Rolling Stones will meet up for December 2011 jam session, says Keith Richards
Could a new Rolling Stones album be in the works? Keith Richards tells RollingStone.com (the website for Rolling Stone magazine) that he, drummer Charlie Watts and guitarist Ronnie Wood are going to meet up in December 2011 for a jam session at a London studio. And by the way, Richards adds, Mick Jagger is invited too.
Rolling Stone.com reports:
"We're just going to play a little together, because we haven't played for three or four years," Richards says. "You don't necessarily want to rehearse or write anything – you just want to touch bases. That's a good start: me, Charlie and Ronnie. Mick's welcome, and I'm sure he'll turn up, but right now we just want to get our chops down."
Beyond that, the Stones' plans for their 50th anniversary next year remain unclear. "I just hope we can perform live," says Wood. "It'd be great to see if that old spark is there."
The most recent Rolling Stones studio album of new material is 2005's "A Bigger Bang." The band toured for the album from 2005 to 2007.
As previously reported, the 2011 remastered reissue of the Rolling Stones' 1978 album "Some Girls" is scheduled for a worldwide release on November 21, the same day that the Rolling Stones concert film "Some Girls Live in Live in Texas '78" is to be released on DVD and Blu-ray. Rolling Stones producer Don Was oversaw studio production of the "Some Girls" album reissue, which includes bonus tracks that are mostly previously unreleased songs that were written in the late 1970s. (Click here to read a review of the "Some Girls" reissue bonus tracks.)
Was also oversaw studio production of the 2010 remastered reissue of the Rolling Stones' 1972 album "Exile on Main Street."
The biggest hit on "Some Girls" was the chart-topper "Miss You," which some people have described as "The Rolling Stones Disco Song," although the band members have said it is not a disco song but rather it was influenced by the funky urban music coming out of New York City at the time. Jerry Hall, who was dating Jagger at the time, says that "Miss You" was written about her. (Click here to read Jagger's story of how he wrote the song.)
RollingStone.com reports:
"There was a really great version of 'Miss You,' which is almost jazz," Richards says of one surprise the band found in the vault. "Mick didn't like his vocal on that. I would have loved to put that on, just because it's so different from the other one. But at the same time Mick said, 'No, I'm not cutting it.' The same would happen to me. … We go into a couple things like that, then we just look at each other and go, 'Oh, what a shame.'
Revisiting "Exile" and "Some Girls" in the last two years, Wood says, "has re-injected some past energy, and made us realize what a kicking live band we are."
The "Some Girls" and "Exile" reissues might only be the beginning: Was wants to tackle "Beggars Banquet," "Let It Bleed" or "Sticky Fingers"soon. "There's so much material," he says. "If they never went in the studio again, you could have a new Stones album every year for the next 50 years, and it would all be good."
