leaving home to see the world at 18, spectacular stories about Nirvana” and more.

The Rolling Stones have announced the release of Voodoo Lounge Uncut, a performance film of their show at Miami’s Joe Robbie Stadium on November 25, 1994 on the Voodoo Lounge world tour. 

The restored, remixed and remastered film contains ten previously unreleased performances and features guest appearances from Sheryl Crow, Robert Cray and Bo Diddley. Bonus features for visual formats include five tracks from an earlier show at Giants Stadium in New Jersey that were not performed in Miami.

Voodoo Lounge Uncut will be released by Eagle Vision on November 16 on multiple physical and digital formats. 

You can pre-order for DVD+2CD, Blu-ray+2CD, triple vinyl, digital video, digital audio and HD digital audio here. Limited edition triple red vinyl and Voodoo Lounge Uncut t-shirt are also available for pre-order.

In the late Eighties, relations between the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger and Keith Richards weren’t exactly the best they'd ever been.

Jagger had refused to tour in support of the band’s 1986 album, Dirty Work. Instead, he recorded his second solo album, put together a new band (which included a Surfing with the Alien-era Joe Satriani) and took it on the road for a brief solo tour. The touring schedule featured some huge arena dates in Asia and Australia.

However, one night in October 1988, Jagger and his top-flight backing band paid a visit to the 700-capacity Corner Hotel in Melbourne for a now-legendary secret gig. Playing under the name the Brothers of Sodom, Jagger and Satriani were joined on stage by bassist Doug Wimbish, guitarist Jimmy Rip and drummer Simon Phillips.

The clip below, which is from that night’s performance, features an impressive rendition of Willie Dixon's “Little Red Rooster." Keep an ear out for Satch’s tasty phrasing throughout, and note that he's using a Fender Strat instead of his normally favored Ibanez. Usually reserved for Satch's studio takes, the vintage Strat seems perfectly suited to a set full of Rolling Stones classics.

Jonathan Graham is an ACM UK graduate based in London studying under the likes of Guthrie Govan and Pete Friesen. He is the creator of ForgottenGuitar.com, a classic-guitar media website, and is completing his debut album, Protagonist, due for release in 2016. Updates also can be found at Graham's YouTube channel.

Legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy has announced a new album, The Blues Is Alive and Well. Set for a June 15 release via Silvertone/RCA Records, the album features guest appearances from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck and James Bay.

The Blues Is Alive and Well, which is the follow-up to 2015's Born to Play Guitar, was produced by longtime collaborator Tom Hambridge. You can check out the album's tracklist below.

In addition to the new album, Guy is set to appear on David Letterman's Netflix series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, on an episode that airs May 4. Guy will perform and chat about the origins of Southern blues.

For more on Buddy Guy, head on over to buddyguy.net.

Buddy Guy, The Blues Is Alive and Well Track List:

1. A Few Good Years
2. Guilty As Charged
3. Cognac (featuring Jeff Beck and Keith Richards)
4. The Blues Is Alive and Well
5. Bad Day
6. Blue No More (featuring James Bay)
7. Whiskey for Sale
8. You Did the Crime (featuring Mick Jagger)
9. Old Fashioned
10. When My Day Comes
11. Nine Below Zero
12. Ooh Daddy
13. Somebody Up There
14. End of the Line

The Rolling Stones have extended their No Filter tour into 2018 with 11 newly announced European dates.

The concerts, which will run from early May through early July, include the band's first performances in their native United Kingdom since 2013. It also includes stops in Ireland, Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Poland.

"It's such a joy to play with this band," Keith Richards said in a statement. "There's no stopping us. We're only just getting started, really.”

Back in December, the band released On Air, a compilation of recordings from various BBC performances from 1963 to 1965, many of which were previously unreleased. Their most recent studio album was 2016's blues covers album, Blue & Lonesome.

For tickets and more info, stop by rollingstones.com.

The Rolling Stones 2018 Tour Dates

May 17 - Dublin, Ireland @ Croke Park

May 22 - London, U.K. @ London Stadium

June 5 - Manchester, U.K. @ Old Trafford Football Stadium

June 9 - Edinburgh, U.K. @ BT Murrayfield Stadium

June 15 - Cardiff, U.K. @ Principality Stadium June 19 - London, U.K. @ Twickenham Stadium June 22 - Berlin, Germany @ Olympic Stadium

June 26 - Marseille, France @ Orange Velodrome

June 30 - Stuttgart, Germany @ Mercedes Benz Arena

July 4 - Prague, Czech Republic @ Letnany Airport

July 8 - Warsaw, Poland @ National Stadium

If you've ever wondered how it would sound if Jimmy Page were in the Rolling Stones in the mid Eighties, you've just stumbled upon the answer. "One Hit (to the Body)," a Top 40 Rolling Stones hit from 1986, features the Led Zeppelin co-founder on lead guitar.

The song's Russell Mulcahy-directed music video, above, shows Keith Richards skulking around an industrial, Mad Max-style warehouse with a double-bound Fender Tele during the guitar solo (2:27). Well, at least they got the guitar right—Page (who is not shown at all in the clip) is obviously playing his B-bender-equipped Tele—the one he's holding on the cover of the July 1986 issue of Guitar World magazine (shown below). Page was using his B-bender a lot back then; it's heard on his mid-Eighties recordings with the Firm and the Honeydrippers, not to mention Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door.

"I installed StringBenders in two of Jimmy Page's guitars—one in a Tele and one in a Les Paul," Gene Parsons, creator/designer of the Parsons/White StringBender, told me last month. "I think he always appreciated [Byrds guitarist and B-bender pioneer] Clarence White and might have even been a fan. It must have been that ‘Clarence sound’ that convinced him to have the StringBenders installed."

