The Rolling Stones are finally back on the road!!! The band officially kicks off the 13-date tour on Sunday night (September 26th) in St. Louis, Missouri at St. Louis’ Dome at America’s Center, and wraps things up on November 20th at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas.
The Stones are touring for the first time without their late-drummer Charlie Watts, who died on August 24th at the age of 80. Behind the kit is longtime Stones associate and Keith Richards solo collaborator Steve Jordan, who’ll be sitting in for Watts during the upcoming dates.
Mick Jagger spoke to Rolling Stone about the loss of Charlie Watts and carrying on without him, saying, “The thing about Charlie was that he was always there, always played beautifully and was always willing to discuss what to do about it — how he could make it better. He held the band together for so long, musically, because he was the rock the rest of it was built around. . . The thing he brought was this beautiful sense of swing and swerve that most bands wish they could have. We had some really nice conversations in the last couple of years about how all this happened with the band. It’s a huge loss to us all. It’s very, very hard.”
Keith Richards added, “Charlie had an incredible sense of humor and my joy was I loved to crack him up. If you could hit that spot, he wouldn’t stop, and it was the funniest thing in the world. He had an incredible sense of humor that he kept to himself unless you sparked it. And then it could be painful to laugh.”
Richards went on to say, “A most vital part of being in this band was that Charlie Watts was my bed. I could lay on there, and I know that not only would I have a good sleep, but I’d wake up and it’d still be rocking. It was something I’ve had since I was 19. I never doubted it. I never even thought about it.”
Mick Jagger revealed that along with Steve Jordan behind the drums, they’ve rehearsed around 80 or 90 tunes for the latest leg of their “No Filter” tour: “I’m not saying we just touched on them, jammed on them. We can actually play them. That’s a huge amount. Keith and I were saying, the reality is that we have to do at least twelve, 13 numbers that most everyone knows. . . We have a couple of numbers from the extras in the Tattoo You reissue. . . We’ve got tons of numbers from most eras. So we have a big set list. We can certainly change up the set list. But we still have to do ‘Paint It, Black.'”
- The Rolling Stones tour dates (subject to change):
September 26 – St. Louis, MO – The Dome at America’s Center
September 30 – Charlotte, NC – Bank Of America Stadium
October 4 – Pittsburgh, PA – Heinz Field
October 9 – Nashville, TN – Nissan Stadium
October 14, 17 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium
October 24 – Minneapolis, MN – U.S. Bank Stadium
October 29 – Tampa, FL – Raymond James Stadium
November 2 – Dallas, TX – Cotton Bowl Stadium
November 6 – Las Vegas, NV – Allegiant Stadium
November 11 – Atlanta, GA – Mercedes-Benz Stadium
November 15 – Detroit, MI – Ford Field
November 20 – Austin, TX – Circuit of The Americas
SIDE NOTES
- The Rolling Stones will release their latest archival set, Tattoo You: 40th Anniversary, on October 22nd.
- The deluxe edition features a new remaster of the 1981 nine-week chart-topper, a bonus disc of nine previously unreleased — yet heavily bootlegged tracks — and a two-disc June 1982 performance art London’s Wembley Stadium.
- Tattoo You was originally released on August 24th, 1981 and was comprised mainly of reworked outtakes from the band’s archive dating back to the 1972 sessions for the following year’s Goats Head Soup.
DID YOU KNOW???
- Tattoo You, which has sold over four million copies in the U.S. alone, featured such instant Rolling Stones classics as “Start Me Up,” “Hang Fire,” “Little T &A,” “Worried About You,” and “Waiting On A Friend.”
CHECK IT OUT: The Stones — with Steve Jordan — on September 20th, 2021 performing at a private concert hosted at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts: