Rolling Stones

“HE just has that youthful energy,” says Ronnie Wood of his Rolling Stones bandmate Mick Jagger.

It’s not a term often used to describe someone in their Eighties but, in this case, entirely accurate.

Anyone who’s seen the consummate frontman in recent times will know he still has the voice, the moves — and the swagger.

Nearly four years Mick’s junior and, at 79, the “baby” of the band, Ronnie could still be forgiven for thinking, “I want some of whatever he’s on.”

But, as the Stones release their high-octane LP Foreign Tongues, Ronnie can also claim to have some of that “youthful energy”.

“I’m the same as Mick,” he tells me. “I’m a Gemini, I’m pulling in all directions — and I’m just loving it.”

serving glam

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J-LO CUT

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By that, he means his ongoing endeavours with the Stones, his work as a highly skilled portrait artist and the not-so-small matter of his first solo tour in years, beginning next week in Austria on a bill with Van Morrison.

Not to mention being husband to wife Sally and dad to their ten-year-old twin daughters Gracie Jane and Alice Rose.

Ronnie continues: “I just love to be inspired and putting my ideas into action — whether it’s on a canvas or through my guitar or harmonica or whatever I’m playing.

“And I even try my hand at singing every now and again!”

Right now, says Ronnie, “I’m in my art studio preparing an exhibition and I’m getting rehearsals together with my band.

“I even had a little rehearsal with Mick because we’re keeping our hands in, keeping our chops together. So, it’s all go.”

The main purpose of our chat is, of course, all things Stones but you’ll hear more about his extra-curricular activities later.

I discover that Ronnie has a wonderfully old-school approach to tech — none of that new-fangled Zoom stuff for him — so he calls me on the dog and bone.

Which means that I have to go half way up a steep hill on the Cornish coast, not far from Land’s End, in an attempt to get decent signal.

Thankfully, the guitar legend comes through loud and clear — and full of enthusiasm.

First, he explains why the Stones have another new studio album of original material in the bag so soon after 2023’s Hackney Diamonds.

(If you remember, the previous one, A Bigger Bang, came out in 2005.)

He replies that American producer Andrew Watt “hadn’t finished with us and we hadn’t finished with him”.

“We just sparked the fire that was already cooking with Hackney Diamonds.”

Ronnie is quick to praise the 35-year-old producer with bleach-blond hair who has worked with Paul McCartney, Ozzy Osbourne, Lady Gaga and Post Malone.

“We’re on to a good one there,” he says. “The Stones haven’t had someone with so much input since Jimmy Miller.”

Praise indeed because Miller produced a stellar run of consecutive albums — Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main St and Goat’s Head Soup — between 1968 and 1973.

Ronnie adds: “Andrew’s a big fan of ours and he knows what he’s talking about. He can play different instruments and knows my guitar playing better than I do.”

So what was the catalyst for Foreign Tongues? “We had a few tracks like Covered In You left over,” replies Ronnie.

“But basically we started reworking all these songs that Mick had been kicking around, some with Keith, and some by himself. Mick would come to us, saying, ‘Look, I’ve got this idea — let’s develop it’.

“The Stones are his plaything, so I just let him take the helm and get on with it. It’s great.”

Key to the success of Foreign Tongues, a big beast of an album with 14 tracks spanning 63 minutes, was a gathering in London to bring the project to fruition.

Ronnie explains: “We started working in New York at Electric Lady, then we took it to Henson studio in LA and messed around with it there — but we finished off the whole thing at Metropolis in Chiswick.

“It was a great feeling to be in London, to go down to the studio that was not far [from where I live] with all the boys there.”

Ronnie wallowed in the “great studio atmosphere” and was particularly chuffed to have an old mucker like Steve Winwood on board — “he was so lovely”.

Steve, who plays organ or piano on nine of the Foreign Tongues songs, came to prominence in the early Sixties as a fresh-faced teenager in The Spencer Davis Group.

Stints in Traffic and Blind Faith were followed by his hugely successful solo career with hit Eighties albums including Arc Of A Diver and Back In The High Life.

Ronnie says: “The Americans had Little Stevie Wonder and Britain had Little Stevie Winwood.

“I first met him at The Ship pub on Wardour Street and he’s one of the only musicians from my era who’s younger than me.” (Ronnie was born in 1947 and Steve a year later.)

Back in the day, The Ship was one of Ronnie’s favourite haunts because of its proximity to fabled music venues like The 100 Club and The Marquee.

He says: “I used to meet all the musicians in this packed little pub. Just up the road, I met Rod Stewart for the first time in the Intrepid Fox. He came up to me and went, ‘Hello Face!’ ”

They bonded over their mod-style haircuts, as you do, and soon started playing music together, first in The Jeff Beck Group and then, from 1969, The Faces.

In 1975, Ronnie left The Faces to land the job he’d dreamed of since he was a teenager — to become a member of the most rock and roll band on the planet, the Rolling Stones.