Anyway, why did this unlikely recording session even happen? Good question! Page was close to the Stones—geographically speaking—right around the time of Live Aid in July 1985. His guitar contribution was the result of a brief session with Ronnie Wood after Page asked to hear what the band was working on. The song, which reached Number 38 on the U.S. charts, was featured on the Stones' 1986 album, Dirty Work, which sold an impressive 4 million copies worldwide.

As any good Stones fan knows, "One Hit (to the Body)" wasn't the first time Page recorded with (or for) the band. Page, who was a full-time session guitarist before joining the Yardbirds in 1966, appears on an early—and unused—version of "Heart of Stone," which was recorded in July 1964 (with drummer Clem Cattini sitting in for Charlie Watts). The recording, which you can hear above, represents an early stab at blending country with R&B; it was recorded a full four years before the Byrds' country version of William Bell's "You Don't Miss Your Water." It eventually appeared on Metamorphosis in 1975.

By the way, Wood and Richards also play guitar on "One Hit (to the Body)"; that's Wood playing the acoustic intro. The song is even credited to Mick Jagger, Richards and Wood—a rarity.

And what about all those fake punches and nasty looks between Jagger and Richards in the music video? Well, that's an example of art imitating life; the duo weren't really getting along at the time (something to do with Jagger deciding to launch a solo career—and releasing She's the Boss in 1985; incidentally, She's the Boss features Page's Yardbirds buddy, Jeff Beck, on guitar).

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this blast from the past. There will be more...

Jimmy Page performance photo (GuitarWorld.com homepage): Clive Rose/Getty Images

The Rolling Stones have unveiled the beautiful new lyric video for their 1967 song, "2000 Light Years From Home," in celebration of the upcoming reissue of the album the track is taken from, Their Satanic Majesties Request.

The collage-style clip was directed by Lucy Dawkins and Tom Readdy, and reflects the experimental, psychedelic sound of both the song and the album, one of the most polarizing in the band's extensive catalog. You can watch it below.

The reissue of Their Satanic Majesties Request includes stereo and mono versions of the album on vinyl and hybrid super audio CD, in addition to a 20-page book featuring new liner notes from Rob Bowman. It will be available September 22.

You can pre-order the reissue here.

In 1985, Mick Jagger and David Bowie got together to release one of the most brutally mocked music videos of all time—their cover of Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street."

The original clip, which you can check out at the very bottom of this story, shows the 40-ish-year-old rock/pop superstars—one of whom is decked out in period-correct (and eternally incorrect) pastel-colored clothing—dancing like teenagers in a warehouse, in hallways and on deserted streets. They even shake their superstar asses in unison at one point.

How did this happen, you ask?

Well, it really doesn't matter at this point, does it? Or, as Peter Griffin says while discussing the video in an episode of The Family Guy, "That happened, and we all let it happen."

Anyway, a stop-motion animator named William Osborne has finally found a good use for the Jagger/Bowie clip: It gave him something to parody—using Legos. Osborne's new clip, which you can check out below, is a hell of a lot more watchable than the original. In fact, it's downright enjoyable. Here's hoping he makes Lego versions of other horrible Eighties videos.

In all fairness to Jagger and Bowie, their music video had to be put together quickly back in '85; director David Mallet reportedly got the call for the gig the day before it was scheduled to be shot.

“My only thought was I was trying to get a really great performance,” Mallet said later. “What was really important was to see them together in performance. Two really big stars, and people wanted to see them together. Choreographed on the spot. ‘We can go down this alley. We can use this warehouse'.”

P.S.: Be sure to watch the middle clip, which shows Jagger and Bowie dancing around without without music in the background. It made the YouTube rounds a few years ago, but it's still pretty great.

The Rolling Stones have released their official video for “Hate to See You Go,” from their new album, Blue & Lonesome.

The song is offered on social media and as a pre-release download for those who pre-order the record on Amazon or iTunes. Blue & Lonesome is scheduled for release on December 2.

“Hate to See You Go” was originally released in 1955 and is one of several Little Walter covers included on the album. The Rolling Stones previously released a teaser of the Blue & Lonesome track “Just Your Fool,” which Little Walter cut in 1960 (the recording was not released until 1962).

Little Walter was a great influence on the Rolling Stones’ early sound and, particularly, on Mick Jagger’s harmonica playing.

“Little Walter Jacobs was one of the best singers of the blues and a blues harp player par excellence. I find it hard to listen to him without awe,” Richards wrote in his 2011 memoir, Life. “His band the Jukes were so hip and sympathetic. His singing was overshadowed by the phenomenal harp, which was based on a lot of Louis Armstrong‘s cornet licks. Little Walter would smile in his grave for the way Mick Jagger plays.”

Why should guitarists have all the fun?

GuitarWorld.com recently launched a new readers poll in partnership with Samson: the Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll.

We're certain that, even though our core readership is mainly made up of guitarists from different genres, locations and age groups, you — like us — have strong opinions about the skills (or lack thereof) of some of rock's most legendary singers.

And although we had hundreds of rock singers to choose from, we decided to narrow things down to a mere 16 names, all of which were carefully chosen by Guitar World's editorial staff. We took great care in choosing what's essentially a Sweet 16 starting point. Rock singers from every decade, starting with the 1960s, are represented, as are several rock sub-genres.

Here are our 16 rock singers in alphabetical order:

Phil Anselmo, Randy Blythe, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, James Hetfield, Mick Jagger, Maynard James Keenan, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant, Axl Rose and Bon Scott.

