The Rolling Stones

History

Formation

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards became childhood friends in 1950 in Dartford, Kent; the two lost contact in 1954 when the Jagger family moved. In the mid-1950s Jagger formed a garage band with his friend Dick Taylor. The group mainly played material by Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin' Wolf, and Bo Diddley. Jagger again met Richards on 17 October 1961 at Dartford railway station. Jagger was carrying records by Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters; these revealed to Richards a shared interest. A musical partnership began shortly afterwards. Richards and Taylor often met Jagger at his house. The meetings moved to Taylor's house in late 1961, where Alan Etherington and Bob Beckwith joined the trio; the quintet called themselves the Blues Boys.

In March 1962, the Blues Boys read about the Ealing Jazz Club in the newspaper Jazz News, which mentioned Alexis Korner's rhythm and blues band, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated. The Blues Boys sent a tape of their best recordings to Korner, who was impressed. On 7 April, they visited the Ealing Jazz Club, where they met the members of Blues Incorporated, who included slide guitarist Brian Jones, keyboardist Ian Stewart, and drummer Charlie Watts. After a meeting with Korner, Jagger and Richards started jamming with the group.

Having left Blues Incorporated, Jones advertised for bandmates in Jazz News in the week of 2 May 1962. Ian Stewart was among the first to respond to the ad. In June, Jagger, Taylor, and Richards left Blues Incorporated to join Jones and Stewart. The first rehearsal included guitarist Geoff Bradford and vocalist Brian Knight, both of whom decided not to join the band. They objected to playing the Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley songs preferred by Jagger and Richards. According to Richards, Jones named the band during a phone call to Jazz News. When asked by a journalist for the band's name, Jones saw a Muddy Waters LP lying on the floor; one of the tracks was "Rollin' Stone". Jones was the band's "uncontested leader" during its early years and a key to the band's early success.

1962–1964: Early success

The band played their first show billed as "the Rollin' Stones" on 12 July 1962, at the Marquee Club in London. At the time, the band consisted of Jagger, Jones, Richards, Stewart, Taylor, and a drummer who has never been confirmed. Tony Chapman joined as drummer shortly after, while Bill Wyman auditioned for the role of bass guitarist at a pub in Chelsea on 7 December 1962 and was hired as a successor to Dick Taylor. The band were impressed by his instrument and amplifiers (including the Vox AC30). After Chapman departed in January 1963, the band played gigs with temporary drummers including Charlie Watts, who first played with the band on Saturday, 12 January 1963 at the Ealing Jazz Club, and Carlo Little. Watts agreed to join as the band's permanent drummer, and the settled line-up of Jagger, Jones, Richards, Stewart, Wyman, and Watts played their first gig on 2 February 1963, again at the Ealing Jazz Club.

Shortly afterwards, the band began their first tour of the UK, performing Chicago blues, including songs by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. By 1963, they were finding their musical stride as well as popularity. In 1964, they beat the Beatles as the number one United Kingdom band in two surveys. The band's name was changed shortly after their first gig to the Rolling Stones. Their acting manager, Giorgio Gomelsky, secured a Sunday afternoon residency at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, London, in February 1963.

In May 1963, the Rolling Stones signed Andrew Loog Oldham as their manager. He had been directed to them by his previous clients, the Beatles. Oldham, then 19, had not reached the age of majority—he was also younger than anyone in the band— and so could not obtain an agent's licence or sign any contracts without his mother co-signing. By necessity he joined with booking agent Eric Easton to secure record financing and assistance booking venues. Gomelsky, who had no written agreement with the band, was not consulted.

Oldham initially tried applying the strategy used by Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles, and have the Rolling Stones wear suits. He later changed his mind and imagined a band that contrasted with the Beatles, featuring unmatched clothing, long hair, and an unclean appearance. He wanted to make the Stones "a raunchy, gamy, unpredictable bunch of undesirables" and to "establish that the Stones were threatening, uncouth and animalistic". One of Oldham's first acts as manager was to remove Stewart from the official line-up, though he would be retained as the band's road manager and would continue to provide keyboards in the studio and live (initially off-stage, he would eventually play with the band on stage by the mid-1970s). Oldham later said of this decision, "Well, he just doesn't look the part, and six is too many for [fans] to remember the faces in the picture." Oldham also reduced the band members' ages in publicity material to make them appear as teenagers.