His first album as a full-time member with them was 1978’s Some Girls, a sleazy tour de force featuring some dazzling Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood guitar interplay, most notably on the ballad Beast Of Burden.

Which brings us neatly back to Foreign Tongues because it is drawing comparisons with that classic LP.

Ronnie says: “We like to keep the youthful feel we had in Paris when we were doing Some Girls and Emotional Rescue. There was a lot of energy on Respectable and Summer Romance, all those mad songs . . . and we still have that kind of energy going.

“I call this Foreign Tongues album ‘more solos for me, thanks Mick’ and he loves it.”

So which songs feature Ronnie solos? I venture. “There’s one on Back In Your Life which everyone seems to like,” he answers. “It’s the last one I did and there’s a lot of feeling there.

“I also enjoyed doing solos on Mr Charm, Side Effects, In The Stars and Hit Me On The Head.

“And there are lots of songs I loved to jam on, with me and Keith bouncing off each other.”

Hit Me On The Head is one of the few tracks saved from the Hackney Diamonds sessions, a breathless three-minute blast featuring much-missed drummer Charlie Watts.

Ronnie says: “We’ve got a few Charlie tracks saved and it’s lovely to keep his memory going with these little reminders.”

He adds that Steve Jordan, the powerhouse American drummer who stepped in after Charlie died in 2021 “loved Charlie so much and to pay tribute to him on Hackney Diamonds and Foreign Tongues is so great”.

I ask Ronnie which of the other new tracks he’s fond of.

He says: “I love Rough And Twisted which reminds me of my old Faces days — a modern-day blues.”

And he singles out yearning country song Ringing Hollow, which he and Mick gave a debut live airing to at this week’s album launch party in London.

“That’s a great one,” he says. “It reminds me of the songs inspired by the Stones’ first visits to America like Dead Flowers [also performed at the party], Wild Horses and Sweet Virginia.”

Ronnie’s a big fan of the Let It Bleed track Country Honk, a rustic, fiddle-drenched take on Honky Tonk Women, which he’s promising to play with his solo band at his forthcoming shows.

He says: “I’m a big fan of Merle Haggard and Hank Williams along with Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters — a little mix of country and blues.”

This brings us to the raw and authentic cover of Berry’s Beautiful Delilah, which closes Foreign Tongues, done in the style of Mississippi Fred McDowell.

Just Mick and Keith on 12-string guitars with empathetic drumming from Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith. As with so many musicians of Ronnie’s generation, Berry was a massive influence.

“I used to have a dance in my bedroom when I was a kid,” he recalls. “Then I’d learn the solos just by ear.

“I was so inspired by this mystery man from America. In those days, you never saw a picture of Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf or Jimmy Reed.

“When you did, it was like, ‘Wow!’ Like aliens come to life. Then, when I grew up, I got to hang out with them. It was a dream come true.

“Chuck came up to me once when I was on stage with him and said, ‘Where did you get that riff from?’ And I said, ‘From you!’ He nearly fell over.”

Next, we move on to Ronnie’s solo tour, organised because a gap appeared after the Stones ruled out live dates after Keith announced he was stepping back from touring.

He’ll be performing material from his storied life in music that includes The Jeff Beck Group, The Faces, the Stones and solo work — much of it gathered up in his recent retrospective album Fearless.

Ronnie will sing Seven Days, “the song Bob Dylan gave me, one of the special moments in my musical career.”

He will be reuniting with drummer Andy Newmark and bassist Willie Weeks for the first time in 50 years — “they’re playing as great as ever”.

His jaunts will take to Lucca in Italy, London’s Kentish Town Forum, Zurich, Cologne, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Lisbon. It all starts at an open-air shindig on the Royal Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on August 23, headlined by blues maestro Eric Clapton.

Ronnie adds: “Eric said, ‘Hey Ron, get a band together and come and join me at Sandringham!’

“That’s what spurred me on. I thought, ‘Wow! While I’m at it, I may as well get my favourite girl singers like Imelda May and Chanel Haynes’.”

If Stones and solo work wasn’t enough, Ronnie gives me an update on the mouthwatering prospect of a new Faces album — a further reunion with Rod Stewart after last year’s Glastonbury outing for Stay With Me.

“Rod loves what’s going on with us,” he says. “He has so much respect for the Stones and he’s gone his own Hollywood merry way.

“But we’ve been putting our heads together and rejoining the dots and getting some Faces stuff together again.

“Next year, we’re going to get stuck in and finish these tracks. We’ve got a lot on the hob and we’ll stir them up.”

Lastly, Ronnie reflects on the enduring appeal of both the Rolling Stones and The Beatles more than 60 years after they began their journeys.

Having just released his Andrew Watt-produced solo album The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, Paul McCartney returns on Foreign Tongues song Covered In You, following his bass cameo on Hackney Diamonds track Bite My Head Off.

