Page 77 - Classic Rock (January 2020)

Yeah, I’ve got twin headaches now. I need eyes in
the back of my head looking after Alice and Gracie.
They’re three and a half, which shows you just
how quickly time flies. So apart from the renewed
vigour and zest for life the kids give me, the music
and the art are still blossoming and spiralling up.
As a new challenge I’ve been revisiting childhood
influences like Chuck Berry. Playing it live. I’ve
found Ben Waters, who’s like Chuck’s piano player
Johnnie Johnson. It’s so great to play with him,
because he just inspires me.

Will we ever see another Faces live performance?
Me, Kenney [Jones] and Rod just did a show at
Wentworth for Prostate Cancer, and we got on so
well. Everyone loved it, and the vibe afterwards…
Rod was blown away, Kenney was lovely. I know
we’ll do some more, yeah.

Watching the Stones most recent live performances
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the band
are playing better than ever.
We are better than ever.

Today’s Stones seem to be making every
performance count. After Mick’s heart scare
and your cancer scare, it’s maybe as if everybody
involved is beginning to see the Stones as a finite
entity; not simply carrying on as if it’s an endless
party, but treating every performance as something
to be truly appreciated.
Yeah. It’s brilliant. There’s a great feeling within the
band and with the crowd nowadays, I think we’ve
definitely got the bug again, we just wanna keep
touring. “Let’s go and do some more gigs.” Even
Charlie, who was always like: “I don’t know if
I wanna go on the road any more.” He’s like: “I’m up
for it, whenever you want, let’s go.” Which is great.

And you can absolutely see it in the performances. Honest Ron: Faces days
Keith’s firing on all cylinders as well. (good hair from the get-go).
That’s what he does.

There was a point in time where there’d be
occasional stumbles, but now you can see he’s fully “I'm playing the best I've ever played, for some
on top of his game, back to being the best Keith he magic reason, and I love it.”
can possibly be.
That’s it, another step up to the bar. I’m playing
the best I’ve ever played, for some magic reason, [laughs]. Poor Joyce [Smyth], our manager, is like Of course, [title track of the 1973 Faces album]
and I love it, and I think we’re all raising the bar “Oh, no! More insurance for the next tour”. Ooh La La tells us that a man has to make his own
every time we play now. Not that we didn’t before, mistakes. But if you could go back, what advice
but now we’re, like you say, more conscious of… You’re very fortunate to have that safety net, would you give your younger self?
surviving, how lucky we are. With my recent scare because things could have been missed in the I’d say [sings] ‘Please don’t ever change a thing’. Life’s
and Mick’s scare, Charlie not so long ago, Keith not normal run of things, so it must be reassuring to be full of curves and swerves, and ups and downs.
so long ago, there was a lot of shit going down. able to go for the full MOT every year or so? You just have to go with it. Follow your heart.
Yeah, it is. And without these MOTs a lot of these
Watching Mick’s first gig after heart surgery, he things wouldn’t have been found. We would have Looking back, I suppose your darkest time would
wasn’t exactly taking it easy. been carrying on merrily while ploughing into have been on the pipe, free-basing cocaine.
In the hospital they said they’d never done a wall, basically. Yeah. It’s a terrible millstone around your neck
that kind of surgery on a seventy-five-year old. because it just grabs you and it’s a hard one to kick.
There’s no precedent. And nobody goes back to Where are we as regards a new Stones album?
the office when they’re that old, they normally That’s ongoing. We are very happy with the way Harder than the fags?
just go back to gardening. They don’t go back to studio work’s coming on, but, as you know, the Good old Champix, little tablets that cut off the
running ten miles around a stage. Stones never make an album overnight. But aside part of the brain that craves cigarettes. One day you
from our busy schedule touring, we’re just fitting wake up and go: “I’m not doing that any more.”
The Rolling Stones is a very healthy place to be little studio visits in and it’s shaping up nicely. And that’s it. It’s like I never smoked. When I see
these days. Not only is the level of fitness high due somebody smoking I think: “Are you sure?”
to all of your bounding about the stage, but every It won’t be another [Stones’ 2016 covers album]
time you go tour you need to pass medicals. Blue & Lonesome? Ronnie Wood’s album Mad Lad: A Live
GETTY Which are getting harder and harder to pass now Oh no, a proper new studio album. Tribute To Chuck Berry is out now via BMG.

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