I knew I had something because Mick tried to steal piece off me, Keith Richards on the Rolling Stones’ 24th studio album
KEITH RICHARDS has made rock ’n’ roll connections all his working life.
Only the Rolling Stones’ guitar-wielding force of nature could come up with a sentence like this as if it’s the most natural thing in the world . . .
“I once fell asleep in Muddy Waters’ house, or at least I thought I did. But I woke up in Howlin’ Wolf’s.”
That’s just one of Keith’s choice remarks when we meet to take a deep dive into the Stones’ sparkling 24th studio album, Hackney Diamonds.
He has always thrived on the strange alchemy that comes into play in the company of fellow travellers like those two blues legends.
Of course, his most fruitful associations are with the other core members of the Rolling Stones — Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood and the much missed Charlie Watts.
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Worth a mention, too, is his high regard for Charlie’s replacement Steve Jordan, who, he says, “has done a beautiful, seamless job.”
‘We call him the kid’
Let’s not forget the Stones who came and went . . . the late Brian Jones, guitarist Mick Taylor and bassist Bill Wyman, who returns for a cameo on Hackney Diamonds.
Then there are Keith’s fleeting hook-ups with stellar guests on the new album, namely Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder and “Reg”, aka Elton John, which make the release a “celebration” of sixty-plus years in the business.
And what about the “piece of work” American producer Andrew Watt, 32, who galvanised the band into getting the high-octane record done?
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“He’s a little ball of fire. We call him the kid,” smirks Keith, just the 47 years his senior.
But his other significant connections are with the rock ’n’ roll, blues and country trailblazers who shaped him as a guitarist, songwriter and as a person.
Among them are Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Lee Hooker, Willie Nelson, as well as the aforementioned Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.
In the case of all those icons, Keith started out as an admirer, earned their respect and went on to share stages with them.
“Jerry Lee was my pal,” he says of the Great Balls Of Fire singer known as “The Killer” who died last year aged 87. “I played many a gig with him. What a guy!”
The final track on Hackney Diamonds, Rolling Stone Blues, is a stripped-back rendition of Muddy Waters’ Rollin’ Stone — the song which christened the band.
With Jagger on vocals and mouth harp and Richards on a 1920s Gibson guitar, it is two minutes and 42 seconds of time travel, back to where it all began.
“Yes, that goes right back,” affirms Keith. “Credit is due to Andrew Watt, who said, ‘That’s how you got your name, isn’t it time you tipped the hat?’”
He insists there’s “a whole long list” of Stones’ inspirations but “Muddy was a main force behind what we did — and still do”.
There’s some captivating footage and recordings from the night of November 22, 1981, when Jagger, Richards and Wood joined the booming bluesman for a sweat-soaked set at Chicago’s Checkerboard Lounge.
“You notice Ronnie and I were dressed for business, in white shirts and black waistcoats,” says Keith.
“It’s the only time we’ve actually dressed like that because we went there with full respect. And just to play behind Muddy — little childhood dreams come true, man.”
The imposing Waters, who would put every ounce of soul into performances of I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man, Mannish Boy and Got My Mojo Working, died 18 months later.
What was he like? I ask Keith. “A gentle giant, a Buddha,” he replies.
“I’ve no doubt there was a ferocious side to the man but he had this serenity about him which was awe-inspiring.
“If you want to be a man, follow that example!”
Aside from Rolling Stone Blues, there’s another Hackney Diamonds track with an all-out retro vibe, the immense seven-minute gospel blues masterclass, Sweet Sounds Of Heaven.
The song is a natural companion to enduring live favourite You Can’t Always Get What You Want and boasts two of the album’s special guests.
Keith says: “Stevie Wonder is on there and the Lady (Gaga) herself, bless her heart, dropped by, laid on the floor and started singing.
“She did a lovely job. She’s a piece of talent, that one.”
With Mick giving a brilliant, breathless performance, Gaga excels herself as his foil, just as she did when she once joined the Stones live on Gimme Shelter.
“That must have been 2012, how time flies,” chips in Keith.
As for Stevie Wonder’s stirring stint on piano and various keyboards, he adds: “Andrew Watt (who seems to know everyone) gave him a call and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got something I think you should get on!’
“It was great to see Stevie again because we used to work with him a lot on the road in the Seventies, especially in Europe.” So, what’s he like these days? I venture. “He’s the same guy, bless his heart. I love him, man. Stevie Wonder is one of the wonders of the world!”
There’s a line in Sweet Sounds which finds Mick intoning, “Bless the Father, bless the Son, hear the sound of the drums.”
From the moment I first heard it, I couldn’t help thinking of dear departed Charlie Watts.
Importantly, two Hackney Diamonds songs feature the rock steady drummer, Mess It Up, with its airy, disco-inflected pop chorus, and Live By The Sword, a pulsing, full-tilt rocker.
The latter, on which you hear Charlie’s sticks counting the band in, reunites the original Stones rhythm section as Bill Wyman, who left in 1993, takes bass duties.
“There is a neat tie-up there,” says Keith. “And it was important for us to put out something we had cut with Charlie.”
He believes that a lot of the impetus needed to get the album done came after the Stones’ beloved drummer died.
“It jolted us into thinking we’ve got to make a record,” he says.
