Mick Jagger on the cover of WSJ. Magazine.Photo:JUERGEN TELLER for WSJ. Magazine
JUERGEN TELLER for WSJ. Magazine
Mick Jaggerkept his Rolling Stones bandmates to a tight schedule making their first new album in 18 years.
In a new interview withWSJ Magazine, the rock icon, 80, revealed that he put deadline pressure on the group to keepHackney Diamondson track.
Mick Jagger on the cover of WSJ. Magazine.JUERGEN TELLER for WSJ. Magazine
Jagger said Richards, 79, pushed back, telling him it wasn’t going to happen. However, Jagger was undeterred.
“I said, ‘It may never happen, Keith, but that’s the aim. We’re going to have a f—ing deadline,’ ” he continued in the interview, which appears inWSJ Magazine’s October issue, available on newsstands Oct. 7.
“Otherwise, we’re just going to go into the studio, for two weeks, and come out again, and then six weeks later, we’re going to go back in there. Like, no. Let’s make a deadline,” he added.
Mick Jagger (left) pushed Keith Richards to stick to a deadline making ‘Hackney Diamonds.'.Sven Hoogerhuis/BSR Agency/Getty; Matt Baron/Shutterstock
Sven Hoogerhuis/BSR Agency/Getty; Matt Baron/Shutterstock
Jagger told the publication he was striving to replicate the swift turnaround of the band’s 1978 album,Some Girls. “Not that you’re rushing,” he said of the process. “But you’re not, like, doing take 117. So that you don’t get bogged down in conversations about whether this song’s a good one, whether this song’s worth it.”
He said he wanted to give the recordings urgency, to draw the listener in. “Even if it’s a nice song, if it’s not done with enthusiasm, it doesn’t really get to you, does it?” he explained.
Jagger’s push to keep his bandmates on pace reflects his history of being a stabilizing force for the Stones over the years, guiding them and keeping them going in a gritty industry. “I mean, it is kind of my role, you know? I think people expect me to do that,” he told the magazine.
“I don’t think anyone’s saying, ‘Oh, I should be doing the “clarity” role.’ I don’t see Ronnie [Wood, the band’s guitarist] saying to me, ‘Mick, I think you should retire from the clarity role and the vision role and I’ll do it.’ No one else wants to do it! I just got dumped with it. And I made a lot of mistakes, when I was very young. But you learn.”
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The StonesannouncedHackney Diamondsat a press event in London earlier this month. Jagger, Richards and bandmateRonnie Woodtook the stage to talk toJimmy Fallonabout the album, which releases on Oct. 20.
“We wouldn’t have put this album out if we didn’t really like it,” Jagger said to Fallon. “We must say that we are quite pleased with it. We’re not big-headed but we hope you like it.”
From left: Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards attend the ‘Hackney Diamonds’ launch event in London on Sept. 6, 2023.Mike Marsland/WireImage
Mike Marsland/WireImage
In an emotional moment, the trio also touched on what it was like to record the album without theirlongtime drummer Charlie Watts, who died in August 2021.
“Ever since Charlie’s gone it’s different, he’s number four,” Richards said. “He’s missing, he’s up there. Of course he’s missed incredibly.”
source: people.com
