Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder team up with The Rolling Stones as the band talk new music and life without Charlie Watts
THEY are the world’s greatest rock and roll band.
And the Rolling Stones exuded all the swagger which has seen them dominate pop culture for six decades as they unveiled their first studio album in 18 years yesterday.
There wasn’t a guitar in sight as Mick Jagger, 80, Keith Richards, 79, and Ronnie Wood, 76, took to the stage at East London’s striking Hackney Empire to show off the first single and video from new record Hackney Diamonds — a thumping guitar-driven anthem titled Angry, laced with sexually charged lyrics.
The trio was joined by stunning White Lotus actress Sydney Sweeney, 25, who stars in the raunchy accompanying video wearing a skimpy leather ensemble which will set fans’ pulses racing just as much as the riffs.
And they revealed guest appearances by Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder among the 12 new tracks.
It comes after Bizarre previously told how former Stones bassist Bill Wyman, Sir Paul McCartney and Elton John also have guest spots on the record — alongside late drummer Charlie Watts, who is on two tracks recorded before he died aged 80 in August 2021.
The Stones confirmed Gaga will feature on Sweet Sound Of Heaven, which Jagger described as “gospel-sounding” — prompting pal Richards to joke: “You’ve never been to church in your life.”
‘We’re not big-headed’
With huge crowds gathering outside the venue, the band flew in US chat show supremo Jimmy Fallon to host the live-streamed announcement, revealing their record will drop on October 20.
Speaking on stage, Keith reflected: “Ever since Charlie has been gone, it’s different. He’s number four.
“He’s missing, and of course he’s missed incredibly, but thanks to Charlie we have Steve Jordan who was his recommendation if anything should happen to him.
“He’s been a friend of ours so he was a natural progression.
“It would have been a lot harder without Charlie’s blessing.”
Joking that the group had been “really lazy”, having waited 18 years since their last studio album — 2005’s A Bigger Bang — Jagger added that he is thrilled with the outcome.
And he told how a series of sessions began in Jamaica, New York and finally Los Angeles in order to complete the work.
He explained: “Yeah, we’ve been very lazy!
“We have been on the road most of the time, and maybe we were all a bit too lazy to make an album — and suddenly we said, ‘Let’s put a deadline on it’.
“So Keith and I and Ronnie had this chat.
“We said we’ll make this record at Christmas and finish it by Valentine’s Day — and that’s what we did.
“We cut 23 tracks very quickly, and finished them off in January, mixed them in February, and the album is 12.
“I don’t want to be big-headed but we wouldn’t have put this album out if we hadn’t really liked it.
“We said we had to make a record we really love ourselves.
“We are quite pleased with it.
“We are not big-headed about it, but we hope you all like it.”
He added: “Keith and I thought the theme of the album should be every track could be an angry theme — anger, disgust, that’s the concept.
“But then we had a second idea to not make every song angry, but to make them a bit more eclectic and have a few love songs, ballads, country, that sort of thing. So we’ve got a mixture.”
Explaining the title of the album, Keith added: “We were flinging ideas around and went from Hit And Run to Smash And Grab — and we came up with Hackney Diamonds, which is a variation of them both, and we are a London band.”
Expanding on its meaning, Mick later explained: ‘Hackney Diamonds is named after when your car windscreen gets smashed on a Saturday night and the glass goes everywhere.”
Elsewhere, Ronnie joked that he performs with other bands in between gigs — and quipped about being a father of young children with wife Sally, 45.
He cheekily explained: “You’ve got to keep your fingers moving when you get to my age.
“You’ve got to keep everything moving.”
Fans around the globe were able to tune in via the band’s official YouTube channel to hear their new music, first teased in a tongue-in-cheek local newspaper advert.
The Paint It Black rockers used the publicity gimmick to tell fans they were calling their new record Hackney Diamonds.
‘Definitive rock outfit’
They disguised the clue-packed announcement in London’s Hackney Gazette as a promo for a fictional glass company of the same name.
Highlights of the launch event included Fallon mimicking Jagger’s famous Cockney accent and “strut”, to laughter from the band and fans.
Sydney applauded enthusiastically as she was introduced to the crowd.
Telling how she was invited to appear, she explained: “Oh, gosh.
“I mean, I freaked out, called my family, and brought my mom.
“I loved the song when I heard it.
“It’s been stuck in my head.”