Ronnie says: “I was just out with Paul recently and he was going, ‘Ron, ain’t it wonderful that we can still give this and keep making people happy. That’s what we do!’

“I said, ‘It’s so great Paul’, and he gave me a hug. He’s such a lovely man.

“We have that spirit going around in the Stones as well. There’s a lot of love there and a lot of respect.”

THE ROLLING STONES – Foreign Tongues

★★★★★

THE Rolling Stones and Amy Winehouse — somehow it was a match made it heaven.

On June 10, 2007, the original rock and roll miscreants invited the supremely gifted but wayward singer on stage at the Isle Of Wight Festival.

Amy was all the rage that summer with her second (and final) album Back To Black riding high in the charts. Britain and the world had taken her songs to their hearts — Rehab, You Know I’m No Good, Tears Dry On Their Own and Love Is A Losing Game among them.

At the festival, Amy wore a pristine white shirt, skinny black jeans, a chunky belt, ballet flats and THAT towering beehive.

She looked every inch at home next to the man with all the moves, Mick Jagger — a lean, sinewy T-shirted figure in an all-black outfit.

Together, they belted out a wild rendition of The Temptations’ soul classic Ain’t Too Proud To Beg.

Together, they perfectly captured the rebellious spirit of rock and roll.

When Amy died four years later aged just 27, the world lost a generational talent — a sultry, emotionally wrought voice for the ages.

Now, in 2026, the Stones are releasing a cover of Amy’s You Know I’m No Good on their vibrant, age- defying 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues.

I’ve had the chance to speak to guitarist and lovable rogue Ronnie Wood about the song, his close friendship with Amy — and all things related to the eclectic 14-track album.

By Stones standards, it’s a rapid-fire follow-up to 2023’s Hackney ­Diamonds and a freewheeling ­confection of rock, soul, dance, country, blues and balladry.

“We just loved to pay tribute to Amy because she was such a jewel,” Ronnie says with typical warmth.

“A very lost jewel in the jewellery box but she was wonderful.”

At the time of Isle Of Wight, Ronnie was still battling alcohol addiction himself and he discovered an immediate bond with troubled Amy.

“We came back on the ferry together and had such a laugh,” he recalls. “Then shortly before Amy died, I had a real in-depth [chat] with her in the garden of a hotel in Rio.

“She was asking me, ‘Oh Ron, what am I going to do? And I was going, ‘Don’t worry because everyone knows you’ve got vodka in your water bottle. Just don’t hide it and try to go on stage tonight.

“Her band pleaded with me. They went, ‘Ronnie, please get her to go on — she’s trying to pull out of the gig.’ Anyway, I talked her through stuff and she did go on.”

“Amy needed a carer all the time otherwise she went off the rails, which of course she did.”

I ask Ronnie where Amy ­Winehouse should be placed in the pantheon of great female singers, past and present.

“There are some lovely singers around,” he answers. “They arrive in spasms. Chanel Haynes from my band is great — she played Tina Turner [in the stage musical] and really has the essence of Tina. I also like Jessie J.

“But Amy was like Billie Holiday. She had that once-in-a-lifetime deep blues. It’s a pity she was her own worst enemy.”

Of the Stones’ rousing rendition of You Know I’m No Good, Ronnie says: “I love the way Mick has put the harmonica over the brass riff.”

Mick himself reflected on the song this week at an intimate fan playback at Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, West London, where much of Foreign Tongues was recorded.

“We decided we wanted to cover this Amy Winehouse song. We do it in the same key as her. There’s a well-known horn lick on that record and I thought, ‘Yeah, I can do that. I’ll do it on the harmonica.”

Mick is accompanied by Ronnie but minus Keith Richards, who’s at home in the States and sends a video message saying “god bless you all”.

Wearing a floral shirt beneath a black leather jacket despite the heat outside, Mick, the planet’s most sprightly octogenarian, is in expansive mood. He saunters into the room and greets the assembled throng from countries far and wide with a World Cup quip, “Apologies to anyone from Mexico!” Cue much laughter.

With his face wreathed in smiles, he peers around the sound-proofed room and says: “We had a lot of fun making this record in this very room.

“It didn’t look quite like this,” he adds before waving his arms in ­different directions.

“The drums were over there, Ronnie was there, I was there, Keith was there.” Ronnie also can’t help a reference to important football matters when he describes the band’s preparations for the sessions at Metropolis.

“We had a lot of rehearsals — a bit like practising for the World Cup — at Electric Lady Studios in New York and on the West Coast at Jim Henson’s studios.”

The subject soon moves on to how the Stones have kept going nearly 65 years after Jagger and Richards met on Platform 2 of Dartford railway station and decided to be in a band together.

Listen to Foreign Tongues and you’ll be astonished by Mick’s still jaw-dropping range.

So how does he keep his most precious instrument — his vocal cords — in shape?

