“Charlie Watts is beaming down on us” says Keith Richards on new album

THE ROLLING STONES sat down with Zane Lowe on Apple Music to celebrate their upcoming album, Foreign Tongues, pulling back the curtain on an incredibly spontaneous creative process. Reflecting on the studio sessions, Ronnie Wood explained, “I suppose the element of interaction and spontaneity. Spontaneity is the operative word here because we get the basic idea of a song… As long as it came back to that, it’s fine. You could do anything you wanted then.” Keith Richards echoed this sentiment, noting, “The only thing you’re fighting is the room and the song, you’re okay as long as you’re not fighting each other. It was fun to make.”

The new record serves as a vital bridge between generations, introducing a fresh energy into the band’s historic lineup. “It felt good to me to get this generation of The Stones on record, you know, it was kind of special,” Richards shared during the interview on The Zane Lowe Show. “They were playing so good… I felt working with Steve [Jordan] that I was working with family.” He added that the transition felt deeply natural, saying, “It was Charlie Watts that did suggest to me that if ever I was gonna work with another drummer, it should be Steve Jordan… I’m sure Charlie Watts is beaming down on us, so I feel good about that.”

A major focal point of the new material is the dystopian track “Ringing Hollow,” which Mick Jagger revealed is actually a coded message about the United States. “It’s about America. It’s a love song to America,” Jagger explained. “It’s a bit of your child cheating the audience by making them think it’s about a woman and then you realize by line four… that it’s not about women.” Richards praised the track’s bittersweet tone, adding, “Oh, ‘Ringing Hollow’ is in a way a very tender sort of love song to America. And what the f*** went wrong… there’s a few cracks in the bell and they might as well write about that too. He did a great job on that.”