1965–1967: Worldwide fame

The band's second UK LP, The Rolling Stones No. 2, was released in January 1965 and reached No. 1 on the charts. The US version, released in February as The Rolling Stones, Now!, reached No. 5. The album was recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago and RCA Studios in Los Angeles. In January and February of that year, the band played 34 shows for around 100,000 people in Australia and New Zealand. The single "The Last Time", released in February, was the first Jagger/Richards song to reach No. 1 on the UK charts; it reached No. 9 in the US. It was later identified by Richards as "the bridge into thinking about writing for the Stones. It gave us a level of confidence; a pathway of how to do it."

Their first international No. 1 hit was "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", recorded in May 1965 during the band's third North American tour. Richards recorded the guitar riff that drives the song with a fuzzbox as a scratch track to guide a horn section. Nevertheless, the final cut did not include the planned horn overdubs. Issued in the summer of 1965, it was their fourth UK No. 1 and their first in the US, where it spent four weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. It was a worldwide commercial success for the band. The US version of the LP Out of Our Heads, released in July 1965, also went to No. 1; it included seven original songs, three Jagger/Richards numbers and four credited to Nanker Phelge. The UK version of Out of Our Heads was released in September 1965. Their second international No. 1 single "Get Off of My Cloud" was released in the autumn of 1965, followed by another US-only LP, December's Children (And Everybody's).

The album Aftermath, released in the late spring of 1966, was the first LP to be composed entirely of Jagger/Richards songs; it reached No. 1 in the UK and No. 2 in the US. According to The Daily Telegraph, Aftermath is often regarded as the most important of the band's formative records. On this album, Jones' contributions expanded beyond guitar and harmonica. To the Middle Eastern-influenced "Paint It Black" he added sitar; to the ballad "Lady Jane" he added dulcimer, and to "Under My Thumb" he added marimbas. Aftermath also contained "Goin' Home", a nearly 12-minute song that included elements of jamming and improvisation.

The Stones' success on the British and American singles charts peaked during the 1960s. "19th Nervous Breakdown" was released in February 1966, and reached No. 2 in the UK and US charts; "Paint It Black" reached No. 1 in the UK and US in May 1966. "Mother's Little Helper", released in June 1966, reached No. 8 in the US; it was one of the first pop songs to discuss the issue of prescription drug abuse. "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" was released in September 1966 and reached No. 5 in the UK and No. 9 in the US. It had a number of firsts for the group: it was the first Stones recording to feature brass horns, and the back-cover photo on the original US picture sleeve depicted the group satirically dressed in drag. The song was accompanied by one of the first official music videos, directed by Peter Whitehead.

1968–1970: Jones' departure and death, Mick Taylor joins

The band spent the first few months of 1968 working on material for their next album. Those sessions resulted in the song "Jumpin' Jack Flash", released as a single in May. The subsequent album, Beggars Banquet, an eclectic mix of country and blues-inspired tunes, marked the band's return to their rhythm and blues roots. It was also the beginning of their collaboration with producer Jimmy Miller. It featured the lead single "Street Fighting Man" (which addressed the political upheavals of May 1968) and "Sympathy for the Devil". Controversy over the design of the album cover, which featured a public toilet with graffiti covering the wall behind it, delayed the album's release for six months. While the band had "absolute artistic control over their albums", Decca was not enthused about the cover's depiction of graffiti reading "John Loves Yoko" being included; the album was released that December, with a different cover design.

In 1968, the Stones, acting on a suggestion by Ian Stewart, put a control room in a van and created the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio so they would not be limited to the standard 9–5 operating hours of most recording studios. The band lent the mobile studio to other artists, including Led Zeppelin, who used it to record Led Zeppelin III (1970) and Led Zeppelin IV (1971). Deep Purple immortalised the mobile studio itself in the song "Smoke on the Water" with the line "the Rolling truck Stones thing just outside, making our music there".

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, which originally began as an idea about "the new shape of the rock-and-roll concert tour", was filmed at the end of 1968. It featured John Lennon, Yoko Ono, the Dirty Mac, the Who, Jethro Tull, Marianne Faithfull, and Taj Mahal. The footage was shelved for 28 years but was finally released officially in 1996, with a DVD version released in October 2004.

By the time Beggars Banquet was released, Brian Jones was only sporadically contributing to the band. Jagger said that Jones was "not psychologically suited to this way of life". His drug use had become a hindrance, and he was unable to obtain a US visa. Richards reported that in a June meeting with Jagger, Watts, and himself at Jones' house, Jones admitted that he was unable to "go on the road again", and left the band saying, "I've left, and if I want to I can come back." On 3 July 1969, less than a month later, Jones drowned under mysterious circumstances in the swimming pool at his home, Cotchford Farm, in Hartfield, East Sussex. The band auditioned several guitarists, including Paul Kossoff, as a replacement for Jones, before settling on Mick Taylor, who was recommended to Jagger by John Mayall.

