Keith Richards: New Rolling Stones album was fuelled by Mick Jagger’s ‘angst’

Guitarist spoke about a key element of the rock band’s return to making original music after 18 years

Keith Richards has shared some insight into Mick Jagger’s “angsty” songwriting for The Rolling Stones’ new album.

The legendary rock group, comprising guitarist Richards, 79, vocalist Jagger, 80, and bass guitarist Ronnie Wood, 76, are back with original material for the first time in 18 years.

Next week will see the release of their latest studio album, Hackney Diamonds. You can read The Independent’s four-star review here.

The album, which was initially teased to the public in September, will be the band’s first without drummer and long-time member Charlie Watts, who died aged 80 in 2021.

In a new interview on BBC Radio 4, broadcast on Tuesday morning (10 October), Richards opened up about being in a band with such extraordinary longevity, as well as the themes behind their new music.

The BBC’s music correspondent Mark Savage asked the guitarist about the tangible sense of anger running throughout Hackney Diamonds, which transpires on tracks including “Angry”, “Bite My Head Off” and “Live by the Sword”. In Richards’ view, this theme is mainly the result of Jagger’s mood while writing for the new album.

“Mick writes the lyrics,” Richards explained. “He’s got some angst in him, and he probably thought ‘let’s use it’.”

He continued by noting the importance of singers wanting to sing the material for a record to succeed.

“Mick, given a song that he’s not really interested in can really make it bad,” Richards laughed. “That’s maybe one of the reasons it took 18 years – because Mick’s waves of enthusiasm come and go.”

The Rolling Stones (Mark Seliger)

Richards also noted how Jagger was the person to push for the band to record new music; their last release, 2016’s Blue & Lonesome, consisted of blues cover singles.

“Mick was the pusher,” Richards said. “On the end of the last tour, for the first time, he hit me in the right spot. He said, ‘I’ve always wanted to record the band as soon as they get off of the road as possible, because they’re a band that is lubricated.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, which aired during the Today programme, Richards spoke about his preference for vinyl recordings over digital.

“We actually cut this record primarily to be a vinyl,” he said of Hackney Diamonds. “Digital is toytown, the synthesisers… now you have AI, which is even more superficial and artificial.”

Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards – The Rolling Stones (Getty Images)

According to Richards, the Stones intend to take the album on the road next year “if everybody’s still standing”. When asked whether the band is ever planning on calling it a day, the guitarist assured fans that although their journey will come to an end at some point, there are no immediate plans to stop.

“My answer to that is: ‘I’m not Nostradamus’,” Richards replied with a laugh.

“Of course, it’s going to end, sometime. Everybody’s in good fettle – there’s no particular rush. We’re having great fun doing this, and this is what we do.”

Hackney Diamonds will be released on 20 October 2023.