Posted on 05/10/2005 7:47:04 PM PDT by John Lenin
Rock megastars Rolling Stones announce world tour
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By Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK (Reuters) - It's only rock 'n' roll but they still like it.
The Rolling Stones, well into their fifth decade of playing rock 'n' roll, on Tuesday announced a global tour that will stretch into next year and laughed off suggestions that it would be a farewell tour.
"We never say this is going to be our last tour. We never think about it. We take each tour as it comes," singer Mick Jagger, 61, told a news conference at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
"I think that's a trap to try and get people to buy your tickets and say, 'Well, I'll never see them again."
Reminding the cheering crowd that not only are they far from elderly but one of the greatest bands in rock 'n' roll, the Stones kicked off the event with live performances of "Start Me Up" and "Brown Sugar" and a new song Jagger called "Oh No, Not You Again."
The wiry Jagger wriggled and strutted, while Keith Richards, also 61, grinned mischievously over his guitar licks in front of Lincoln Center's Juilliard School.
It was a relatively low-key launch for a band that once landed in a blimp in a city park to kick off a world tour in 2002.
"This is one of the earliest concerts we've been to in a while, actually,," Jagger said of the mid-day event. "We're calling it the cornflakes concert."
The Stones, who burst onto the rock scene in the early '60s in England, are putting together a new album, still untitled, that is "85 percent" finished, Jagger said.
"We tried to make it very wide-ranging and we tried to make it very hard-hitting, but it's got its sensitive moments," he said.
"It kicks some ass," Richards added.
The first tickets go on sale to the public beginning Saturday for the tour which opens August 21 at Fenway Park in Boston and continues in North America through early 2006, said tour director Michael Cohl.
The tour travels to Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Japan and "hopefully" China before heading to Europe in summer 2006, he said.
"There's a lot of other fantastic bands and a lot of old rubbish out there, and we hope it's going to be a wonderful summer of rock 'n' roll and we're going to be right in there," Jagger said.
"May God have mercy on your soul," added Richards.
Prices will average about $100 per ticket, and the shows will take place in stadiums, arenas and theaters, Cohl said.
Asked how much they might make on the tour, while Jagger paused, Richards jubilantly shouted out: "Millions!"
The band, whose shows can sell out in minutes, last toured in 2002-03. The Stones hold the record for the top two most attended North American tours, promoters said.
Jagger said the Stones are likely to choose old songs, new songs, blues and covers of other artists' work.
"Sometimes they choose themselves," Richards said.
The band has a history of staging elaborate stage sets and Jagger said the coming stadium tour will have some 400 people on stage behind the band.
"You'll get a great view of our bums, so we'll have to work on them a bit," he said.
My wife bought me the Stone's DVD boxed set biography and I remember him joking about that line (back then they thought 30 was OLD) ... this was when he was in his late fifties and he laughingly said he'd kill himself if he was doing it when he was 60! Either time he is over due!
No, Steve Morse plays guittar, has been with them for about 5 years now and I saw them just before Jon Lord retired. The Yes show was great, before they did the song America they paid tribute to the war in Iraq and said America always stands up for what it right. Bruce Springsteen can suck eggs.
Keith has 3 major nutrient groups: 1. Heroin, 2. Jack Daniels, 3. Nicotine.
Balanced, my friend, balanced.
The fact that you even have P-Diddy in a sentence following one that mentions the Stones is absurd. Rap and hip-hop are music's minor leagues.
Keith looked like death warmed over by the early 80's. He must have some amazing genetics. Does he still wear that skull ring ? It matched his face ...
I can't get no satisfaction...from Viagra...tho I try, tho I try, tho I try, tho I try...
Funny...Mick turned 38 that year... and, yeah, I thought that was old, then, too!
That's when I thought they were too old too. Oh well, this year's tour is just one more media event that I will ignore.
Can you say Sold Out?
I remember dancing to that song at my first sock hop in jr. high school like it was yesterday.
They're now known as the "Rolling Kidney Stones"
Hah! True enough... :-)
We saw the Rolling Stones on their last (farewell?) tour. Great show. Another good show we saw was AC/DC.
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LOL! What's disturbing is that Mick and Keith are the same age as my dad. I read somewhere that the Stones now pay someone to throw their hotel toilets out the window because they just don't have the energy anymore.
Their Tour bus is the one driving slow in the left lane with the blinker on.
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