From there, we drew singers' names out of a hat (It was, in fact, a Black Sabbath baseball cap) to help us create our opening 16-singer bracket, which is available for your viewing pleasure below. Obviously, none of these of singers are ranked or coming from a previously compiled list, so we chose purely random matchups to have as little impact as possible on the final outcome. We're actually pretty pleased with the way the bracket turned out.

Round 1 has come and gone, and the Elite Eight round kicks off today! As always, you can vote only once per matchup (once per device, that is), and we'll post two or three matchups per week, continuing with today's Elite Eight shootout, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones against Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden.

Remember that, as with any poll, sub-genre might occasionally clash against sub-genre, so you'll just need to decide which singer has or had the most to offer within his genre and time period, which one has or had more natural talent or technical skill, which one had the biggest influence on other singers or rock in general — maybe which one was simply the stronger frontman.

Latest Results

Winner: Robert Plant (72.5 percent)
Loser: James Hetfield (27.5 percent)

Today's Samson Greatest Rock Singers Elight Eight Matchup (2 of 4)
Mick Jagger Vs. Bruce Dickinson

MICK JAGGER

Born: July 26, 1943, Dartford, England
Associated Acts: The Rolling Stones, SuperHeavy
Website:mickjagger.com

Quote: "People have this obsession. They want you to be like you were in 1969. They want you to, because otherwise their youth goes with you. It's very selfish, but it's understandable."

BRUCE DICKINSON

Born: August 7, 1958, Nottinghamshire, England
Associated Acts: Iron Maiden, Samson, Tribe of Gypsies, Ayreon
Website:screamforme.com

Quote: "I got into trouble for saying we're better than Metallica … and it's true! They might be bigger than us and they might sell more tickets than us and they might get more gold-plated middle-class bourgeoisie turning up to their shows but they're not Maiden. I did say it's a bit of a wind-up. I thought, if I'm going to turn into an asshole, I might as well, you know, go for it!"

Voting Closed!

Winner: Bruce Dickinson (66.56 percent)
Loser: Mick Jagger (33.44 percent)

Thanks for voting! Check out our current matchup (and every matchup that has taken place so far) right HERE.

The BracketCheck out the latest version of the 16-singer bracket below. We'll update it after each Samson Greatest Rock Singer of All Time matchup.October 17, 2013, Samson Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll

Why should guitarists have all the fun?

GuitarWorld.com recently launched a new readers poll in partnership with Samson: the Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll.

We're certain that, even though our core readership is mainly made up of guitarists from different genres, locations and age groups, you — like us — have strong opinions about the skills (or lack thereof) of some of rock's most legendary singers.

And although we had hundreds of rock singers to choose from, we decided to narrow things down to a mere 16 names, all of which were carefully chosen by Guitar World's editorial staff. We took great care in choosing what's essentially a Sweet 16 starting point. Rock singers from every decade, starting with the 1960s, are represented, as are several rock sub-genres.

Here are our 16 rock singers in alphabetical order:

Phil Anselmo, Randy Blythe, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, James Hetfield, Mick Jagger, Maynard James Keenan, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant, Axl Rose and Bon Scott.

From there, we drew singers' names out of a hat (It was, in fact, a Black Sabbath baseball cap) to help us create our opening 16-singer bracket, which is available for your viewing pleasure below. Obviously, none of these of singers are ranked or coming from a previously compiled list, so we chose purely random matchups to have as little impact as possible on the final outcome. We're actually pretty pleased with the way the bracket turned out.

Remember that, as with any poll, sub-genre might occasionally clash against sub-genre, so you'll just need to decide which singer has or had the most to offer within his genre and time period, which one has or had more natural talent or technical skill, which one had the biggest influence on other singers or rock in general — maybe which one was simply the stronger frontman.

Let's get started! As always, you can vote only once per matchup (once per device, that is), and we'll post two matchups per week, continuing with today's shootout, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones (and let's not forget his solo albums) against Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses.

Latest Results

Winner: Ozzy Osbourne (80.84 percent)
Loser: Kurt Cobain (19.16 percent)

Today's Samson Greatest Rock Singers Round 1 Matchup (5 of 8)
Mick Jagger Vs. Axl Rose

MICK JAGGER

Born: July 26, 1943, Dartford, England
Associated Acts: The Rolling Stones, SuperHeavy
Website:mickjagger.com

Quote: "People have this obsession. They want you to be like you were in 1969. They want you to, because otherwise their youth goes with you. It's very selfish, but it's understandable."

AXL ROSE

Born: February 6, 1962, Lafayette, Indiana
Associated Acts: Guns N' Roses, Hollywood Rose, L.A. Guns, Rapidfire
Website:gunsnroses.com

Quote: "I could beat my mike stand into the stage, but I was still in pain. Maybe fans liked it, but sometimes people forget you're a person and they're more into the entertainment value. It's taken a long time to turn that around and give a strong show without it being a kamikaze show."

Voting Closed!

Winner: Mick Jagger (60.16 percent)
Loser: Axl Rose (39.84 percent)

Thanks for voting! Check out our current matchup (and every matchup that has taken place so far) right HERE.

The BracketCheck out the latest version of the 16-singer bracket below. We'll update it after each Samson Greatest Rock Singer of All Time matchup.October 4, 2013, Guitar World Samson Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll

Last night, Mick Jagger made a special guest appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, counting down a Top 10 list of thing he's learned after 50 years of rock and roll. You can watch video of the Jagger reading off the list — which includes gems like, "Never take relationship advice from Phil Spector" — below.