He says: “With other instruments, you can see them — a guitar, a piano — but you can’t see your vocal cords.

“So, you can’t say, ‘Oh they look really good today, I’ll do this.’

“If anything goes wrong, the doctor has to look at them. You have to keep them in shape like a muscle.” How does Ronnie keep his fingers nimble enough to dance across the fretboard? “There are exercises for the hands,” he replies. “And I put arnica [a herbal remedy] on them because they can hurt a lot.”

Mick says: “The thing with Ronnie is that he’s very good because he doesn’t stop playing, either with another band or doing his own gigs.”

This helps explain why Ronnie’s guitar work is a prominent feature of Foreign Tongues.

“When the first mix was finished, Ronnie came to my house and I played him the whole record,” reveals Mick. “I said, ‘So, what do you think Ron?’ And he said, ‘I didn’t really get any solos.’”

That comment was a classic piece of Ronnie mischief because, as Mick points out, “No one else gets a guitar solo on the record apart from Ronnie!

“I get a harmonica solo but Keith doesn’t really get a solo,” he adds before turning to his bandmate and asking, ‘Why is that, Ronnie?’ Ronnie gives a knowing smirk and says: “Keith told me, ‘Anyone can play a solo, it’s the riff that matters!’

“And I said, ‘OK, you’ve done the groundwork there but I’ve got the icing on the cake.”’

This brings us to a wider discussion about the Foreign Tongues sessions which prompts Ronnie to chip in with: “We’re much more civilised than we used to be.”

Mick picks up the thread: “I’m always the last to arrive. I’m not sure how that happens.

“We usually start about half past three and finish at about ten, ­having agreed the night before what we’re going to do.”

Ronnie salutes producer Andrew Watt, the live-wire American ­producer who helmed Hackney Diamonds and Paul McCartney’s recent album, The Boys Of ­Dungeon Lane. “We need someone to boss us around, and Andrew did that.”

Mick interjects: “Otherwise, it would all fall to bits! So we’re very pleased that Andrew herds us into doing it.”

Ronnie comes back in with a very telling comment: “Mick never lets anything fall to bits because the Rolling Stones is his baby — and he won’t let anything destroy that.”

The Stones’ approach these days clearly has something to do with the fact they’re all sober.

Yet Foreign Tongues has drawn comparisons to 1978’s Some Girls, Ronnie’s first album as a full-time member — recorded when things were far less civilised.

For instance, the disco-inflected Jealous Lover, with Mick still able to produce his best falsetto, is reminiscent of Miss You. Elsewhere, the band summons the raw energy of Respectable or Shattered.

The frontman sifts through the mists of time to the sessions at Pathé Marconi in Paris: “In the late Seventies, I’d have to dig Ronnie and Keith out of a late-night pizza place. I’d go in there at 1am and say, ‘It’s time for the studio, lads!’

“And poor Bill Wyman [bassist] had been in the studio since six o’clock waiting for us.

“We’d get there at 2am and we’d leave at eight. We’d run into the factory workers getting their ­morning coffees.”

Ronnie laughs: “We played for so long back in those days that Bill would have a sleep, come back and we’d still be playing.”

With the album out tomorrow, Mick is asked about his hopes for a good reception for Foreign Tongues. It prompts a comparison with an album many regard as the Stones’ finest, released in 1972.

With 14 new songs about to be unleashed, he accepts that it’s “a lot of music” and says: “It’s longer than Exile On Main St. When that came out, reviewers generally said things like, “It’s kind of rambling and all over the place.”

“It was too much for people to take in all at once. But, from the reviews I’ve seen, we are getting very good ones [for Foreign Tongues].

The album is notable for guest appearances — Steve Winwood, The Cure’s Robert Smith and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith.

One song, the “punky” Hit Me In The Head features the late effortlessly cool Stones drummer Charlie Watts. Mick explains: “People would say, ‘Charlie’s such a subtle drummer, he loves jazz — you can hear that soft touch.

“Well, not on this one. This one sounds banging, banging, banging — very punk. We recorded it in 2021.”

In my chat with Ronnie, he talks about Paul McCartney’s bass playing on Covered In You, reprising his role on Hackney Diamonds track Bite My Head Off.

He says: “Oh Paul was so lovely.  He said playing with the Stones was one of his biggest ambitions. He loved it, like a kid in a toy shop.”

He remembers how in The Beatles and Stones’ early days, he was a bystander in a band called The Birds,” but told himself that one day he would join Mick, Keith and co.

Why the Stones? “Because I’m more of a jazzer and a bluesman,” he replies. “I respected The Beatles’ music, their adventurousness, but I liked the funk and the women around the Stones.

“I thought, ‘That looks like a good job.’ Then, like a jigsaw, all the pieces fell into place.”

Finally, I beg the question: Is there’s more in the tank from the world’s greatest rock and roll band?

“There is, but what we’ve got to do is survive!” says Ronnie.