1971–1973: Continued success

Sticky Fingers, released in March 1971, the band's first album on their own label, featured an elaborate cover designed by Andy Warhol. It was an Andy Warhol photograph of a man from the waist down in tight jeans featuring a functioning zipper. When unzipped, it revealed the subject's underwear. In some markets an alternate cover was released because of the perceived offensive nature of the original at the time.

The album contains one of their best-known hits, "Brown Sugar", and the country-influenced "Dead Flowers". "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses" were recorded at Alabama's Muscle Shoals Sound Studio after the 1969 American tour. The album continued the band's immersion into heavily blues-influenced compositions; is noted for its "loose, ramshackle ambience"; and marked Mick Taylor's first full album with the band. Sticky Fingers reached No. 1 in both the UK and the US.

Following the release of Sticky Fingers, the Rolling Stones left England after receiving advice from their financial manager Prince Rupert Loewenstein. He recommended they go into tax exile before the start of the next financial year. The band had learned that they had not paid taxes for seven years, despite being assured that their taxes were taken care of; and the UK government was owed a relative fortune. The Stones moved to the South of France, where Richards rented the Villa Nellcôte and sublet rooms to band members and their entourage.

Using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, they held recording sessions in the basement. They completed the new tracks, along with material dating as far back as 1969, at Sunset Studios in Los Angeles. The resulting double album, Exile on Main St., was released in May 1972, and reached No. 1 in both the UK and the US. Given an A+ grade by critic Robert Christgau and disparaged by Lester Bangs—who reversed his opinion within months—Exile is now accepted as one of the Stones' best albums. The films Cocksucker Blues (never officially released) and Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones (released in 1974) document the subsequent highly publicised 1972 North American Tour.

The band's double compilation album, Hot Rocks 1964–1971, was released in 1971; it reached No. 3 in the UK and No. 4 in the US. It is certified Diamond in the US, having sold over 6 million copies, being certified 12× Platinum for being a double album, and spent over 347 weeks on the Billboard album chart. A follow-up double compilation album More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) was released in 1972.

1974–1977: Ronnie Wood replaces Taylor

In 1974, Bill Wyman was the first band member to release solo material, his album Monkey Grip. The next Rolling Stones album, It's Only Rock 'n Roll, was recorded in the Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany; it reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 1 in the US. Miller was not invited to return as the album's producer because his "contribution level had dropped". Jagger and Richards, credited as "the Glimmer Twins", produced the album. Both the album and the single of the same name were hits.

Near the end of 1974, Taylor began to lose patience after years of feeling like a "junior citizen in the band of jaded veterans". The band's situation made normal functioning complicated, with members living in different countries, and legal barriers restricting where they could tour. In addition, drug use was starting to affect Taylor's and Richards' productivity, and Taylor felt some of his own creative contributions were going unrecognised. At the end of 1974, Taylor quit the band. Taylor said in 1980: I wanted to broaden my scope as a guitarist and do something else ... I wasn't really composing songs or writing at that time. I was just beginning to write, and that influenced my decision ... There are some people who can just ride along from crest to crest; they can ride along somebody else's success. And there are some people for whom that's not enough. It really wasn't enough for me.

The Stones needed a new guitarist, and the recording sessions in Munich for the next album, Black and Blue (1976; No. 2 in the UK, No. 1 in the US), were effectively used as auditions. Guitarists as stylistically disparate as Peter Frampton and Jeff Beck were auditioned, as well as Robert A. Johnson and Shuggie Otis. Both Beck and Irish blues rock guitarist Rory Gallagher later claimed they had played without realising they were being auditioned. American session players Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel also tried out, but Richards and Jagger preferred for the band to remain purely British. When Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood auditioned, everyone agreed he was the right choice. He had already recorded and played live with Richards, and had contributed to the recording and writing of the track "It's Only Rock 'n Roll". He had declined Jagger's earlier offer to join the Stones, because of his commitment to Faces, saying "that's what's really important to me". Faces' lead singer Rod Stewart went so far as to say he would take bets that Wood would not join the Stones.

In 1975, Wood joined the band as second guitarist for their upcoming Tour of the Americas, which was a contributing factor in the disbandment of Faces. His instalment as an official Rolling Stone was announced in 1976; unlike the other band members, however, Wood was a salaried employee, which remained the case until the early 1990s, when he finally joined the Stones' business partnership.

