The Rolling Stones have never been strangers to reinvention—but in their 60th year, something changed. For the first time since 2005, they released an album of all-new material, Hackney Diamonds, and embarked on a worldwide tour sponsored, ironically, by AARP. The message? They’re not retiring. Not now. Maybe not ever.
In an intimate feature with CBS Sunday Morning, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood opened up about the band’s creative rebirth, the heartbreak of losing drummer Charlie Watts, and the deeper reasons they’re still out there doing what they love. “We’re not just a band,” Richards said with a raspy laugh, “We’re a way of life.”
Recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York, the album marks a deliberate comeback. “We said, let’s blitz it,” Jagger recalled. “We had a deadline, and we did what we said we’d do.” That discipline—so rare in rock and roll—is part of what’s kept the Stones rolling.
The process wasn’t just about writing new songs—it was about finding new meaning. The lead single, “Angry,” started as a quiet idea strummed alone by Jagger in the Caribbean. But it evolved the way all great Stones songs do: through collaboration, argument, and magic. “You kick each other in the ass,” Richards said. “That’s what we do.”
But Hackney Diamonds carries a heavier emotional weight. Charlie Watts, the band’s heartbeat since 1963, passed away in 2021. His death hit hard. “Of course it’s emotional,” Richards admitted, eyes briefly lowering. “But you have to get past that in life. I still want to make music. And I think Charlie would’ve wanted that too.”
The album features two tracks with Watts, including one that reunites him with original bassist Bill Wyman, who left the group in 1993. “It felt right,” said Jagger. “Charlie was on it, so we brought Bill back for that song. Like coming full circle.”
Ronnie Wood, now 77 and still the youngest member of the band, balances his dual life as a painter and guitarist. After every show, he creates hand-painted setlists—part performance log, part artwork. “It’s like a living memoir,” he said. “It keeps the memories alive.”
Despite their age—both Jagger and Richards recently turned 80—the Stones aren’t looking back. In fact, they refuse to write memoirs. “Why spend two years living in the past?” Jagger quipped. “That doesn’t appeal to me.” Instead, they live each moment, fueled by creativity and connection.
So what keeps them going? According to Richards, it’s simple: “We love each other. We love the music. And when you’ve gone this far, you can’t just drop it. You follow it all the way down the tunnel.”
As the cameras panned to packed stadiums and roaring crowds, it became clear: The Rolling Stones are more than a rock band. They’re a testament to resilience, to enduring friendship, to the unbreakable bond between artist and art.
Charlie Watts may be gone, but his spirit lives on in every beat, every riff, and every note they play. The Stones are still rolling—not because they have to, but because, after all these years, they still want to.
And maybe that’s the real secret: when the music comes from love, it never really stops.