After Live Aid, The Rolling Stone’s cohesion continued to tumble. Ian Stu
Stewart, a mainstay of the Stones, died 12 December 1985 from a heart attack. People regarded him as the glue holding up the tattered band. Shortly after Stewart’s death, the Stones released their 1986 album Dirty Work. Harlem Shuffle
is a cover of a Bob & Earl’s 1963 hit, charted in the Top Ten. One Hit (To The Body)
was another single/video released, a song that highlighted the angry, negative tone of the album. Many credited Keith Richards for getting the album done. Jagger seemed content to focus on his solo career. Richards told a reporter that Dirty Work isn’t his album. It’s a Rolling Stones album. Richards stated that taking the lead during Dirty Work made him happy for it allowed him to repay Mick Jagger when he took leads in the past while Richards battled heroin addiction. However, when Mick Jagger rejected a proposal to tour to promote the album, Keith Richards became enraged and publicly threatened Jagger by stating he will slit Jagger’s throat if Jagger tours with another band. Mick Jagger stated he just wanted to do other things during the mid 1980s. He didn’t want to leave the band.
Keith Richards can be a huge bully. His threat of slitting Mick Jagger’s throat wasn’t the first threat of violence against someone. He’s pulled knives on people. Bullying is a way for Keith Richards to get his way. He pushes buttons. At this stage, he had his Mick Jagger button firmly pressed, insulting Mick Jagger to any reporter who would listen to him. It just made things worse. Frustrated, Mick Jagger called the Rolling Stones a millstone around my neck,
a comment that should have been clearly directed towards Keith Richards instead of the entire band. It’s a comment that prolonged the Richards-Jagger feud, with Keith Richards declaring World War III, and throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at Jagger.
So the band ceased working together. Charlie Watts had quietly taken a break from the band as the Richards-Jagger feud unfolded to combat his addiction issues, with drummer Steve Jordan filling in for Watts during the Dirty Work recording. Watts also worked on his own jazz band, the Charlie Watts Orchestra. Bassist Bill Wyman, involved with an underage girl, dealt with public opinion fallout from that relationship. Ronnie Wood toured with Bo Diddley. The band’s guitarists got together at times during the war, working on projects with Aretha Franklin and communicating with each other. Keith Richards worked with his idol Chuck Berry for Berry’s 60th birthday celebration film Hail, Hail, Rock ‘n’ Roll, discovering that, like Mick Jagger, Berry suffered from LVS. Richards also played guitar on Tom Wait’s Rain Dogs album. In return, Waits did some background vocals on Dirty Work. Keith Richards told a reporter in 1986 that being at Live Aid gave him the chance to see that it’s good to work with others outside of The Stones. Yet he couldn’t shake his belief that Mick Jagger didn’t view The Rolling Stones as a top priority. The Stones didn’t tour from 1982-1989. They hadn’t recorded together between 1985-1989. A war of words raged through the media between Jagger and Richards. One story stated a rumor that Mick Jagger would be replaced by Roger Daltrey, the lead singer of The Who. Another rumor stated Jagger only wanted to be the Rolling Stones’s voice during recording sessions. He didn’t want to tour. It seemed like the once-solid Rolling Stones would crumble.
During the promotion of his second solo album Primitive Cool, Mick Jagger said that he’s happy making his own albums, but didn’t want to close the door on The Rolling Stones. Jagger stated that he needed to try things on his own, stating he had his own vision and wanted to fulfill it. He admitted that he felt confined by the band’s boundaries and is taking a stretch outside the band. Controlling the process of creating an album appealed to Jagger, feeling that it’s his own complete work. Jagger claimed that he liked making the decisions himself, instead of reaching consensus with others. He liked participating with others in The Rolling Stones, but he also enjoyed calling the shots on his own. Jagger praised Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics for assisting him with the album, but did say he’d like to work with his longtime partner Keith Richards again. Mick Jagger attempted to spin the negativity surrounding his solo work and The Rolling Stones into something positive, something for fans to anticipate.