1978–1982: Commercial peak

The group's fortunes changed in 1978 with the release of Some Girls, which included the hit single "Miss You", the country ballad "Far Away Eyes", "Beast of Burden", and "Shattered". In part as a response to punk, many songs, particularly "Respectable", were fast, basic, guitar-driven rock and roll, and the album's success re-established the Rolling Stones' immense popularity among young people. It reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 1 in the US. Following the 1978 US Tour, the band appeared on the first show of the fourth season of the TV series Saturday Night Live. Following the success of Some Girls, the band released their next album, Emotional Rescue, in mid-1980. During recording sessions for the album, a rift between Jagger and Richards slowly developed. Richards wanted to tour in the summer or autumn of 1980 to promote the new album. Much to his disappointment, Jagger declined. Emotional Rescue hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and the title track reached No. 3 in the US.

In early 1981, the group reconvened and decided to tour the US that year, leaving little time to write and record a new album, as well as to rehearse for the tour. That year's resulting album, Tattoo You, featured a number of outtakes from earlier recording sessions, including lead single "Start Me Up", which reached No. 2 in the US and ranked No. 22 on Billboard's Hot 100 year-end chart. Two songs ("Waiting on a Friend" (US No. 13) and "Tops") featured Mick Taylor's unused rhythm guitar tracks, while jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins played on "Slave", "Neighbours", and "Waiting on a Friend". The album reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 1 in the US.

The Rolling Stones reached No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982 with "Hang Fire". Their 1981 American Tour was their biggest, longest, and most colourful production to date. It was the highest-grossing tour of that year. It included a concert at Chicago's Checkerboard Lounge with Muddy Waters, in one of his last performances before his death in 1983. Some of the shows were recorded. This resulted in the 1982 live album Still Life (American Concert 1981) which reached No. 4 in the UK and No. 5 in the US, and the 1983 Hal Ashby concert film Let's Spend the Night Together, filmed at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona and the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands, New Jersey.

In mid-1982, to commemorate their 20th anniversary, the Rolling Stones took their American stage show to Europe. The European tour was their first in six years and used a similar format to the American tour. The band was joined by former Allman Brothers Band keyboardist Chuck Leavell, who continues to perform and record with them. By the end of the year, the Stones had signed a new four-album recording deal with a new label, CBS Records, for a reported $50 million, then the biggest record deal in history.

1983–1988: Band turmoil

Before leaving Atlantic, the Rolling Stones released Undercover in late 1983. It reached No. 3 in the UK and No. 4 in the US. Despite good reviews and the peak Top 10 position of the title track, the record sold below expectations and there was no tour to support it. Subsequently, the Stones' new marketer/distributor CBS Records took over distributing their Atlantic catalogue. When Undercover was released, Bill German's then five-year-old Beggars Banquet newsletter was declared to be the official Rolling Stones newsletter, and Undercover included instructions on how to subscribe. By this time, the Jagger/Richards rift had grown significantly. To Richards' annoyance, Jagger signed a solo deal with CBS Records and spent much of 1984 writing songs for his first album. He also declared his growing lack of interest in the Rolling Stones. By 1985, Jagger was spending more time on solo recordings. Much of the material on 1986's Dirty Work was generated by Richards, with more contributions from Wood than on previous Rolling Stones albums. It was recorded in Paris, and Jagger was often absent from the studio, leaving Richards to keep the recording sessions moving forward.

In June 1985, Jagger teamed up with David Bowie for "Dancing in the Street", which was recorded for the Live Aid charity movement. This was one of Jagger's first solo performances, and the song reached No. 1 in the UK, and No. 7 in the US. In December 1985, Ian Stewart died of a heart attack. The Rolling Stones played a private tribute concert for him at London's 100 Club in February 1986. Two days later they were presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

In February 1986, Wyman alleged to author Bill German that Jagger tried several times to throw him out of the band. German chose not to report this in his Beggars Banquet newsletter at that time given the poor state of relations within the band. That same year, it was revealed Wyman had begun a relationship with socialite Mandy Smith when she was 13 years old, which caused a firestorm of publicity.

Dirty Work was released in March 1986 to mixed reviews, reaching No. 4 in both the US and UK. It was the Stones' first album for CBS and their first since Goats Head Soup with an outside producer, Steve Lillywhite. With relations between Richards and Jagger at an all-time low, Jagger refused to tour to promote the album and instead undertook a solo tour, where his set included some Rolling Stones songs. As a result of their animosity, the Stones almost broke up. Jagger's solo records, She's the Boss (1985), which reached No. 6 in the UK and No. 13 in the US, and Primitive Cool (1987), which reached No. 26 in the UK and No. 41 in the US, met with moderate commercial success. In 1988, with the Rolling Stones inactive, Richards released his first solo album, Talk Is Cheap, which reached No. 37 in the UK and No. 24 in the US. It was well received by fans and critics, and was certified Gold in the US. Richards has subsequently referred to this late-80s period, when the two were recording solo albums with no obvious reunion of the Stones in sight, as "World War III".