The Rolling Stones will wrap-up their their 50th anniversary celebration with two more U.S. shows this year, a pair of sold-out concerts at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The band have had numerous special guests at their previous three shows this year, including Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Mick Taylor, and the Newark shows are rumored to be featuring everyone from Paul McCartney to Bob Dylan.

If you can't make it out, Saturday's show will be broadcast live on PPV.

Last month, the Stones released a new greatest hits album, GRRR!, which features two new cuts recorded earlier this year in a Paris studio.

This morning, The Rolling Stones released their new single, "Doom and Gloom," their first new song together in seven years. The track is available now at iTunes.

The Don Was-produced song, which kicks off with a Sticky Fingers-worthy Keith Richards riff, was recorded in Paris earlier this year. It will be included on the band's upcoming GRRR! Greatest Hits album, which will be available November 13.

That album features another new song recorded in Paris, "One More Shot," not to mention a collection of hits that represent the band's 50 years in action.

The Stones are expected to play two shows later this year — one in Brooklyn and one in London. However, according to Rolling Stone, the band's touring sax player, Bobby Keys, expects there will be more shows added at some point.

The Rolling Stones will release a new career-spanning documentary, Crossfire Hurricane, which will air on HBO November 15.

Check out the lyric video to "Doom and Gloom" below.

It looks like all the recent covert activity by members of the Rolling Stones — including recent reports of recording sessions and rehearsals — has finally led to something.

The Stones have announced they'll play four shows later this year in celebration of their 50th anniversary as a band. The shows will mark the band's first live appearances since 2007.

There will be two shows at London's O2 Arena in November, followed by two shows at Brooklyn's Barclays Center before the year is out. Official dates have yet to be announced.

"This was accomplished in a Navy SEAL-like operation," a band source told Rolling Stone magazine. "No one I knew whispered a word of this before yesterday."

Last week, the Stones recorded two new songs at Guillaume Tell Studios in France, both of which will be included on an upcoming box set. Singer Mick Jagger let the cat out the bag when he tweeted, "Had fun in the Paris studio this week!"

Of course, the band never ruled out the possibility of new material, with Keith Richards telling Rolling Stone earlier this year, "I'd love to get some tracks down and see what songs we've got. And that goes along with part of getting the band back together and getting things moving. So I'd love to cut some tracks."

The Stones also rehearsed songs from their back catalog in New York in April. The final day of rehearsals was filmed for Crossfire Hurricane, a film that will span the band's 50-year career. The film, which is directed by Brett Morgen, is set to premiere November 15.

On July 10, Eagle Rock Entertainment will release a very cool piece of rock and blues history -- Muddy Waters & The Rolling Stones Live at The Checkerboard Lounge Chicago 1981 -- on CD and DVD.

On November 22, 1981, the Stones were crossing the US on tour when they had a night off in Chicago. What to do? It was a no-brainer: Muddy Waters was in town, performing at his own club, The Checkerboard Lounge.

Obviously, the Stones stopped in to check him out. Muddy soon called Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, Keith Richards and Ian Stewart (the band's touring piano player and one of its earliest semi-members) onto the stage, and the four Stones jammed with Muddy and his band to the delight of Muddy's lucky patrons.

Luckily, it was all caught on camera and recorded. You can check out a low-quality YouTube video of the night in the clip below -- but don't worry, the DVD looks and sounds much better, thanks to DTS Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital Stereo. The 90-minute performance was mixed and mastered by Bob Clearmountain.

The performance, which also features Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, has been available only as a bootleg (and in low-quality YouTube videos!), but this is the complete package. This slice of history also will be released as a DVD/2LP vinyl set on September 11.

Check out the track listings below.

TRACK LISTING:

DVD:
1) Sweet Little Angel
2) Flip Flop And Fly
3) Muddy Waters Introduction
4) You Don’t Have To Go
5) Country Boy
6) Baby Please Don’t Go
7) Hoochie Coochie Man
8) Long Distance Call
9) Mannish Boy
10) Got My Mojo Working
11) Next Time You See Me
12) One Eyed Woman
13) Baby Please Don’t Go (Instrumental)
14) Blow Wind Blow
15) Champagne & Reefer

CD:
1) Introduction Instrumental
2) You Don’t Have To Go
3) Baby Please Don’t’ Go
4) Hoochie Coochie Man
5) Long Distance Call
6) Mannish Boy
7) Got My Mojo Working
8) Next Time You See Me
9) One Eyed Woman
10) Blow Wind Blow
11) Champagne & Reefer

Mick Jagger hosted the May 19 edition of NBC's Saturday Night Live, which happened to be the show's season finale and the final appearance of longtime cast member Kristen Wiig (Gilly, Penelope, Kat and a million other characters).

Besides his hosting duties, Jagger was one of the show's many musical guests, and he performed three times on the episode. He sang the early Rolling Stones hit "The Last Time" with Canada's Arcade Fire and fronted Foo Fighters on a medley of the Stones' "19th Nervous Breakdown" and "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)."

Check out a video of Jagger performing with the Foos right here.

For his final tune, he debuted a new composition, a U.S.-election-themed slow blues in A, which he performed with Jeff Beck and Beck's former bassist Tal Wilkenfeld (Here's hoping she's back in Beck's band).

"In any era, the blues talked about what's on people's minds," said Jagger before diving into the song, which featured a minor jab at GOP candidate Mitt Romney (“Don’t ever let him cut your hair”) and the word “shit,” which, according to the Los Angeles Times, was bleeped out on a few NBC affiliate broadcasts.

