What is funny is KOL was doing a fairly decent job of being the next Stones before they decided to be the next U2.
Not that any band is likely to really reach those heights again. And it is just part of trying to give people a marker for what the music is. How many next Dylans have their been?
He also wanted to go electric while the folkies wanted to hold him back.
Even the Stones never expected to be doing this past 1981.
It'd be like Benny Goodman being the top grossing tour in 1978.