Realizing that he wasn’t going to be working with The Rolling Stones for a while and feeling comfortable working with other musicians, Keith Richards didn’t go solo in the sense that Mick Jagger and Tina Turner did. He instead decided to form his own band with people he admired, creating the group that would be known as The X-Pensive Winos. Richards became the front man by singing lead vocals. He also developed a great working relationship with drummer Steve Jordan. The two worked on lyrics, with Jordan advising Richards to write for himself, and not for Mick Jagger. Keith Richards released his 1988 debut solo album Talk is Cheap. The album received critical praise but didn’t resonate with mainstream audiences. Richards admitted that his solo career wasn’t a huge success. Jagger’s second solo album Primitive Cool also didn’t do well. Richards noted Jagger’s dependence on singing Stone’s songs with his solo band and when performing with others, which Richards found odd since Jagger told him he didn’t want to be a rock ‘n’ roll nostalgia act with The Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger told the media that his voice and other creative contributions to The Rolling Stones have heavily influenced the band. To him, it makes sense that his solo works have similarities to The Rolling Stones.
Fans however wanted the complete Rolling Stones, not Jagger, nor Richards. They wanted the nostalgia. Concert promoter Michael Cohn reportedly guaranteed The Rolling Stones $60 million to tour. With big money being waived in their faces, and with some prodding by Ronnie Wood, who wrote it was a feud between Jagger and Richards, not Jagger and the Stones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards ceased hostilities during their World War III., and worked together for their last album of the eighties Steel Wheels.
Steel Wheels popular tracks included Mixed Emotions
and Rock and a Hard Place.
Due to their lack of touring during the decade, fans ate up tickets for their Steel Wheels world tour. Corporate sponsorship by Budweiser made big money for the band, as did merchandising, including $450 leather jackets. The $1 million dollar concert stage had been the biggest and costliest stage ever constructed for a rock tour. The band catered to two generations of fans, playing new material from the Steel Wheels album, classic tunes such as (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,
and Little Red Rooster,
a band favorite that showcases the blues influence on the band. During performances of It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll,
video screens showed images of those idolized by the Stones, such as Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. The band released a Steels Wheels IMAX concert film, being the first concert shown in IMAX theaters. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Stones January 1989, with Tina Turner joining the band during the induction ceremony to sing Honky Tonk Women.
At the end of the eighties and early nineties, The Black Crowes gained popularity as Stones sound-a-likes.
The Stones took another break after their Steel Wheels tour. Bassist Bill Wyman had over the years become anxious about flying and about continuing to work with the band. With worldwide touring being a huge moneymaker for the Rolling Stones, Wyman decided to leave the band. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards worked on their own projects. In 1993, Jagger released his third solo album Wandering Spirit. The album has a mix of sounds: blues, hard rock, dance-pop, and ballads. The last track on the album is Handsome Molly,
which has an Irish folk song feel. It seems to be Mick Jagger’s sly response to Keith Richard’s comment previously noted about Jagger recording Irish tunes as acceptable solo projects. Richards himself made another album with The X-Pensive Winos. Ronnie Wood also recorded a solo album and toured during the early 1990s. Charlie Watts reissued his 1963 Ode to a Highflying Bird, an illustrated brief biography of Charlie Parker. The 1991 new edition biography sold with an album titled From One Charlie… with Watts performing in a quintet with other jazz musicians. The following year, Watts toured worldwide with the quintet. No war of words were declared during this break.
The Rolling Stones regrouped in 1994 for their Voodoo Lounge album and tour. It became a pattern. The band took a break lasting a few years. Members worked on their own projects, which Keith Richards appreciated. Jagger and Richards would then decide to regroup and order everyone back. They record an album, then tour. Differences would occur between Jagger and Richards during their time together. Jagger told a Maclean’s reporter in 1994 that Richards harps on Jagger for being influenced by current musical trends, with Jagger stating it’s hard not to be. Jagger said Charlie Watts gets influenced by pop music. It’s Richards who is resistant. The philosophical differences caused tensions and members would go their separate ways. After a little break, they’d get back together and the cycle continued. Their new works after Steel Wheels didn’t have great commercial success. However, The Rolling Stones tours continue to generate the band big money.
©2023 Tim Sheehan