Here it is, courtesy of NBC.com:

As we recently reported, Mick Jagger will host the May 19 season finale of NBC's Saturday Night Live.

It was an announcement that left us wondering about that episode's musical guest -- especially since Jagger (who, as you might know, is something of a vocalist) was merely named the host.

However, the people at SNL have just cleared that up.

In addition to his hosting duties, Jagger will perform with Foo Fighters and the legendary Jeff Beck. He'll also take the stage with Canada's Arcade Fire.

The evening will mark Jagger's first time as an SNL host (He guested on a 1978 episode with The Rolling Stones). It also marks Beck's first-ever SNL appearance. Dave Grohl will be making his 10th appearance on the show, having also performed with Nirvana and Them Crooked Vultures.

Jagger and Beck have worked together several times. Beck appeared on Jagger's 1985 She's The Boss album; much more recently, Beck and Jagger performed together at the White House in February.

In the Guitar World DVD 'In Deep with Andy Aledort Presents How to Play in the Style of Jeff Beck,' GW editor and instructor Andy Aledort takes a look at the playing style of Jeff Beck, showing you the scales and lead lines used by Beck in his groundbreaking solo work. It's available now at the Guitar World Online Store.

It's only a sketch comedy show, but I like it!

Deadline reports that Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is set to host the season finale of Saturday Night Live, which will air on May 19.

While this marks his first hosting gig, the Stone has appeared on the show twice as a performer — once in 1978 and again in 2001.

The report also claims that Jagger will perform on the episode, although it is unclear who he will be performing with. Neither the Rolling Stones or his latest side project, SuperHeavy, are billed for the show.

For those of you who haven't read it, Keith Richards' recent autobiography, Life, is a quintessential rock and roll book. A big reason for that is how raw the book is and how in-depth Richards was willing to go, sometimes at the risk of alienating a friend or bandmate.

One of those who was none-too-pleased with the book was Mick Jagger, who wasn't always portrayed in the most endearing light. It's all water under the bridge now, though, it seems, as Richards took a moment to apologize to Jagger during a recent interview with Rolling Stone.

"He [Mick] and I have had conversations over the last year of a kind we have not had for an extremely long time, and that has been incredibly important to me," said Richards of the pair's mended relationship.

He added, "As far as the book goes, it was my story and it was very raw, as I meant it to be, but I know that some parts of it and some of the publicity really offended Mick and I regret that."

Earlier this week, it was revealed that the Stones would be putting off a tour in celebration of their 50th anniversary to at least next year, with multiple in-the-know sources citing Richards' health. The band may be more likely to play multi-night residencies in major cities like London, New York and Los Angeles than to do a true world tour.

If you hadn't heard already, 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of The Rolling Stones.

While the word is still out on a tour, the band have announced the release of a photo book to celebrate their golden anniversary. The Rolling Stones: 50 is set for release on July 12, which corresponds with the date of the band's first gig in 1962.

"This is our story of 50 fantastic years," the Stones said in a statement. "Curated by us, [the book] features the very best photographs and ephemera from and beyond our archives."

They went on: "We started out as a blues band playing the clubs and more recently we've filled the largest stadiums in the world with the kind of show that none of us could have imagined all those years ago."

Members of the Rolling Stones also have contributed commentary to the book, which will feature more than 700 photographs.

At 9 tonight (February 27), PBS will broadcast In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues, a concert that took place Tuesday, February 21, in the East Room of the White House.

Buddy Guy (pictured), B.B. King, Jeff Beck (pictured) and Mick Jagger, plus Austin guitarist Gary Clark Jr., Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Keb Mo, Shemekia Copeland and Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews performed at the event, a celebration of American blues music that also commemorated Black History Month. Recent Grammy winner Booker T. Jones was the event's musical director.

Some of the highlights of the broadcast, which you can check out in the videos below, include President Obama singing a verse of "Sweet Home Chicago" (after Buddy Guy talks him into it and Mick Jagger hands him the microphone) and Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger and Gary Clark Jr. gathering to play "Five Long Years," an Eddie Boyd tune from 1952.

Also below is an outtake from the PBS broadcast -- Jeff Beck performing "Brush With the Blues" with his new band, bassist Rhonda Smith and drummer Veronica Bellino.

For more videos from the show, visit the PBS In Performance at The White House website.

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Here's an interview with Keith Richards from the October 1994 issue of Guitar World magazine.To see the Rolling Stones cover -- and all the GW covers from 1994 -- click here.

It’s hump time in Toronto. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and company have rolled into town, ready to begin preparations for this year’s version of the Summer Stones. There are stage models to be examined, promotional campaigns to be mapped out, lighting schemes to be configured.

Oh yeah -- and music to be played.

“We’re getting familiar with playing some of the newer songs and stretching our memories for some of the older ones,” the 50-year-old Richards reports with a gleeful cackle. There’s nothing he likes better than playing, and there’s nobody he likes playing with more than the Stones -- though his solo band, the X-Pensive Winos, rates a pretty strong second.

“The way the shows usually shake down -- it’s kind of like picking tracks for an album. We start playing everything, and you don’t pressure or guide it too much. Some songs kind of leap out and say, ‘Yeah, me this time.’ It always comes out all right.”

These days, things are about as all right in Stonesville as they've been in a long time. The nasty mid-Eighties rift between Richards and Jagger is patched over and, seemingly, forgotten. After years of infighting, bassist Bill Wyman has left the band, replaced by Darryl Jones -- the first new Stone in 19 years. Trusted keyboard hand Chuck Leavell is on hand for the tour, and tickets -- as always -- are selling well, despite a concert market glutted by the high-priced likes of Pink Floyd, the Eagles, Barbara Streisand and the tandem of Elton John and Billy Joel.

