Producer Andrew Watt has confirmed that he’s reunited with The Rolling Stones on their upcoming new album.
Watt produced their Grammy-winning 24th studio album, ‘Hackney Diamonds’, in 2023, while he’s also worked with the likes of Elton John, Lady Gaga and Ed Sheeran over the past couple of years.
The producer told Rolling Stone of working with the rock icons again, “I’ve said it before, but it’s like working for Batman.”
He didn’t go into much further detail, however, explaining, “When the tongue is up in the air, you just go… I can say we did some recording together, but that’s all I can say.”
For his part, Watt told Rolling Stone in February that the Stones had music leftover from their ‘Hackney Diamonds’ sessions. He explained that “it would be great” to see the music get released, adding: “ It was a prolific time for the band. They had amassed, like, 18 years of material. There was so much to go through and choose from initially, and then there were new songs that just came because everyone was rolling and kind of flying.”
And guitarist Keith Richards’ son Marlon confirmed that the band had been working on a new album, too, describing it as being “nearly done”.
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“They’re in town right now, recording,” he said in an interview for the Rolling Stones edition of Record Collector, conducted back in May. “They’re in Chiswick [West London] or somewhere like that; I think they’re nearly done. They still maintain these ridiculous hours: after lunch until, like, two in the morning. I’d rather be somewhere else at that time of night! Unless you’re in it, it’s pretty boring.”
When pressed on what the band were working on, Richards said: “I guess an album – they have enough left over from the last one.”
“They gave them a Grammy, so now they’re all hyped up on that: ‘Oh, yeah – we can do another one like that! We’ve got more like that if you want…’. I think they’re doing the follow-up.”
He added that he thought his dad’s band were “planning a tour of Europe”. While they toured US stadiums last year, reports came out earlier this year that the Stones had abandoned plans to go on tour in the UK and Europe because of scheduling issues.
They last played the UK in 2022, when two huge BST Hyde Park gigs followed a stadium show at Liverpool’s Anfield.
As for the new music, when NME spoke to guitarist Ronnie Wood in 2023, he said that they had to cut “about 23 songs” and that he didn’t “think it would be” another 18 years until a new album.
Of the other tracks, he explained: “Well, Stones tracks evolve but they’ve either got the essence when we first hit the song or they haven’t. Some of the songs were a little hesitant. We need to look at them again. That’s the way you make good music – to mould it like a clay model.”
NME gave ‘Hackney Diamonds’ a four-star review upon its release, describing it as an “absolute barnstormer” and adding, “If ‘Hackney Diamonds’ does round off the most successful career in rock music ever, it wouldn’t be a bad place to leave it. A natural end, but definitely not a normal one.”