The Rolling Stones are a lot closer to releasing a new studio album than they were about a year ago. According to a new interview with guitarist Keith Richards, he and Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood, and Charlie Watts continue to plug away in the studio, where they’ve been working with producer and longtime collaborator Don Was on their long-awaited follow up to 2005’s A Bigger Bang.
According to Richards, the guitarist spent his holiday season listening in on what the band has written and recorded so far. He’ll be joining up with his Stones bandmates in the coming months ahead of their North American stadium tour beginning in April, followed by an appearance at the second weekend of Jazz Fest‘s 50th Anniversary come early May.
“Sometimes it’s not as much writing as listening to what’s been written and figuring it out, and honing and all kinds of stuff,” Richards said about listening back on what he and his longtime bandmates have tracked throughout the album process so far. “It’s very boring. It’s like a carpentry shop.”
Richards continued in sharing his excitement for the band’s return to America this spring, which begins on April 20th in Miami, Florida.
“To play back in the States again, it’s fantastic,” Richards continued. “It’s been a while. I always think of it as our really early hunting grounds. Although we had already done it in England, to work over a whole continent was pretty astounding. So I’ve always had a soft spot for working in America.”
Richards was speaking to Rolling Stone to promote the recent announcement of the forthcoming 30th-anniversary reissue of Talk Is Cheap, his debut solo album released back in 1988. Richards’ last solo album arrived back in September 2015 with Crosseyed Heart. As for the Rolling Stones, the famous band released a blues-focused covers album the following year when Blue & Lonesome arrived in December 2016. There’s no real timeframe as to when the next Stones album to arrive, so fans better hope to catch them on tour this spring!
[H/T Rolling Stone]