Keith Richards spoke at the ROLLING STONE Podcast “Music Now” about the future of the Stones after the death of drummer Charlie Watts and the new man, Steve Jordan, who has also been part of his second band The X-Pensive Winos since the 80s.
It was Charlie Watts who recommended Steve Jordan to you in the first place. And it seems like there are some similarities in their playing, they have the same rhythmic spirit in a way. It’s enormously difficult to articulate, but there are similarities between the two, aren’t there?
I think Steve Jordan grew up listening to and admiring Charlie Watts. And I mean, sometimes Steve can fool me and I think it’s Charlie. With the Winos it was wonderful playing with these guys who grew up with the Stones and hearing their thoughts on it.
It’s interesting that “Wicked As It Seems” from your solo album “Main Offender” sounds musically like a cousin of the later Stones song “Love Is Strong”.
Yes. Wicked As It Seems is certainly a cousin of Love Is Strong. Perhaps the two are even a little more closely related.
It’s like identical twins who have different paths in life.
Yeah, it’s funny you say that because I felt the same way, but somehow I had to make two songs out of this thing. And they were pretty close in time, too. When I listen to this stuff now I think: Wow, maybe we should do more of this!
On the X-Pensive Winos Live CD in the box set that has just been released, we hear you sing “Gimme Shelter”, which seems pretty daring. Of course, this is a song that you mainly wrote. But how did that actually feel?
Yes, when I listened to it, I even forgot that we recorded that with the Winos. And somehow it reminded me of the day I wrote it, it was a rainy day in London, on Mount Street. There was a big storm and everyone was running for cover, and it really just came from this simple vision. And then of course I realized that you have to expand that. And I realized that there’s only one storm, but there’s a lot more behind it. But yeah, actually hearing me sing again gave me that sense of urgency. “Gimme Shelter” – I’ve always had a soft spot for this song.
When I spoke to you, Mick and Ron for the last cover story we did on the Rolling Stones in 2016, you were working on a studio album of brand new songs alongside Blue & Lonesome, the blues covers album you had released. How far is the new album? And – I don’t want to be rude – why is it taking so long?
So as far as the status is concerned, I can’t really report anything. But I just love working. If I can’t work with one group, I work with the other.
There was a report that Charlie basically recorded all his parts for the next album. Is that correct?
No, that’s not true at all. I mean, Charlie Watts did a little bit. He’s done some stuff with Mick and we’ve got a bunch of stuff with Charlie from last year already on tape. But Charlie Watts certainly wasn’t thinking, I’m going to record some stuff because I won’t be around anytime soon. He’s not that type. He didn’t think like that. Charlie was working when someone said, “Hey, I’ve got some songs, come over and play!” We still have a lot of Charlie Watts stuff on tape because we were making an album when he died , but you know, goddammit, I loved that man!
I guess it hasn’t been an issue that if you want to finish the Stones album Steve has to play on some of the stuff. But is that the idea?
Yes. I think that’s one of the things we need to sort out this year. So of course, I mean if we want to keep recording then we need drums and it goes to Steve Jordan. At the start of the last tour a few months ago I said, ‘Oh no, I can’t do this without Charlie!’ But that’s when Charlie said to me, ‘Listen, Keith, you can do it with Steve. You’ve done it many times. You know he can always take my place, you know it!” He talked me into it. Of course I knew Steve could do it. One wonders how the thing is supposed to grow together. I was amazed at how everything fit together. And I look forward to doing more with this squad.
Of course it couldn’t feel the same.
No of course not. It felt like fresh blood, and it felt very energetic. And Steve said, “I don’t want to overdo it or go in a different direction.” But he has a sense of how Charlie Watts plays, which makes it very, very easy for us to move on without having to go through incredible intricacies. Steve is a consummate pro and loves the style of Charlie Watts. Sometimes I was amazed to watch him, and when he said, ‘I could do it like Charlie, or do you want me to…’ I just replied, ‘I’ll leave it to you, Steve. If Charlie was sitting there, I would let him do it. And now you sit there and I’ll leave it to you, Steve.” We had a great time on the tour and I see no reason why we shouldn’t continue this year.