NEW YORK (AP) — Inside the converted Williamsburgh Savings Bank in Brooklyn — built in the 1870s, now the site of luxurious events held beneath stunning Victorian architecture — the Rolling Stones kept their fans wanting more.
Earlier Tuesday, the band confirmed that they will release a new record, titled “Foreign Tongues,” this summer, and dropped a new single called “In The Stars.”
Journalists, VIPs and celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Odessa A’zion and Lindsey Vonn waited in the echoing hall to witness Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood’s first conversation about the new album.
To celebrate, they invited comedian Conan O’Brien to host the exclusive announcement event. It was a hilarious choice. “I think this is the one, after years of toiling in obscurity,” he joked about “Foreign Tongues,” minutes before the band joined him on stage. “This is their time.”
What we know about ‘Foreign Tongues’ so far
“Foreign Tongues,” recorded over the course of a month in London, will be released July 10.
The Stones’ last album was 2023’s “Hackney Diamonds.” It was their first album of original material in 18 years — since 2005’s “A Bigger Bang.” It was also their first full-length release since the death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021. He appeared posthumously on two of that album’s 12 tracks.
“Foreign Tongues” will also include a special appearance from Watts, lifted from one of his final recording sessions before his death. “We did that in L.A. with Charlie,” said Jagger of the song. “It’s real fast, a punk-rocker.”
The album will also feature contributions from Steve Winwood, Paul McCartney, the Cure’s Robert Smith and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith.
“I think Paul (McCartney) really wanted to jump in there,” Jagger said at the event. “There was no intimidation. He wanted to play with the band.”
The Stones also worked with their close collaborators Matt Clifford, drummer Steve Jordan and bassist Darryl Jones as well as Oscar-winning pop producer Andrew Watt (known for his work with Post Malone and Justin Bieber, and the Stones’ “Hackney Diamonds,” to name a few).
When something isn’t working in studio, the band said Watt is the one who kicks them in to gear. The room erupted into cheers for him — including his parents, who were seated directly behind him — and O’Brien compared the “immediacy” of the new album to “Exile on Main Street.”
The band also spent time detailing the record’s artwork. “Let’s reveal the album cover, I call him Mr. Ugly,” said Jagger, before the cover appeared on the screen above their heads. “He’s pained by a famous new artist called Nathaniel Quinn.”
Quinn, who was seated in the front row, said it was an amalgamation of the band members’ faces and a depiction of their journey.
A taste of ‘Foreign Tongues’
Speculation surrounding a new Stones album has been going around for weeks. First, posters appeared around London with the band name “The Cockroaches,” a pseudonym the Stones’ have used in the past, along with a QR code. The code led to ‘thecockroaches.com’ and a sign-up page. Once a user had signed up, they received a confirmation message from Universal Music — the Stones’ label. Representatives did not provide The Associated Press with comment or confirmation at the time.
Eventually it led to a white label, vinyl-only release of the track “Rough and Twisted” using The Cockroaches name — the first true tease of “Foreign Tongues,” decipherable only by their most dedicated fans.
Then, in the week leading up to their announcement, billboards with the band’s iconic mouth and tongue logo began appearing in major cities around the world with the words “Foreign Tongues” in various languages: “Fremmede Sprog,” “Vreemde Tongen,” “Dayuhang Dila,” “외국어,” and “Langues Étrangères” among them. Around the same time, the Rolling Stones’ official website was updated to feature video clips stylized to look like surveillance footage of them in the studio.
On Sunday, the band shared a slide puzzle graphic fans believed to be the album artwork, depicting a cartoonish collage of the members’ faces. (They were correct; it was the official album cover.) There was also a short video clip, just 10-seconds long, that appeared to tease a new song.
The story behind ‘Rough and Twisted’
“It’s a fantasy about a woman that promises a lot of things and then what happens to you in life, you get involved in these terrible places that she takes you to,” Jagger told The Associated Press. “It’s a Blues fantasy, really… it’s fairly amorphous. It’s very much just my unconscious ramblings.”
Wood jumped in and said he used the same guitar he used on Faces’ 1971 track “Stay With Me” — his project with Rod Stewart — on “Rough and Twisted.” “It was so spontaneous,” he said. “We even surprised ourselves with it.”
“When you get in the studio, and the guys get together, and you lay out a track, an idea, and you let it take off from there — you can’t plan all of this stuff,” Richards said of their new material. “You kind of just have to follow it and hope you come out the other end.”
The Stones’ ‘Tonight Show’ takeover and what comes next
“The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” will host the surviving members of the Stones across three nights this month, NBC announced Tuesday.
Jagger will appear on Wednesday’s show and Fallon will host Richards on Thursday. Wood will appear on May 13.
No additional details on whether the band will perform together on the show were immediately released.
But will fans get to see them perform “Foreign Tongues” on a new tour? Maybe. “I would love to tour the album,” Jagger told AP. “I absolutely would love to. I hope to do it as soon as that’s possible.”
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Associated Press Writer John Carucci contributed to this report.