1989–2001: Comeback, Wyman's departure

In early 1989, the Stones – Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Ronnie Wood, Brian Jones, Mick Taylor, and Ian Stewart – were inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with Jagger, Richards, Wood and Taylor in attendance. Jagger and Richards set aside their animosity and went to work on a new Rolling Stones album, Steel Wheels. Heralded as a return to form, it included the singles "Mixed Emotions" (US No. 5), "Rock and a Hard Place" (US No. 23) and "Almost Hear You Sigh". The album also included "Continental Drift", which the Rolling Stones recorded in Tangier, Morocco, in 1989, with the Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar, coordinated by Tony King and Cherie Nutting. Nigel Finch produced the BBC documentary film The Rolling Stones in Morocco. Finch also directed 25x5: The Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones, a documentary spanning the band's 25-year history, featuring new interviews with the five current members and archival interview material of Brian Jones and Mick Taylor. 25x5 aired on the BBC in late 1989 and was released on home video early the following year. Steel Wheels reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 3 in the US.

The Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour was the band's first world tour in seven years and their biggest stage production to date. Opening acts included Living Colour and Guns N' Roses. Recordings from the tour include the 1991 live album Flashpoint, which also included two new studio tracks and reached No. 6 in the UK and No. 16 in the US, and the concert film Live at the Max, also released in 1991. The tour was Bill Wyman's last. After years of deliberation he decided to leave the band, although his departure was not made official until January 1993. He then published Stone Alone, an autobiography based on scrapbooks and diaries he had kept since the band's early days. A few years later he formed Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings and began recording and touring again.

After the successes of the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tours, the band took a break. Watts released two jazz albums; Wood recorded his fifth solo album, the first in 11 years, called Slide on This; Wyman released his fourth solo album; Richards released his second solo album in late 1992, Main Offender, and did a small tour, including big concerts in Spain and Argentina. Jagger got good reviews and sales with his third solo album, Wandering Spirit, which reached No. 12 in the UK and No. 11 in the US. The album sold more than two million copies worldwide, being certified Gold in the US.

2002–2011: 40th anniversary

In 2002, the Stones released Forty Licks, a greatest hits double album, to mark forty years as a band. The collection contained four new songs recorded with the core band of Jagger, Richards, Watts, Wood, Leavell, and Jones. The album has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. It reached No. 2 in both the US and UK. The same year, Q magazine named the Rolling Stones one of the 50 Bands To See Before You Die. The Stones headlined the Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto concert in Toronto, Canada, to help the city—which they had used for rehearsals since the Voodoo Lounge tour—recover from the 2003 SARS epidemic; an estimated 490,000 people attended the concert.

On 9 November 2003, the band played their first concert in Hong Kong, as part of the Harbour Fest celebration, in support of its SARS-affected economy. The same month, the band licensed the exclusive rights to sell the new four-DVD boxed set Four Flicks, recorded on their recent world tour, to the US Best Buy chain of stores. In response, some Canadian and US music retail chains (including HMV Canada and Circuit City) pulled Rolling Stones CDs and related merchandise from their shelves and replaced it with signs explaining why. In 2004, a double live album of the Licks Tour, Live Licks, was released and certified gold in the US. It reached No. 2 in both the UK and US. In November 2004, the Rolling Stones were among the inaugural inductees into the UK Music Hall of Fame.

The band's first new album in almost eight years, A Bigger Bang, was released on 6 September 2005 to positive reviews, including a glowing write-up in Rolling Stone magazine. The album reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 3 in the US. The single "Streets of Love" reached the top 15 in the UK. The album included the political "Sweet Neo Con", Jagger's criticism of American neoconservatism. Richards was initially worried about a political backlash in the US, but did not object to the lyrics, saying "I just didn't want it to become some peripheral distractions/political storm in a tea-cup sort of thing." The subsequent A Bigger Bang Tour began in August 2005, and included North America, South America, and East Asia. In February 2006, the group played the half-time show of Super Bowl XL in Detroit, Michigan. By the end of 2005, the Bigger Bang tour had set a record of $162 million in gross receipts, breaking the North American mark set by the band in 1994. On 18 February 2006, the band played a free concert to over one million people at the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro—one of the largest rock concerts of all time.

