Lady Gaga, who appears on the Stones\u2019 24th album along with Stevie Wonder, was just 19 and unknown when A Bigger Bang<\/em>, their last album of original material, was released in 2005.<\/p>\n Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards at the launch of the new Rolling Stones album, Hackney Diamonds, in London on Wednesday.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n Much has changed in the time it has taken to produce today\u2019s adults, but not the Stones, it would seem, as they sat down with US talk show host Jimmy Fallon at the Hackney Empire theatre in east London to promote their new album Hackney Diamonds<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like when you get your windscreen broken on Saturday night in Hackney and all the bits go on the street, that\u2019s Hackney Diamonds<\/em>,\u201d 80-year-old frontman Mick Jagger said to explain the slang title.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went from \u2018hit and run,\u2019 \u2018smash and grab\u2019, and somehow we came up with Hackney Diamonds \u2013<\/em> it is a London band,\u201d Keith Richards added.<\/p>\n But the video to the opening track, Angry<\/em>, which premiered to journalists assembled to watch Fallon\u2019s live YouTube stream, is quintessential rock \u2018n\u2019 roll America.<\/p>\n Fans gather outside the Rolling Stones\u2019 Hackney Diamonds launch in London.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n White Lotus<\/em> star Sydney Sweeny \u2013 wearing rhinestone-encrusted leather knickers and a black leather bodice \u2013 gyrates in an open convertible as the Stones play from billboards lining the Hollywood street down which the car drives.<\/p>\n The retail appeal of casting a blonde, busty bombshell is obvious, but the Stones say when it comes to music \u2013 24 albums and counting \u2013 they still create for themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cDo we think about what other people would think about it? No, we just cross our fingers and hope,\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you go in you\u2019ve got to please yourselves, you know what I mean? It\u2019s playing for yourselves first,\u201d Jagger adds.<\/p>\n \u201cLater on you might think, \u2018oh, people might like this,\u2019 or maybe they won\u2019t like this.\u201d<\/p>\n But Richards says after so long, \u201cUsually if we like it, it travels.\u201d<\/p>\n Ronnie Wood, meanwhile, is confident Stones fans will love Lady Gaga\u2019s vocals on one of the tracks.<\/p>\n Richards says producing records remains the holy grail of musicianship. \u201cIt is where a band can come together, playing live is the other holy grail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe record is where guys can get together and pass around ideas without any interference, and when it works it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n Still rolling: The Stones in concert in Berlin in August 2022.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n But there was a shadow overhanging this gathering \u2013 the absence of drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cEver since Charlie\u2019s gone it\u2019s different, of course, he\u2019s number four, he\u2019s missing, he\u2019s not there,\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course he\u2019s missed, incredibly, but thanks to Charlie, we have Steve Jordan, who was Charlie\u2019s recommendation for if anything should happen to him.\u201d<\/p>\n Jordan first stepped in for Watts in 2021. \u201cHe was a friend, so it was a kind of natural progression, it would have been a lot harder without Charlie\u2019s blessing,\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n Even so, two tracks recorded with Watts in 2019 appear on the album, meaning the original Stones live on.<\/p>\n The band gathered before last Christmas and quickly cut the tracks in Los Angeles in time for their self-imposed deadline of Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n Wednesday\u2019s promotional chat with Fallon on YouTube was designed to reach to all corners of the world \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s already tomorrow in Australia,\u201d exclaimed Jagger at one point. It\u2019s a modern take on how they hustled for sales when making their debut.<\/p>\n \u201cKeith and I were in a pub in Denmark Street [in Soho] and we had the album and there were two journalists \u2013 one from the NME<\/em> and one from the Melody Maker \u2013<\/em> and we bought them a pint of beer and we said \u2018here\u2019s our album, have a listen.\u2019\u201d Jagger said, looking back.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then we went out. That was it. There were no photos, nothing. The reviews were mixed but it sold well.\u201d<\/p>\n The audience of journalists, dubbed \u201cfans\u201d by Fallon to his YouTube audience, laughed at the cheeky entendre lobbed by Woods, who defended his bass playing with other bands in between Stones\u2019 gigs as the need to keep match-fit.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to keep everything moving when you get to our age,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n With album 24, the Stones are in no mood to stop rolling.<\/p>\n Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. <\/i><\/b>Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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