Crooning over distorted guitars on the track, Jagger sings: “Angry, don’t be angry with me.
“I’m still taking the pills, and I’m off to Brazil, don’t be angry with me.
“It hasn’t rained in a month, the river’s run dry, we haven’t made love and I wanna know why? Why you angry with me?”
The event ended with the trio high-fiving fans outside and posing for photographs.
They looked every bit the definitive rock outfit in dark suits and shades as they climbed into separate waiting cars — having previously quipped that the secret to their longevity was “not talking too much”.
And one thing is clear . . . despite a tough few years, the Stones aren’t slowing down any time soon.
TRACK LIST... AND THEIR BIG-NAME GUESTS
1. Angry
2. Get Close (ft Elton John, piano)
3. Depending On You
4. Bite My Head Off (ft Paul McCartney, bass)
5. Whole Wide World
6. Dreamy Skies
7. Mess It Up (Charlie Watts, drums)
8. Live By The Sword (Charlie Watts, drums; Bill Wyman, bass)
9. Driving Me Too Hard
10. Tell Me Straight (Keith Richards, lead vocals)
11. Sweet Sound Of Heaven (ft Lady Gaga. vocals; Stevie Wonder, piano)
12 Rolling Stone Blues (Muddy Waters cover featuring just Mick and Keith)
Syd a hot-shot in sexy new vid
SYDNEY SWEENEY added an extra dose of Euphoria as she was unveiled as the secret star of the Stones’ music video for Angry.
The American actress looked incredible for the steamy mini-film — which sees her writhing around on the back of a vintage red Mercedes convertible wearing very little.
Sydney was a surprise guest at the intimate London venue yesterday and took her seat alongside US chat show host Jimmy, who she was seen in animated conversation with as the video premiered.
Sydney, who flew in from the Venice Film Festival, appeared to be taken aback by the size of the Stones’ event — saying of the launch: “This is the biggest thing ever.”
I’m sure her mum, who turned up to support her at the Hackney Empire, got a bit of a surprise too — especially after watching her daughter’s sexy on-screen antics.
ROCK OF THE AGES
TO witness Mick, Keith and Ronnie strolling on to the Hackney Empire stage was something else, writes Simon Cosyns.
Usually, they are a million miles away in some vast arena but here they were, up close and personal.
Rock gods and ultimate survivors less than a Stone’s throw away in the enclosed confines of a beautiful old Victorian theatre.
It’s just the full 62 years since Jagger and Richards met on Dartford station, bonded over their shared love of Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry records – and formed a band.
As they took their seats opposite Jimmy Fallon for a typically knockabout chat, I sensed they had an enormous sense of pride in their latest endeavours.
Their business was to unveil the first Rolling Stones studio album of original material in 18 years, Hackney Diamonds.
Jagger was looking lean and dapper, as you’d expect, and was flanked by his brothers in arms – Richards, enigmatic in his round-lens shades and fedora, and affable Wood most notable for his big toothy grin.
And I’m happy to report that the album’s first mouth-watering taste, the single Angry, is a high-octane blast complete with what Richards describes as “a damn funky riff”.
Powerhouse drums
The song serves as the opening track, a Jagger/Richards co-write with American producer Andrew Watt, who, it was said, “kicked us up the arse.”
The three minutes and 46 seconds of searing vocals, “angry” guitars and big choruses ensures the album comes screaming out of the traps with more energy than bands, er, a quarter of their age.
Of course, the event came with a tinge of regret that Charlie Watts, who died in 2021, wasn’t there to celebrate the latest momentous chapter in the Stones’ storied career.
But if the powerhouse drumming from his replacement, Steve Jordan, on Angry is anything to go by, the sticks are in safe hands.
As Fallon flashed his questions, each of the three Stones yielded telling nuggets about their 24th studio album, like schoolboys discarding sweet wrappers.
“Charlie’s on Live By The Sword – it’s slightly retro,” interjected Jagger.
“Lady Gaga sings really sweet (on Sweet Sound Of Heaven),” reported Wood in another bombshell.
And Richards decided that Gimme Shelter and Jumpin’ Jack Flash were his favourite Stones songs of all time.
With Mick hitting 80 in July and Keith reaching the same milestone in December, you have to wonder whether, to quote their old hit, “this could be the last time”.
But somehow, if you shut your eyes and listen to their music, time has stood still.