2012–2020: 50th anniversary

The Rolling Stones celebrated their 50th anniversary in the summer of 2012 by releasing the book The Rolling Stones: 50. A new take on the band's tongue and lips logo, designed by Shepard Fairey, was also revealed and used during the celebrations. Jagger's brother Chris performed a gig at The Rolling Stones Museum in Slovenia, in conjunction with the celebrations. The documentary Crossfire Hurricane, directed by Brett Morgen, was released in October 2012. He conducted approximately fifty hours of interviews for the film, including extensive interviews with Wyman and Taylor. This was the first official career-spanning documentary since 25x5: The Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones, filmed for their 25th anniversary in 1989. A new compilation album, GRRR!, was released on 12 November. Available in four different formats, it included two new tracks, "Doom and Gloom" and "One More Shot", recorded at Studio Guillaume Tell in Paris, France, in the last few weeks of August 2012. The album went on to sell over two million copies worldwide. The music video for "Doom and Gloom", featuring Noomi Rapace, was released on 20 November.

In November 2012, the Stones began their 50 & Counting... tour at London's O2 Arena, where they were joined by Jeff Beck. At their second show, in London, Eric Clapton and Florence Welch joined the group onstage. The third anniversary concert took place on 8 December at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York. The last two dates were at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on 13 and 15 December. Bruce Springsteen and blues-rock band the Black Keys joined the band on the final night. The stage on this tour was designed so that the lips could "inflate and deflate during different parts of the show." The band also played two songs at 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief.

The Stones played nineteen shows in the US in spring 2013 with various guest stars, including Katy Perry and Taylor Swift, before returning to the UK. In June, the band performed at the 2013 Glastonbury Festival. They returned to Hyde Park in July and performed the same set list as their 1969 concert at the venue. Hyde Park Live, a live album recorded at the two Hyde Park gigs on 6 and 13 July, was released exclusively as a digital download through iTunes later that month. An award-winning live DVD, Sweet Summer Sun: Live in Hyde Park, was released on 11 November.

In February 2014, the band embarked on their 14 On Fire tour, scheduled for the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Europe and to go until the summer. On 17 March, Jagger's long-time partner L'Wren Scott died suddenly, resulting in the cancellation and rescheduling of the opening tour dates to October. On 4 June, the Rolling Stones performed for the first time in Israel. Haaretz described the concert as being "Historic with a capital H". In a 2015 interview with Jagger, when asked if retirement crosses his mind he stated, "Nah, not in the moment. I'm thinking about what the next tour is. I'm not thinking about retirement. I'm planning the next set of tours, so the answer is really, 'No, not really.'"

2021–2025: Watts' death, Hackney Diamonds

In August 2021, it was announced that Watts would undergo medical treatment and would not perform on the remainder of the No Filter tour; the longtime Stones associate Steve Jordan filled in as drummer. Watts died on 24 August 2021, at the age of 80, in a London hospital with his family around him. For 10 days, the contents of the Rolling Stones' official website were replaced with a picture of Watts, in his memory. On 27 August, the band's social media accounts shared a montage of pictures and videos of Watts. The band subsequently showed pictures and videos of Watts at the beginning of each concert on the No Filter tour. The short segment is roughly a minute long and plays a simple drum track by Watts. They became the highest-earning live act of 2021, surpassing Taylor Swift; since 2018 the two have traded the top two spots. The band began a new tour in 2022, with Jordan on drums.

Following reports in February 2023 that former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr would appear on their new album, representatives for the band confirmed that McCartney will appear but stated that Starr would not. This will mark the first time that McCartney and the Stones have collaborated on a studio album. Four months later, it was reported that Wyman would return for a song, more than 30 years after his departure from the band.

In August 2023, media outlets reported, based on an advertisement in a local UK newspaper, that a new Stones album might be released in September 2023. The Hackney Gazette advertisement made reference to several previous Stones hits, and linked to a fictitious diamond jeweller called "Hackney Diamonds", whose website privacy policy is that of Universal Music Group; the band's logo was used to dot the letter "i" in "diamonds". On 29 August, the band confirmed association with the website through posts on its social media profiles. Because of the advertisement, it was suspected that the album might be called Hackney Diamonds. Elton John, Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, among others, were expected to guest on the new album (and they all did).

On 6 September 2023, Jagger, Richards and Wood appeared in a live Q&A with Jimmy Fallon to announce that Hackney Diamonds would be released on 20 October 2023. The album features the final two songs Charlie Watts recorded with the band prior to his death, and it also features former longtime bassist Bill Wyman on one of the album's tracks, marking only his second studio recording with the band since 1991's Flashpoint album. "Angry", the album's first single and music video (starring actress Sydney Sweeney), was also released during the Q&A, with the song also landing on the EA Sports FC 24 soundtrack. Jagger speculated that the band's follow-up to Hackney Diamonds was 75% done by the time that album was released. Ten months later, Jagger stated that it is likely the band would release new music "soon".