Best of all, the new music is good. The Stones' new Voodoo Lounge is a bold, sprawling work that finds the band ignoring the sonic conventions that come with being The Stones. Oh, Voodoo Lounge has its share of Jagger-Richards crankers -- “Love is Strong," "Mean Disposition" -- but the Stones consistently reach for more, employing country touches, funk, blues, Celtic folk, Latin rhythms and lush balladry in the Jagger vocal showcase "Out of Tears" to elevate Voodoo Lounge.

"I wanted them to make the album they felt like making," says co-producer Don Was, who worked with the Stones in Ireland and Los Angeles. "My real agenda was that they write up to the level they're capable of, which really coincided with what they were thinking.

"It's easy to lapse into self-imitation; when you' re as good as they are, you can fake your way through it pretty good. They didn't want that this time."

Was, not one given to understatement, finds Richards' musicianship worthy of heavy praise. "I learned more about music working with this guy for five or six months than I could in years' worth of the Berklee School of Music," Was says. "There's certainly this conception of Keith being this drug-burnout, Spinal Tap character. It's wrong. He's a brilliant, vibrant character... a very deep guy who I think may be at the most creative period of his life.

"He plays like a jazz musician -- the way he listens to everything else that's going on and reacts to it and refuses to play organized, set parts all the way through the songs. It's not like he can't remember the parts or won't learn the arrangements; he responds to the moment. That's a really advanced thing for a rock and roll band... and a very generous way for a songwriter to approach his music."

Richards is equally generous in conversation -- cheery, sharing, easygoing. He long ago tired of some subjects -- we know "Satisfaction" came to him in a dream -- but when the subjects are the Stones and rock and roll, it doesn't seem like he'II ever tire of talking.

GUITAR WORLD: Was it different doing a record without Bill?

It's a lot easier than I thought it would be. I figured it would take us a long time; I thought it would be a more difficult process to screw around with the rhythm section. I'm kind of glad in a way that Mick and I left it to Charlie -- wisely, I think -- to name the guy.

Was it an involved audition process?

We played with a lot of good players last year; name the top 25 you can think of and then a few more. I thought life had no more surprises until we got into that! Finally we said "Charlie, for once in 30 years, you're going to be the guy to make the decision." So he went with Darryl -- another Chicago guy, as fate would have it.

I think Don Was was crushed that you didn't pick him.

[laughs] Oh, I don't think so. Actually, Don got involved on this record about the time we'd pretty much decided who it was going to be. The main thing is that Ronnie is happy that, after 19 years, he 's not being called the new boy anymore! [laughs]

What made Darryl so right?

Obviously it had a lot to do with Charlie; as I said to Charlie, "When I call down to the engine room for full steam ahead, I want reciprocation. I want the two engines going." I think the fact is that Charlie comes out of the jazz stable originally, which makes him unique in a way. That's why he swings; he makes rock and roll swing, which is one of the things you're supposed to do but many people have forgotten.

Well, the fact that Darryl spent five years with Miles Davis certainly didn't hurt. Darryl has already gotten fond of saying that the Stones is really a jazz band 'cause we improvise all the time. He tells us, "You cats do more jazz than some jazz cats I've played with." It takes the new boy to tell me I'm actually playing in a jazz band! [laughs]

But Darryl's a smooth player and very fast, and he loves his music. He loves playing with Charlie, too. To me, that's the whole key, to have a rhythm section that clicks really well together.

What accounts for the spirit of experimentation on Voodoo Lounge?

I think the Stones found their feet making this record. Not that they've totally ever lost their footing, but they were standing on one leg a bit, I think. I can only say that at the beginning of last year, when we were starting to get songs together and make this album... well, I can't say it was planned or anything. I just feel the kind of record that came out was the one I was looking for. I can't say I had much to do with it; whatever comes out tends just to come out with the Stones.

But when I listen to it now that it 's finished and realize a year has gone by, it's about as close as I've gotten to the target in a while.

In the past, when the Stones came up with some different kinds of songs or arrangements, did you ever hold back because it didn't have that "Stones" sound?

That's probably true. I think a lot has to do with the fact if that if you're just writing songs for the Rolling Stones, you kind of fall into your own little list of taboos: "We're not going to repeat this. We're not going to do that again."

But now we do work when we're not in the Stones. I think that was one of the biggest stumbling blocks we hit on the head. How long can you do this in a total vacuum without ever trying other things or getting feedback from other people? A lot of what came out on this album came from what we did in the time between the Stones stuff. When you're working with other people, you stroke a lot of other areas you were unsure of going down before. You just kind of grow, you know? It 's better than doing nothing, which was our big problem.

It's really made that much of a difference?

It has. Up until the mid-Eighties, I wasn't at all happy with the idea of the Stones splitting up. I thought one of the most important things about the Stones was that they stuck together and did their thing, and that's it. But we reached the point where you realized you can't stay inside there all the time. I wasn't going to be the first one, though; for me, I think the horror was the idea of putting myself in a conflict of interest-that if l wrote a song, should I keep it for myself or give it to the Stones? My attitude at that time was: ''This is what I worked for, so why should I put myself in that position?"

But at the same time, Mick and I couldn't just be in the Rolling Stones and do good work all the time. After two years off, we always had to wind up the giant machine. The Stones really got too big for their own good as a band; the idea of going back in and knowing we'd spend six months putting this band back on the rails again. No matter how good you are, you just don't get together after two years off and get a great rock and roll band. What you get is a load of crap.

