ROARING FORK BROADCASTING COMPANY
It’s 5 p.m. central time on Thursday, May 2, 2024. Millions of octogenarians around the country are at nursing homes enjoying their afternoon activities or settling in for dinner and their nighttime programs.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards both turned 80 this year. There will be no bocci ball, applesauce and bingo for the lead singer and guitarist of the Rolling Stones. Today’s activity: headlining the first day of the second weekend of the 2024 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival — the 52nd incarnation of the gargantuan musical event.
It was a gig that was five years in the making for the Stones. The band was supposed to play JazzFest in 2019 but had to cancel because Jagger had heart problems which eventually required surgery and prompted them to cancel their North American tour. It appeared as if the band had reached the end of the road as a touring outfit. The opportunity to have the greatest rock ’n’ roll band in the world at JazzFest had seemingly slipped the festival’s sticky fingers.
But Jagger made a comeback and in 2020 the Stones went into the studio to start recording “Hackney Diamonds,” the band’s first album of original material since 2005’s “Bigger Bang” and their best record since 1989’s “Steel Wheels.”
“Hackney Diamonds” was released last fall. The standout song on the album is “Bite My Head Off,” which includes a guest appearance by Paul McCartney on bass. The song sounds like it was recorded by rowdy teenagers in a basement and could have been slipped into the track listing of 1972’s “Exile in Main Street” without raising an eyebrow. “Angry” is another song from “Hackney Diamonds” that’s gotten a lot of play.
The Stones are in their 61st year as a band. They have been together almost eight times longer than The Beatles and seven times longer than Led Zeppelin. Jagger and Richards are the two lone members of the original band. They were joined Friday by longtime lead guitar player Ronnie Wood, band leader and piano player Chuck Leavell, bass player Daryl Jones, drummer Steve Jordan, Matt Clifford on keyboards and French horn, Chanel Haynes and Bernard Fowler on vocals, and Karl Denson and Tim Reis on saxophone.
True to the script the Stones have followed since “Tattoo You” came out in 1981, the show opened with “Start Me Up” to the delight of the estimated 40,000 fans in attendance (and thousands more in the streets behind the Fair Grounds race course). The Stones rattled off 17 more songs, including many of the band’s most beloved hits like “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Honky Tonk Woman,” “Jumping Jack Flash” and “Satisfaction.”
Hits serve to please the crowd, but there were some special moments at the Gentilly race track. The Stones added some local flavor by welcoming Zydeco stalwart Dwayne Dopsie on accordion for “Let it Bleed” and the Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas, for “Time is on My Side,” a song the band had not played live since 1998. Thomas recorded the song in the spring of 1964 and the Stones, after hearing her version, recorded it in the summer of the same year.
“My favorite part of the set was when they brought Irma Thomas out to join them in ‘Time is on My Side,’” said Aspen Fire Chief Rick Balentine, who was at JazzFest on Thursday for the show. Dozens of Aspenites trek to the New Orleans JazzFest annually.
“She [recorded] the song and it was the first big hit the Stones had in the states in 1964. That’s a lot of history and it was a class act to bring her onstage in her hometown of New Orleans,” Balentine added.
Stones back-up singer Chanel Haynes also hails from New Orleans. For years “Gimme Shelter” has been a showpiece for the band’s female vocalist. Jagger and Haynes sang an explosive duet, covering every inch of the stage, including the 120-foot runway that was constructed just for the Stones.
“Gimme Shelter,” off the Stones’ 1969 album “Let it Bleed,” may be the darkest song the band ever wrote. The lyrics “rape, murder, it’s just a shot away” were written about Vietnam and the horrors of war. Fifty years later, in the shadow of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the song still resonates profoundly.
Jagger also took a potshot at Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who was in the crowd, saying the Republican had “just taken us back to the Stone Age” for signing legislation Wednesday that allows people as young as 18 in Louisiana to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. Landry reportedly took the jab in stride and said on social media that Jagger was always welcome in the state.
Legend has it that Jagger rides an exercise bike and sings the entire time he rides as preparation for the aerobic workout he puts himself through during every performance. He still prances, shakes and runs across the stage, proving why he is the greatest lead singer in rock history.
“I’m amazed at how spry Mick is at 80 years old,” said Cheryl Koehne, a resident of the Aspen area. “He sounded great and so did the entire band.”
Another great aspect of the Stones — they’ve never toured under the banner of “The Final Tour” like so many bands that have jacked up ticket prices for “farewell tours,” which turn out to be just another string of road dates.
And why would they? If Mick and Keith were to decide they wanted to keep playing into their 90s — even if they had to sit on stools and play acoustic — they would still pack concert halls across the world. The music, the energy of the crowd, the thrill of performing are clearly part of the elixir that keeps them going strong at 80.
There’s an old saying that goes, “How do you keep from growing old? Keep the old man out of the room.” Taking a cue from the “Sticky Fingers” tune “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” Mick and Keith aren’t opening that door anytime soon.