“Then last year, we were on the road in Europe and playing Hyde Park . . . the band’s really hot with Steve Jordan working out seamlessly.
‘Beautiful connection with McCartney’
“Mick agreed with me about the record. We said, ‘Let’s get this thing in the studio. Let’s make this a project — go from A to B and actually finish it.’
“There were some amazing things in the can, but we never felt like it was an album. Whereas, this time we did it all in one block and hit it — I’m still recovering!”
We move on to Hackney Diamonds’ Stones/Beatles moment in the form of “dirty bass” by Paul McCartney on Bite My Head Off, the album’s searing nod to punk rock.
Keith says: “We were in Henson Studios (in Hollywood), which is the old Charlie Chaplin Studios when Macca strolled in with his bass.
“He had also been working with the flavour of the month Andrew, who invited him to join us.
“Paul’s a good mate, as were John and George, and we have a beautiful connection.”
Next Keith sifts through the mists of time to the mid-Fifties when he and McCartney, both in their teens, became infatuated by popular music’s biggest game-changer — before The Beatles and the Stones came along that is.
While both fell under the spell of Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran, Elvis Presley was their idol, their King.
During the Covid hiatus, Macca devoured Peter Guralnick’s definitive Elvis biography, Last Train To Memphis, and told me that the book dwelled on “some of the songs that I loved”.
So let’s take a trip back to the summer of 1956 when Keith was 12 and already crazy about playing guitar.
“Hound Dog was on Radio Luxembourg and it was one of the most seminal evenings of my life!” he says. “I had the radio under the bed covers.
“Those first records with Scotty Moore (guitar) and Bill Black (bass) are the most classic rock and roll ever made,” he says. “They still hold up.
“I would learn every Scotty lick that I could get my hands on, man.
“I thought the way of recording was fantastic, the echo, the sparseness. I much preferred those Elvis records compared with what he did later.”
Keith points out that much of Presley’s early work had a strong country vibe.
This brings us on to the yearning Hackney Diamonds slide guitar-drenched Dreamy Skies, which follows in the grand tradition of Sweet Virginia, Dead Flowers and maybe even the Richards-sung You Got The Silver.
It finds Jagger in a gentle, contemplative mood, in stark contrast to the opening blast Angry and the raging Bite My Head Off, as he sings of retreating from the limelight: “I got to take a break from it all.”
“It’s very un-Mick-like,” says Keith. “I was very surprised . . . this is really nice Mick and out of character for him to write something like that.”
Although Jagger and Richards famously bonded over Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records and formed the Stones, he points out: “Even before Mick and I met, we were into country.
“When we did meet, it was a case of, ‘Oh, you like country, too,’ so it has always been a part of what we do.”
Keith’s faves were the scene’s first superstar Hank Williams, the Man In Black Johnny Cash and golden-voiced George Jones — “it also morphed into hillbilly with Elvis and Carl Perkins.”
He also retains huge admiration for surviving country “outlaw” Willie Nelson.
“I played my last stage shows with Willie, in April. It was his 90th birthday and I did a couple of numbers with him at the Hollywood Bowl.
“It was fun. He has that little jazz and Mexican stuff thrown in. Great voice and great writer.”
Before we go our separate ways, Keith brings it all back to the Stones, pure and simple.
I ask “The Human Riff” if there’s a riff on Hackney Diamonds which is up there with the immortals which kickstart Satisfaction, Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Street Fighting Man.
He considers this before answering: “I’ll tell you what, at the moment — and I could come back on this — I’m locked into Angry. I’m playing bass on that as well. It’s one of the funkiest and it was the first song we wrote for the whole project.”
Towards the end of the album, just before the epic swell of Sweet Sounds Of Heaven, there’s a reflective number called Tell Me Straight with Keith taking lead vocals — following in the grand tradition of Happy, Slipping Away and others.
“It’s my plea for honesty!” he cries, before explaining how it came about.
“We laid down a lot of stuff and I’d totally forgotten about it. It was (keyboard player) Matt Clifford who brought it back and said, ‘Maybe you should work on this one, it’s so beautiful, man.’
“I knew I had something because I got back to the studio and Mick was trying to steal it off me. ‘This is one you don’t get, pal!’ ”
Despite all the accolades that come with decades at the top, Keith is thrilled that people are loving Hackney Diamonds.
“I’m so happy about that after all this time,” he says. “I’ve had my fingers crossed.
“I thought the record was good but it’s really nice to get the feedback. It’s a joy to behold.”
Keith throws up the tantalising prospect of more to come from the world’s greatest (and comfortably most long-lasting) rock ’n’ roll band.
Rumour has it that the Stones worked on 23 tracks. Keith backs this up by saying: “I always think with a record, you pick the 12 you’re ready to finish.
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“But, at the same time, you’re crying your eyes out for the other beauties out there.”
With talk of live shows and even Glasto, this is not “The Last Time” we’ll hear from the diamond geezers, the Rolling Stones.
ROLLING STONES
Hackney Diamonds
★★★★★
Track listing
1. Angry
2. Get Close
3. Depending On You
4. Bite My Head Off
5. Whole Wide World
6. Dreamy Skies
7. Mess It Up
8. Live By The Sword
9. Driving Me Too Hard
10. Tell Me Straight
11. Sweet Sounds Of Heaven
12. Rolling Stone Blues