The way things are now, I can look forward to going back there. I know everyone's been playing. It gives the Stones a chance to forge ahead instead of catching up to our past. Steel Wheels that proved it to us: in order to keep the Stones together at this stage, we do need to work outside the band as well. It's something you have to accept.

Are you conscious of the way the Stones are "supposed" to sound?

I suppose so. For a time you're aware of that. You're also aware that you're making a record once every three years, so you've got to do what you want in 11 or 12 songs, which doesn't give you a lot of room to maneuver. So you feel obliged to come up with a certain material that is "Stones" material.

I think we've been freed up a little bit from that in a way that we were freer in the earlier years. Back then we didn't care where a piece of music came from; if we liked it, we'd do it. Now we feel we can pull some more styles together. Mick and I don't feel like we have to follow our own self-imposed rules; if anything, the rule is to not follow the rules. [laughs]

When did you start putting Voodoo Lounge together?

I sat down with Mick in New York in February of '93 and said, "What are we gonna do?" We sort of had a glass of wine in his kitchen, and the only word -- and the word that counted -- was focused. We said, "If we can look down the same telescope, I think we've got a good one here." That was the real word, to get everybody focused on the same thing.

So you came up with this incredibly broad album.

True. [laughs] You say one thing and it's always another. But maybe that was the focus -- maybe the lens was broad enough that everyone can see it. To me, the important thing was -- as usual --that when I first sit down with Charlie Watts, I'll know within 12 bars. We don't have to work on the playing now or "Oh my, we're a bit rusty here," which was the case in the Eighties. When Charlie came in, the band was flying and we knew this would be easy. There's nothing like confidence.

Did the others fall in line with that way of thinking?

Oh, yes. Definitely. The sessions lent themselves to trying something different, to experimenting. When you're with a band and you're in a studio, half the time you're guessing their temper and their mettle at that time. What I found interesting about these sessions were that Charlie Watts wanted to experiment. That was a great sign; he doesn't do that very often, but suddenly he said, "Let's set my drums up in the stairwell." And I said, "Well, things are looking up!" [laughs]

The stairwell?

Yeah, on "The Moon Is Up." We were working on it and decided "Let's change the sound of everything slightly." Charlie ended up playing a garbage can with brushes, in the stairwell. I put an acoustic guitar through a Leslie amp and then miked it. Mick sings through a harmonica mike. It's a deliberate thing; "Let's make this swirl rather than just play it."

We did that on "Through And Through," too. I said to Charlie, "It's missing something, but I don't know what to do with it." He said, "I'll take my drums into the stairs," and he came up with this incredible drum sound, and we were off.

That's what you're looking for: Don't just put the formula on it, but take it out a little further and see what you can do. It's bound to change if you keep on doing things. The image changes as you change. There's not much you can do about growing up, especially at this stage of the game. I've never rushed for it, but I'll accept it gratefully now that it's got me. [laughs]

Was Don Was a help in that direction?

Yeah, Don was a great help in encouraging that extra thing; "O.K., Let's try it. Why not?" We've very rarely had producers, you know. Producers come to you, like gurus; you're not supposed to find them, they find you. Not that one ever found me, I must say. [laughs]

Anyway, to me, working with Don was very reminiscent of working with Jimmy Miller, and you can't ask for better than that. He's also a musician and is not only respected by the band for the technical end of doing the job, but he has a very natural feel with the guys. There wasn’t this impression that somebody here is producing the Rolling Stones; you're making a record with him.

That's an important barrier to break down with the Rolling Stones; they can sense when somebody is thinking, "Oh, it's THE STONES" -- that slight unsureness and intimidation. What we look for is someone who knows what they're going for. Don did that. He was not impressed with any star crap, which is what's most important to us at that point.

Let's get down to some brass machine heads on this album. What's the "mystery guitar" you play on "You Got Me Rocking."

Aha! The mystery guitar will no longer be a mystery if l tell you. [laughs] What the hell... It's a solidbody dobro, but I play it with a stick -- just a little stick I picked out of Ronnie's garden. It's just an interesting percussion effect.

Were the guitar parts mapped out during the writing process?

No, not really. The songs kind of suggest themselves, and the arrangements and the parts almost flow from the moment you lay down a bare bones of songs and throw it around amongst the guys. A shape kind of takes place that's natural. I always try to grab that, especially when we're cutting the rhythm tracks.

You really just keep an ear and an eye on everything that's being played and you remember it. What I don't like to do when making record within bands -- especially small bands, rhythm sections like the Rolling Stones -- is to try to impose anything. If you tell somebody how to play something, you've automatically got a certain stiffness into it: "Oh, he wants me to play that." I'd rather have them do it as they feel. The less you talk about it, the better it is. When you get a good playback, nobody says anything; you just nod at each other.

For instance?

Probably "Love is Strong." That's the band; sounds like 'em every time. We didn't have to fiddle with it at all. You just try to find what feels natural for the song … Just lay the guitars down and do as many parts as you like. In the mix you can use a bar of it here, a bar of it there. When you're listening to basic tracks, you're listening to what's not there and for what should be there. You're following some little picture in your mind or in the ear that says "That's funky, but it needs something that rings a little bit at the top."

If you've got the songs, you can overdub as much as you like. You have to be judicious in your editing and mixing. It's what Ronnie and I call the "ancient art of weaving."

Don Was likes to refer to you as a pitcher, someone who tosses out ideas and lets the band bounce them around. Is that a fair assessment?