ROLLING STONES

Foreign Tongues

★★★★★

AS Mick Jagger says, this is “a lot of music.”

But over 14 tracks, the Stones have a blast.

There’s the ragged majesty of Rough And Twisted, the dance floor-primed Jealous Lover, the politically charged Mr Charm, the country twang of Ringing Hollow, the three-minute punk mayhem of Hit Me In The Head, a yearning Keith Richards lead vocal on Some Of Us and the raw delta blues of Chuck Berry’s Beautiful Delilah.

At times, it needs to be a little rougher around the edges, but this high-energy album is nothing short of a miracle from rock and roll’s great survivors.   

The bass legend and superproducer Don Was didn’t expect to be covering Curtis Mayfield’s Civil Rights-era anthem “This Is My Country” on the road in 2026. But lately, the chaos in the United States made the song seem regrettably apropos.

“It wasn’t supposed to still feel potent. It was supposed to be something that served a moment,” said Was, who included the defiant single on his 2025 album “Groove In the Face of Adversity.”

“It’s shocking to be here in 2026 and, whatever distance we traveled from 1966 until now, to see it all get reset,” Was said. “That song’s a more powerful statement now than it was then. It was inconceivable that it would still be relevant — this is supposed to be the utopian age of Aquarius. This is not the way it was supposed to turn out.”

Was remembers the tumult, violence and hope that came out of that era in his hometown of Detroit. The city’s music, famed for rough-hewn virtuosity from blues to soul to techno, is the spring that waters “Adversity.” It is, remarkably, the 73-year-old’s first solo album after a career spanning the pioneering electro-pop band Was (Not Was) and deep producer relationships with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt.

He also spent years in Bob Weir & Wolf Bros with the late Grateful Dead founder, and will play from the Dead’s landmark “Blues for Allah” on his tour that stops at Lodge Room on July 7.

With a backing band of studio killers dubbed the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, “Adversity” has an expansive modern atmosphere, yet a lived-in, filament-bulb quality in the playing that carries through funk, jazz, rock and R&B. It’s largely a covers record, but you wouldn’t know it from the depth of the revisions — veering from the Yusef Lateef standard “Nubian Lady” to Hank Williams’ “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time,” closing with funk group Cameo’s “Insane.”

“I’ve been carrying it around in my head for 30 years,” Was said. “This first album to me is really a handshake, a ‘nice to meet you,’ this jambalaya of Detroit sounds.” While much of the source material comes from elsewhere, the cumulative mood is extremely personal to an artist who has spent his life helping the greats find true expression.

“I’ve come to admire artists who are willing to go in deep inside their most personal thoughts for the sake of helping the listener understand their own lives,” he said. “To help them deal with the trauma of being human — especially in these times, man.”

Tops on that list is the late Grateful Dead founder Bob Weir — who died in January at 78 — as a model for a band staying fearless and uncompromising. Was, still heartbroken about the loss of his friend and bandmate, recalled their first time on tour.

“When Bobby called asking me to play bass with the Wolf Bros, I thought at the very least, this is going to be a master class in losing self-consciousness and forgetting about fear,” Was said. “If the band stumbled, the audience wouldn’t walk out. They appreciated the fact that you were trying to do something new for them. Then there’d be a couple moments every night with an incredible exchange between the musicians and you can feel the audience becoming a member of the band.”

Playing the Dead’s “Blues for Allah” on this tour — an LP rooted in Middle Eastern scales, pirouetting time signatures and improvisational telepathy — put him in communion with his old friend.

“I used to think that songs like ‘King Solomon’s Marbles’ were just jams and conversations on the spot. But when we really got into it, there’s a form underneath and you can take tremendous liberty with that form,” Was said.

Was’ production career was built on a similar principle.

His early band Was (Not Was) remains a visionary electro-pop act with subtle, salient politics. “Out Come the Freaks” is a favorite on Pride month dance floors — “If you just wanted to do poppers and dance all night, it worked, and if you wanted to think about the government careening out of control, it worked too,” Was said of the band’s club material.

The late Ozzy Osbourne sang on the band’s international hit “Shake Your Head,” alongside a winking, very game Kim Basinger. The actor was a replacement after Madonna backed out, leaving the proto-rave tune one of the era’s most unlikely collaborations.

He recalled Ozzy fondly. “In 1975, this folk group I was in booked us to open for Black Sabbath at the Toledo Sports Arena, playing for a bunch of 14-year-old white boys on amphetamines,” Was said. “They weren’t having it. I’ve heard the tape of that show, and the drummer was bleeding from being hit by so many bottles that we had to stop playing. That was my first exposure to Ozzy, so I was a little afraid to do the session, but he was up for an adventure.”

Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble

(Gemma Corfield)

A Stones confidant and producer from 1994’s “Voodoo Lounge” up until 2023’s “Hackney Diamonds” (where Andrew Watt took the helm), Was had nothing but praise for the band, and still admits to a twinge of fandom in their presence.