2026–present: Foreign Tongues

On 11 April 2026, under the pseudonym "The Cockroaches", the band issued to select record stores in extremely limited quantities a physical-only release of their new single "Rough and Twisted" from their then-untitled new forthcoming album. It was reported by The Times that the upcoming album would not be the band's last, citing "at least 10" additional songs outside of the album having been written to date. Reviewing the single for The Telegraph, Neil McCormick called it a "raucously fun belter that wouldn't sound out of place on Exile on Main Street", declaring "it might just be the summer of The Beatles and the Stones. Rock and roll will never die." The album was then rumoured to be released on 10 July.

On 25 April 2026, the band posted on their Facebook page 20 photographs taken in different countries, showing street views with posters announcing the words Foreign Tongues written in different languages, seemingly the title of their new studio album.

On 5 May 2026, The Rolling Stones released through YouTube the complete audio version of their new single "Rough and Twisted". On the same day, the band confirmed that their new studio album, Foreign Tongues, would be released on 10 July 2026 and also released through YouTube the album's first single, "In the Stars".

Musical development

The Rolling Stones have assimilated various musical genres into their own collective sound. Throughout the band's career, their musical contributions have been marked by a continual reference to and reliance on musical styles including blues, psychedelia, R&B, country, folk, reggae, dance, and world music—exemplified by Jones' collaboration with the Master Musicians of Jajouka—as well as traditional English styles that use stringed instruments such as harps. Brian Jones experimented with the use of non-traditional instruments, such as the sitar and slide guitar, in their early days. The group started out covering early rock 'n' roll and blues songs, and have never stopped playing live or recording cover songs. According to biographer Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the Stones "pioneered the gritty, hard-driving blues-based rock & roll that came to define hard rock" with a "strong yet subtly swinging rhythm" provided by Wyman and Watts.

Jagger and Richards had a shared admiration of Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf. Little Walter influenced Brian Jones. Richards recalls, "He was more into T-Bone Walker and jazz blues stuff. We'd turn him onto Chuck Berry and say, 'Look, it's all the same shit, man, and you can do it.'" Charlie Watts, a traditional jazz drummer, was also introduced to the blues through his association with the pair, stating in 2003, "Keith and Brian turned me on to Jimmy Reed and people like that. I learned that Earl Phillips was playing on those records like a jazz drummer, playing swing, with a straight four." Jagger, recalling when he first heard the likes of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Fats Domino, and other major American R&B artists, said it "seemed the most real thing" he had heard up to that point. Similarly, Keith Richards, describing the first time he listened to Muddy Waters, said it was the "most powerful music [he had] ever heard ... the most expressive". He also recalled, "when you think of some dopey, spotty seventeen year old from Dartford, who wants to be Muddy Waters—and there were a lot of us—in a way, very pathetic, but in another way, [it was] very ... heartwarming".

Despite the Rolling Stones' predilection for blues and R&B numbers on their early live set lists, the first original compositions by the band reflected a more wide-ranging interest. Critic Richie Unterberger described the first Jagger/Richards single, "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)", as a "pop rock ballad ... When [Jagger and Richards] began to write songs, they were usually not derived from the blues, but were often surprisingly fey, slow, Mersey-type pop numbers". "As Tears Go By", the ballad originally written for Marianne Faithfull, was one of the first songs written by Jagger and Richards and one of many written by the duo for other artists. Jagger said of the song, "It's a relatively mature song considering the rest of the output at the time. And we didn't think of [recording] it, because the Rolling Stones were a butch blues group." The Rolling Stones did later record a version which became a top five hit in the US.

Legacy

Since their formation in 1962, the Rolling Stones have survived multiple feuds. They have released 31 studio albums, 13 live albums, 28 official compilation albums and many recognised bootleg recordings, all of which comprise more than 340 songs. According to OfficialCharts.com, the Stones are ranked the fourth bestselling group of all time. Their top single is "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", regarded by many at the time as "the classic example of rock and roll". The Stones contributed to the blues lexicon, creating their own "codewords" and slang, such as "losing streak" for menstrual period, which they have used throughout their catalogue of songs.

