(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Fri 23 January 2026 21:44, UK
It’s going to be a cold day in hell before Keith Richards ever decides to walk away from The Rolling Stones.
The jury’s still out on whether the man is actually immortal, but until the fateful day that he does cross over to the other side, chances are he will be more than happy to strum his guitar with the rest of his musical family behind him every time they take to the stage. After all, that’s what all rock stars are supposed to do, but that didn’t mean every single album caught them in the best light when they first came out.
Granted, The Stones’ track record usually comes down to certain periods of their sound. The first era of them being a by-the-numbers blues outfit was great for what it was, but once they followed The Beatles’ lead, things started to sound a lot more dangerous. And while the Fab Four didn’t give the model for where to go after 1970, they had already settled into their role as one of the greatest blues bands the world had ever seen once they reached records like Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St.
But the era of the true classics tends to stall when you get to a record like Goats Head Soup. Not everything is terrible after that by any means, but when you look at the songs that turned up on a record like Some Girls, it was clear that not everyone was on the same page. Richards wasn’t necessarily the first person to suggest doing a disco song like ‘Miss You’, nor did Mick Jagger want to go back to country music like on ‘Far Away Eyes’, but that’s the beauty of their partnership as well.
Every band needs those two competing forces working off each other, just like Lennon and McCartney or Plant and Page, but becoming the longest-running rock and roll band didn’t come without some hiccups. Jagger may have wanted to stay fashionable whenever he could, but whereas Richards could compromise in places, it made sense that the frontman ultimately wanted to call his own shots after a while.
Then again, he probably could have made a better argument than simply making a solo album without the rest of the band. The Stones were such a brotherhood by the time that they reached the 1980s, but even if Jagger found another outlet on his solo album She’s the Boss, Richards felt like the band were practically dead in the water by the time Jagger announced his tour for the album Primitive Cool.
Richards didn’t want to leave the band behind, but in his eyes, this was the singer’s way of telling him that the band was over, saying, “The big betrayal by Mick, which I find hard to forgive, a move that seemed almost deliberately designed to close down the Rolling Stones, was his announcement in March 1987 that he would go on a tour with his second solo album Primitive Cool… After that I decided, fuck it, I want a band.”
But it’s not like Jagger was officially closing up shop or anything. Stevie Nicks had already proven that a singer could be a solo superstar and a band member at the same time, and given the fact that Jagger’s solo tours didn’t exactly light the world on fire, it’s not like Richards needed to convince him to come back to the band when they started making late-career renaissances like Voodoo Lounge.
It may have led to a few years where ‘The Glimmer Twins’ weren’t on the best terms, but going through their solo years was really a lesson that both of them needed to learn. No matter how much star power any band has, not everyone is cut out to be a success on their own, and when it comes to The Stones, most people want to see those competing forces working off each other every time they play.
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