“There’s never been a day in the studio with the Rolling Stones where I didn’t look around the room and go, ‘Oh my God,’” he said. “I’ve known Mick for over 30 years, but the last time they played L.A. at SoFi Stadium, Mick came walking down that stage and I was like, ‘Wow, there he is, it’s 1965 again.’”

With Dylan, he recalled the mercurial genius’ impish side. “I was producing Dylan, and George Harrison came in to play guitar. Bob was messing with him, Bob pushed the engineer aside and he ran the tape machine. George had never heard the song before, didn’t know what key it was in, and Bob just starts the tape. George played a respectable solo, but clearly it was rough. Bob, just to be funny, stopped the machine and said ‘That’s it, perfect.’ George turns to me and said, ‘What do you think, Don?’ And Bob goes, “Yeah, what do you think, Don?’ I’m looking at these two guys and time slowed down. I remembered trying to sell my car to get a ticket to go to New York to see the Concert for Bangladesh. Now they’re asking me what I think. I was paralyzed.”

“A voice appeared in my head,” he said, “Telling me, ‘He’s not paying you to be a fan.‘ So I said to George, ‘It was good, man. Let’s see if we can beat it.’ You can’t allow the iconography to dictate the outcome in the studio. You have to put that aside.”

As president of Blue Note Records, the estimable jazz label he’s led for more than a decade, Was relentlessly looks forward. He’s released restless modern records by Domi & JD Beck, Fathers, Makaya McCraven and Julian Lage (the hotshot jazz guitarist now playing with Dylan). He’s refreshingly optimistic about challenging music in streaming’s ruthless economy.

“Don’t make music for the delivery system,” Was said. “I don’t think about streaming, I think about touching people. If you do that, nothing has changed fundamentally in the music business. If your purpose is to get under people’s skin and make them feel something, that’s the same job it was for Mozart. How people listen can keep changing, but I don’t think the palette of human emotion changes, and that’s who you’re addressing.”

Was came from a working-class industrial city, making music reflective of Detroit’s technological upheaval and economic neglect. “Adversity” is a beacon to keep playing in spite of everything.

“I think that the salvation of musicians is that no matter what happens, what technological advancements come along, there’s still nothing like the experience of being in the same room as people who are playing together,” Was said. “It’s always been tough, man. It’s harder these days to buy a Ferrari as a musician, but I don’t know that that’s necessary. I have total confidence that the opportunity is there for anybody who is willing to give the audience a meaningful experience.”

A LITTLE-known band were left totally gobsmacked after a rock legend turned up in the audience at one of their shows.

The Rolling Stones cover band were playing to a small crowd in a bar when the iconic musician revealed himself as a fan, dancing alone in the bar.

The mystery figure was none other than Noughties nu-metal megastar Fred Durst, frontman of Limp Bizkit.

Fellow punters couldn’t believe their eyes and quickly pulled out their phones to capture the surreal moment as the Rollin’ singer rocked out to their set.

Musician Jenny Teator, who was singing on stage shared the clip on TikTok, writing: “This was unexpected. Get it, Fredddd!! We had so much fun at @GRAYSonMAIN.”

The unlikely scene unfolded at Grays on Main, a bustling music venue and dining room in downtown Franklin, Tennessee – the town Fred now calls home.

rock of ages

Can YOU tell who this 90s rock icon is? Fans say he looks like Richard Gere!

doped up

Shaggy 2 Dope fails as he tries to dropkick Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst on stage

The star looked almost unrecognisable with a full white beard, although he still sported the signature baseball cap fans will remember from the band’s heyday.

Other diners appeared oblivious to the famous face in their midst, continuing with their meals unaware they were in the company of rock royalty.

One viewer commented: “The people sitting there eating, completely unbothered that Fred Durst is getting down right beside them, is killllling me!”

Fred and Limp Bizkit were one of the biggest bands of the late Nineties and early Noughties, with hits including Break Stuff, My Way and Rollin’.

Their album Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavoured Water debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold over one million copies in its first week.

The singer was also linked to a string of high-profile romances, including rumoured relationships with pop stars Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne. He has been married four times and has two children.

Despite stepping out of the spotlight in recent years, Fred, now 55, continues to record and perform with Limp Bizkit.

Limp Bizkit’s last official UK tour was last year, with the band appearing at the Reading and Leeds festivals.

Besides continuing to tour and perform with the band, Fred has made his mark as a film director with movies like The Education of Charlie Banks and The Longshots.

He also directed the film The Franatic in 2019 which starred John Travolta.

ROCKER Ronnie Wood has got satisfaction on his birthday today – after being surprised with a classic red phone box from his wife.

The Rolling Stones legend was gifted the timeless telephone booth by his honky tonk woman Sally Humphreys to mark his 79th birthday.