They pioneered the "raw, blues-based sound" that came to define hard rock and has been viewed as the musical "vanguard of a major transfusion" of various cultural attitudes, making them accessible to youth in Britain and the rest of the world. Muddy Waters was quoted as saying that the Rolling Stones and other English bands piqued the interest of American youth in blues musicians. After they came to the United States, sales of Waters' albums—and those of other blues musicians—increased public interest, thus helping to reconnect the country with its own music.

The Stones were supporters of the civil rights movement, having a clause in period contracts stating that they would not perform in segregated venues. Breach of this clause would fine the promoter £30,100 and allow the band to walk away. Their support of civil rights causes has continued to the current era.

In 1981, Rolling Stone wrote that the Stones "are the great rock & roll rhythm section of our time" and are "special primarily because they understand that a great rock & roll band never takes too much for granted." In 2010, they ranked fourth on the magazine's list of the Greatest Artists of All Time. Steven Van Zandt wrote: The Rolling Stones are my life. If it wasn't for them, I would have been a Soprano for real. I first saw the Stones on TV, on The Hollywood Palace in 1964. In '64, the Beatles were perfect: the hair, the harmonies, the suits. They bowed together. Their music was extraordinarily sophisticated. The whole thing was exciting and alien but very distant in its perfection. The Stones were alien and exciting, too. But with the Stones, the message was, "Maybe you can do this." The hair was sloppier. The harmonies were a bit off. And I don't remember them smiling at all. They had the R&B traditionalist's attitude: "We are not in show business. We are not pop music." And the sex in Mick Jagger's voice was adult. This wasn't pop sex – holding hands, playing spin the bottle. This was the real thing. Jagger had that conversational quality that came from R&B singers and bluesmen, that sort of half-singing, not quite holding notes. The acceptance of Jagger's voice on pop radio was a turning point in rock & roll. He broke open the door for everyone else. Suddenly, Eric Burdon and Van Morrison weren't so weird – even Bob Dylan.

Live performances

Since their first concert on 12 July 1962 at the Marquee Club in London, the Rolling Stones have performed more than two thousand concerts around the world and have gone on over 48 tours of varying length, including three of the highest-grossing tours of all time: Bridges to Babylon, Voodoo Lounge, and A Bigger Bang.

From small clubs and hotels in London with little room for Jagger to move around to selling out stadiums worldwide, Rolling Stones tours have changed significantly over the decades. The Stones' early setups were simple compared to what they became later in the band's career, when elaborate stage designs, pyrotechnics, and giant screens were used. By the time the Stones toured America in 1969, they began to fill large halls and arenas, such as The Forum in Inglewood, California. They were also using more equipment, including lighting rigs and better sound equipment, than they had used in clubs.

The 1969 tour is considered a "great watershed tour" by Mick Jagger because they "started hanging the sound and therefore hanging the lights". Attributing the birth of arena rock to the Stones 1969 US tour, The Guardian ranked it 19 on their list of the 50 key events in rock music history. Before this tour the loudest sound at large-capacity shows was often the crowd, so the Stones used lighting and sound systems that ensured they could be seen and heard in the biggest arenas. The Guardian commented that their "combination of front-of-house excellence and behind-the-scenes savvy took the business of touring to an entirely new level." During the 1972 tour, the Stones developed a complex light show that included giant mirrors that bounced the light off them.

During the 1975 Tour of the Americas, arena shows became an industry for the band, and the Stones hired a new lighting director, Jules Fisher. The props the band used on stage increased in both size and sophistication, similar to those on Broadway. They started to use multiple stages, from which they would select for a particular show. On this tour they had two versions of what Jagger referred to as the "lotus stage". One version had a large Venetian (cylindrical) curtain, and the other had leaves that began in a folded up position and opened during the beginning of the concert. This period also featured props, including inflatable penises and other gimmicks, and a number of circus tricks.

Band members

Current members

Mick Jagger – lead vocals, harmonica, percussion, rhythm guitar, keyboards (1962–present)

Keith Richards – rhythm and lead guitars, backing and lead vocals, bass guitar, keyboards (1962–present)

Ronnie Wood – lead and rhythm guitars, slide guitar, pedal steel guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals (1975–present)

Former members

Brian Jones – lead and rhythm guitars, slide guitar, harmonica, keyboards, percussion, dulcimer, sitar, woodwinds, backing vocals (1962–1969; died 1969)

Ian Stewart – keyboards, percussion (1962–1963; touring/session musician and road manager 1963–1985; his death)

Bill Wyman – bass guitar, backing vocals (1962–1993; guest 2011, 2012, 2023)

Charlie Watts – drums, percussion (1963–2021; his death)

Mick Taylor – lead and rhythm guitars, slide guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals (1969–1974; guest 2012–2014)

Discography

Studio albums