For years, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards would say in interviews that it was unforgivable for Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor to quit the Rolling Stones. It has appeared that Richards has had a change of heart, because he now says that he would like to meet up and play music with Wyman and Taylor again.
Wyman was the band’s bass player from 1962 until he retired from the Rolling Stones about 30 years later. Taylor was the Rolling Stones’ lead guitarist from 1969 to 1974. Wyman and Taylor were barely mentioned in Richards’ comprehensive 2010 best-selling memoir “Life,” which indicated that Richards may have still had some hard feelings toward them at the time he was writing the book.
But in an exclusive November 2011 interview with Spinner, Richards said that Taylor and Wyman would be welcome at a studio jam session that he, Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood are planning for December 2011. Richards told RollingStone.com that Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger was invited to the jam session too. Although Richards could not confirm in the RollingStone.com interview that Jagger would be at the jam session, Richards said he was hopeful that Jagger would attend.
Richards told Spinner:
“I mean, everybody's welcome. I was going to ask Bill Wyman to come by too. And Mick Taylor. The whole lot. They're all Stones, you know? Why not?”
Wyman “reunited” with the Rolling Stones through the technology of modern recording when he and the Stones recorded a cover version of Bob Dylan’s “Watching the River Flow,” which is featured on Ben Waters' “Boogie For Stu” album which is a tribute to the late Ian Stewart. The album was released in April 2011.
Perhaps Richards is feeling nostalgic now that the Rolling Stones’ milestone 50th anniversary is approaching in 2012.
Jagger has essentially said in recent interviews that the band has no plans to tour in 2012, and that the Rolling Stones have not yet decided when or if there will be an anniversary celebration. However, many fans remain hopeful that the Rolling Stones will do something special to commemorate the 50 th anniversary.
Richards made it clear to Spinner that the Rolling Stones’ 50th anniversary is a priority for him:
“I want to pull it off. That, at the moment, is my task … I usually find that logistical nightmares can always be overcome if everyone wants to get together.”
In the Spinner interview, Richards also talked a little bit about the 2011 remastered reissue of Rolling Stones’ 1978 album “Some Girls.” (Richards said that “Beast of Burden” is his favorite song on the original album.)
Richards has said in other interviews that in 2011, he has been recording new solo music that will porbably end up on his next solo album, which will feature the X-Pensive Winos, Richards' band for his solo music.
“I'm recording with Steve Jordan, we're doing some Winos thing, [aka X-Pensive Winos, Keith's side project] just by ourselves. It's an interesting experiment … It's reminiscent of Winos but at the same time, it's 20 years on. How can you describe music? But there's some damn good stuff coming out. Steve and I are having a lot of fun and some great guys have been dropping by. Aaron Neville came by and did stuff, Ivan Neville came by.”
It is too early to know the release date for Richards’ next solo album, but Richards has pretty much said that he would make the Stones his priority in 2012, if all the band members work together again.
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