The original British Telecom K6 phone box, costing some £5,000, did the moonlight mile as it was delivered to his country estate in Little Gaddesden, Herts.

The fixture means the former hard-partying icon won’t be going off the hook anymore.

Wood married his current wife, theatre producer Sally, 48, in 2012 and welcomed their twin daughters just four years later.

Speaking to Hello! Magazine he said: “Any time I’m with her and the girls, that’s the best for me, nothing tops it.

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“When the twins come into our bed and we’re all snuggled up together, that, for me, is wonderful. My idea of heaven.

“It’s special. The girls are so cuddly and gorgeous. I’m a lucky man.”

A source said Ronnie is celebrating his birthday at his holiday home in Barcelona.

THEY are set to release their new album Foreign Tongues in July — and it seems The Rolling Stones could also be heading to foreign shores.

After abandoning plans to hit the road on a UK and European tour this summer, I can reveal that Start Me Up hitmakers Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood are now looking into playing five nights in Buenos Aires, Argentina, next year.

A source told me: “The band are discussing options for a residency.

“They love the thrill of doing a huge stadium tour around the globe, but the physical demands are immense.

“A residency would mean they can still bring their best to the fans, without the toll that comes with travelling.”

This summer would have been the rockers’ first string of live performances since their Hackney Diamonds tour in the States in 2024 — which sold almost one million tickets.

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A US music critic has said that Keith told bandmates Mick and Ronnie he couldn’t commit to their UK and European trek’s planned shows.

The band will release their new 14-track album on July 10 after recording it at Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, West London, over four intense weeks.

It features a cover of the song You Know I’m No Good by Amy Winehouse, who Mick performed with at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2007, four years before she died aged 27.

The track Hit Me In The Head includes old recordings in LA with the late Stones drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021, aged 80.

In April, the band released album track Rough And Twisted on vinyl under pseudonym, The Cockroaches.

Earlier this month, at the launch in New York, Mick confirmed the newrecord spans a number of genres, saying: “We have the ability to do ballads, country and dance music.”

He added: “It’s not stuck in one ­particular style.”

I can’t wait to hear it.

FROM 10 TO THE ONE

DECEMBER 10 are the latest Gen-Z heartthrobs ­– but Danny Bretherton is set to break fans’ hearts, as I can reveal he is dating influencer Tallulah Metcalfe.

The singer has even introduced her to his family in Chorley, Lancs.

A source said: “Danny has been spending lots of time with Tallulah. He is very family-orientated so taking her to meet his family was a big deal.”

This month, Tallulah shared a TikTok of her and Danny dancing in the street to his band’s song Infinity (123), captioned: “Look who I bumped into.”

Seems Danny has a new No1.

BIOPIC BOYLE

SUSAN BOYLE is working on a biopic, I have heard.

The film will chart her rise to global fame from her humble beginnings in Scotland to appearing on Britain’s Got Talent in 2009.

It comes as the singer is planning a comeback with new music.

A source confirmed: “Susan is working on a film and is hoping that a streamer will snap it up.”

I wonder who SuBo, above, has in mind to play her?

Raising awareness

ROXY HORNER is turning her hand to documentaries.

The model, who married comic Jack Whitehall last month, is believed to be in talks with a company to make a film about living with Type 1 diabetes, which she was diagnosed with in 2021.

A source said: “Roxy has been amazing at raising awareness of living with the chronic condition.

“She now wants to delve deeper and speak to experts.”

Shakira’s miami mini break

SHAKIRA looked her very zest as she stepped out in a bright orange outfit.

The Colombian singer flaunted her toned legs in a mini dress at Miami Swim Week.

She was attending an event on Thursday for her haircare brand Isima.

We’ll soon be humming Shakira’s track Dai Dai, the official anthem for the 2026 Fifa World Cup that she made with Burna Boy.

KELLY SET FOR MIGHTY COMEBACK

KELLY OSBOURNE is preparing for her first performance since dad Ozzy died last year.

The TV presenter and singer will join headliners Scissor Sisters at Mighty Hoopla festival in South London’s Brockwell Park today.

A source said: “Kelly is excited to get back on stage and doing it with the Scissor Sisters is a huge honour.”

Black Sabbath legend Ozzy passed away last July, with Kelly and her mum Sharon Osbourne honouring him at The Brit Awards.

Kelly and Sharon accepted the Lifetime Achievement gong for Ozzy at Manchester’s Co-Op Live arena in February.

Speaking to Biz on Sunday’s Emily at the ceremony, Kelly said: “A Lifetime Achievement award is such an honour, I couldn’t think of anyone else more deserving.

“It’s bittersweet.”

I am sure Ozzy would be proud of Kelly today.

Heidi hi, Nat & Nic

HALF of All Saints performed as Appleton at the Mighty Hoopla yesterday.

Nicole and Natalie Appleton took to the stage at the festival in Brockwell Park, South East London, in their typical cool girl style of tracksuits.