Working with drummers like Charlie Watts or Steve Jordan and Charlie Drayton in the Winos, that's all I need. I can throw riffs at them all night; when the drums catch on, I know there's something there. My strength, probably, is I can recognize a song in a few bars. I spot the embryo there. I've been writing since so early on that the antenna is really well-developed. If I pick up an instrument, it'll come to me. I don't go searching. I don't have that God aspect about it. I prefer to think of myself as an antenna. There's only one song, and Adam and Eve wrote it. The rest is a variation on a theme.

There's actually a ZZ Top-quality to "You Got Me Rocking."

There could be. I haven't heard ZZ Top for a long time. Apart from the fact that we both play rock and roll, the comparison wouldn't occur to me, but you never know. We all cross over. I know that to me the rhythm has a bit of Motown, like "Goin' to a Go-Go," [Smokey Robinson And The Miracles] a little funky. I was looking for a swampy rhythm, something punchy. Wrote the thing on piano and then transferred it over to guitar.

There's a lot of B-bender guitar on the album. A new fetish?

I wouldn't call it new. [Late country guitarist] Clarence White invented the thing many years ago. It's a guitar with a special job on it: you pull on the neck and the B string bends and gives you a pedal steel effect. Jimmy Page uses it quite a lot and Ronnie works on it. I use it now and again. It gives you a nice guitar feel, a little pedal steel but also a little slide. It's another tone to play with. The only trouble is, if you play it... the whole thing goes out of tune. You have to do a little training to play it.

Has your musical relationship with Ronnie changed markedly since 1975?

Ronnie and I, we've had a ball for the last year. He says, "Thanks for some good songs to play," and I'll say, "Thanks for being there to play them with." There's nothing you can put your finger on and say, "We did this at his time and that's why it's better." It's just about playing with somebody, and every time you get down to playing you're testing each other more. Ronnie Wood is an amazingly sympathetic player; he'll get to the root of what you're on almost straight away.

You even managed to get Pierre [de Beauport] a credit on the album.

He works for me; he's my guitar man, mechanic, and a damn good player, too. He happened to be the only guy around that night, and he's been with me from when I first came across that song. We cut the first demo of it together, so I thought he deserved to have his mark on it. As we were finishing the record, I said, "Pierre, by the way, your acoustic's on." He said, "You've got to be kidding!" I told him, "No, go for it."

What were your considerations for the show this year?

I'm looking to balance it up. As you can imagine, the show will kind of change and incorporate more of the newer numbers after the record comes out and we get some feedback. I'd like to do as many of them as we can. First off, the songs are made for the stage -- they're dying to be played live. Also for this show, I'm not trying to get too stuck to a set list. In the past we've had one song changing here, one song changing there, which is almost the same. But it's difficult to change a lot on these great big tours, with everyone locked into their computerized lights. We try to rehearse far more stuff than we actually need so we can vary the show from night to night if we want to.

The other thing is I don't want to repeat the big band revue sort of feel of Steel Wheels. -- I want to strip it down a bit. I want to discard that revue feel; the five Stones and 11 other people. We, the band can do a lot more within ourselves.

You enjoy referring to the Stones as a juggernaut, which is pretty accurate. Do you ever wish you play smaller venues?

That's heaven and hell together, and you can't have it all. We have to work within the Stones' standards. I mean, it would be great; this band can play a club better than any in the world, probably. That's where it sounds best. But it's gotten this big, and you've got to deal with it.

Plus, it's very unlikely anyone will go for it -- like the police or the promoters. They say, "I don't want my club ruined." Or if everyone else wants it the police department says, "We can't allow the Rolling Stones to play in our High Street in a little club. There'll be a riot." There's so many imponderable things to get through. Unless it's a one-off... you're fighting against nature.

That doesn't mean we won't try, though. [laughs]

Have you noticed the strong regard for the Stones that exists within younger bands now? The last time there was this kind of influx of new music, it was 1977 and everybody slammed you.

It's probably more just a matter of fashion and timing. In the Seventies, those guys who were coming up were 10 years younger than us. We were like their big brothers who used to rub their noses in it, so there was a natural rejection and rebellion there. Now it goes around full circle; maybe it's just because we're still here. But I know loads of guys in new bands, a lot of kids on the road who are players. There's a lot of 15, 14-year-old boys out there with their Fenders in their hands, which is great. There are worse things you can do in this life than that.

Any thoughts on Kurt Cobain?

I wasn't really too aware; I didn't even know the name of the lead singer of Nirvana until that thing in Rome went down. I heard that and thought, "He was lucky this time." I was just astonished that two weeks later…no one was keeping an eye on him and just let him buy a shotgun. Mick summed it up well; he said it was inevitable. It would have taken a few years longer to do if he hadn't been famous. It just wasn't the right job for someone of that temperament. People say: "What's so tough about being the lead singer?" But if life was so difficult for him there, it would be appalling anywhere else, wouldn't it?

When you were that deep into drugs, did you have people keeping a better eye on you?

Yeah, somewhat. But they also knew I wasn't looking to top myself. There's a difference between scratching your ass and tearing it to bits, you know.

So what is a Voodoo Lounge?

It's wherever I hang out. [laughs]

SuperHeavy -- the supergroup featuring Mick Jagger, AR Rahman, Damian Marley, Dave Stewart and Joss Stone -- have just premiered their new music video for the track "Miracle Worker." You can watch the video below.

Yesterday, SuperHeavy announced the track listing to their self-titled debut album, which you can find here.

The album, which was produced by Jagger and Stewart, will be released on September 19. The first single from the album, "Miracle Worker," was released last month.