The Rolling Stones have reflected on the devastating loss of Amy Winehouse ahead of the group sharing a cover of her ‘Back To Black‘ hit ‘You Know I’m No Good’.
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The rock legends are gearing up to release their 25th studio effort, ‘Foreign Tongues’, on July 10 via Polydor/Universal Music. It’s set to feature guest appearances from Paul McCartney, Robert Smith, Steve Winwood, and the band’s late drummer Charlie Watts – you can pre-order your copy here.
The album will be made up of 14 tracks, including ‘In The Stars’, ‘Rough And Twisted’, and a cover of the Winehouse classic ‘You Know I’m No Good’. The singer, who tragically died 15 years ago this month due to alcohol poisoning at just 27, was particularly close with Ronnie Wood, and, in a new interview with The Sunday Times, he looked back on their friendship and discussed her battle with addiction.
“She would go, ‘Oh, Ronnie, what am I going to do?’ I said, ‘Look, everyone knows you’ve got vodka in the water bottle. Get it together and get on stage.’”
He went on to say that her personal issues never affected her performances, saying: “If you could get her up there [on stage] and she stayed there, it’d be great.”
Wood added: “I’m sad because she didn’t do her full span. It was like saying goodbye to Billie Holiday again.” Meanwhile, Keith Richards expressed regret he’d not gotten to know her better after their Isle of Wight performance in 2007.
“I was always sort of, ‘Well, I’m bound to meet her down the road,’” he said. “You expect things to happen, and unfortunately no. But that’s what records are for. I’m just very glad and honoured to have played with her at least once.”
At the time, Mick Jagger said he wanted to work with her ahead of them sharing the bill. In the end, they did share a stage, singing a duet of The Temptations’ ‘Ain’t Too Proud To Beg’, which you can watch above.
As for the upcoming Stones album, Jagger recently sat down with NME to talk about the “very easy” experience of working with Paul McCartney.
The Beatles legend took on bass duties for the song ‘Covered In You’. He also spoke to NME about his excitement to get involved in the record, explaining that he was “chuffed” to be asked to contribute.
“You could be a bit blasé and go, ‘Yeah, OK, so what?’ But for me, it wasn’t – it went the other way,” he said, going on to recall how he felt in the studio.
Now, in a new interview with NME, Stones frontman Jagger has opened up about what it was like to get the music legend in the studio with them, and revealed that he recorded his part in “the same session as he did ‘Bite My Head Off’” for their last album, 2023’s ‘Hackney Diamonds’.
“The new tune is more of a funk bass part,” Jagger explained, before going on to share what it was like to work alongside McCartney.
“It was very easy,” he told NME. “Obviously, I’ve known Paul for ages. He’s not a stranger, but he’s never played bass with us before. It’s a different thing, you know?
“I said to Andy [Watt, producer], ‘Is he gonna be into this because it’s a punk tune and I want overdriven bass. It’s gonna be simple, no mucking about.’ And Paul did exactly what was needed in, like, 10 minutes.”
As Jagger said, this wasn’t the first time that the two of them joined forces since taking the music world by storm in the ‘60s. Aside from collabs on ‘Bite My Head Off’ and ‘Covered In You’, McCartney and his Beatles bandmate John Lennon also helped pen the Stones’ second single ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ in 1963. The Stones’ Brian Jones contributed briefly to ‘Yellow Submarine’ and Jagger helped work on ‘Baby, You’re a Rich Man’, too.
The two bands also did a one-off performance together in 1968, where they played ‘Yer Blues’ together, and two decades after that, Jagger inducted the Beatles into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (as per Ultimate Classic Rock).
McCartney is just one of the many famous faces that contribute to the upcoming Rolling Stones album, and other names include The Cure’s Robert Smith on ‘Divine Intervention’, Bruno Mars on cowbell for ‘Never Wanna Lose You’, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on a cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Beautiful Delilah’.
Also in the NME interview, Jagger spoke about how the band have no plans of retiring anytime soon and said that he “already started writing [new] songs”, but is toying with the idea of having them go to other artists.