Nicole said: “Guys, you have to realise it’s been quite a long time that Nat and I have sung as Appleton.

“But we are so emotional that it’s our first festival.”

Nicole, left, and Natalie, right, were joined by their pal and ex-Sugababes member Heidi Range, centre, for a surprise performance.

Gene, Nicole’s son with ex Liam Gallagher, watched from the side of the stage along with Nat’s hubby, Liam Howlett from The Prodigy.

The duo release Ready To Begin next month, and their Appleton EP will be out in September.

Welcome back, ladies.

It’s go for pro with ex

HE failed to find The One on Channel 4’s Celebs Go Dating, but it seems Professor Green is back with his ex Karima McAdams.

I am told the couple who have five-year-old son Slimane, have been taking things slowly after their split in 2024.

Karima shared an Instagram snap of the lad with Pro Green – real name Stephen Manderson – referring to the chart star as her “partner”.

Explaining her little boy had a suspected wrist fracture after falling from a zipwire, she said: “Son is coming back in plaster and partner medium rare.”
Looks like the rapper is back in the game . . . 

THE Beatles and the Rolling Stones both launched their latest albums yesterday – on separate continents. 

It was a case of let’s attend the knights together in honour of British rock royalty, Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Mick Jagger. 

At London’s fabled Abbey Road Studios, where the Fab Four recorded nearly all their songs, Macca held a lunchtime listening party for his latest LP, The Boys Of Dungeon Lane (out May 29). 

Then, in New York City hours later, Sixties chart rivals Jagger and Keith Richards as well as the later arrival to the ranks, Ronnie Wood, were seen strolling out of a Brooklyn theatre at the launch of their album, Foreign Tongues (out July 10). 

In a neat twist, Sir Paul plays bass on new Stones track Covered In You, recorded at the same session as his contribution to Bite My Head Off from 2023’s Hackney Diamonds. 

And BOTH albums were produced by American hotshot producer Andrew Watt, known for work with Ozzy Osbourne and Lady Gaga. 

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Before a select audience of fans and “my lovely son James” in Studio No2, McCartney, 83, introduced all fourteen tracks on his heartfelt 21st studio effort. 

For nearly two hours, he filled the time with fascinating anecdotes, playing select chords on his acoustic guitar and even mouthing some of the lyrics.  

Many songs have nostalgia-filled backstories, including As You Lie There about unrequited love for a girl called Jasmine. 

The “trippy” Mountain Top recalls Glastonbury, where he headlined in 2022, while Down South is about hitchhiking trips to Wales with George Harrison. 

Elsewhere, there’s a first-ever duet with fellow Beatle Ringo Starr on new single Home To Us, also featuring Chrissie Hynde and Sharleen Spiteri. Salesman Saint is a moving tribute to Macca’s parents, Jim and Mary. 

Meanwhile, the Stones also heralded their album with the release of a single, In The Stars, the follow-up to Rough & Twisted, a limited edition vinyl single which appeared under a pseudonym, The Cockroaches. 

Then Oscars host Conan O’Brien hosted a Q&A session with Mick and Keith, both 82, and Ronnie, 78. 

Besides McCartney, other guests on Foreign Tongues (also 14 songs) include The Cure’s Robert Smith on three tracks and Steve Winwood. 

THE Rolling Stones have teamed up with The Cure’s Robert Smith for their new album Foreign Tongues.

Insiders told The Sun that Friday, I’m In Love singer Robert, 67, had recorded three tracks in secret with Sir Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood in London.

Tonight, The Stones will unveil the details of Foreign Tongues, out July 10, at a party in New York .

Sir Paul McCartney, who played bass on Bite My Head Off from The Stones’ 2023 No1 album Hackney Diamonds, is also on the new record.

A source said: “Robert secretly recorded with The Stones in Metropolis Studios in London.

“He plays guitar and synth, and did backing vocals for three of the tracks.

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“The Stones were really pleased with how the songs came out.

“Paul will appear on the album again too. They’ve had this album wrapped for a while now and The Stones are excited about releasing it to their fans.”

This afternoon, the British music legends released the first single from Foreign Tongues, In The Stars.

Hackney Diamonds, which was The Stones’ first original studio album in 18 years when it was released back in 2023, went straight to the top spot.

And Mick and co have been working hard to make sure there is just as much of a buzz around Foreign Tongues.

They kicked off their campaign by reverting back to being The Cockroaches- a moniker they used for surprise, intimate performances in the Seventies and Eighties – and dropped a track called Rough And Twisted last month.

The Stones released a limited number of vinyl copies of the song, which are so rare they’re now being flogged for over £1000 online.

And they pulled in the big guns for their first music video for the record, by enlisting Hollywood rising star Odessa A’Zion to appear in the production.

This evening, Oscars host Conan O’Brien hosted a Q and A session with Mick and Keith, both 82, and Ronnie, 78, in New York.