The Rolling Stones fans share theory on group’s near-20 year break from recording before Hackney Diamonds

Fans of the legendary rock band The Rolling Stones believe they know why there was an eighteen-year gap between two studio albums.

The Mick Jagger-fronted group released A Bigger Bang in 2005 and would not release a new original studio album until 2023 with Hackney Diamonds. The band did release Blue and Lonesome, a collection of covers, in 2016. The Rolling Stones confirmed details of their twenty-sixth studio album, Foreign Tongues, earlier this week. Their latest album will be released on July 10, and features work from Paul McCartney, The Cure‘s Robert Smith, and one of the final sessions from the band’s late drummer, Charlie Watts. Listeners who noted the long wait between A Bigger Bang and Hackney Diamonds believe the wait was all because of Jagger.

A discussion on the r/RollingStones subreddit saw fans share their thoughts on why there had been such a long delay between the two albums. One fan asked: “Anyone know why The Rolling Stones didn’t release anything from A Bigger Bang to Hackney Diamonds?

“Big gap here, and the new interview says they love to do albums… that cover album does not count, and even if it does still a big gap between the releases. They were younger (obviously), so it’s not age since they are even older now and releasing stuff.”

Those who use the forum have since shared their thoughts on why there was such a long delay. One person wrote: “During the release of Hackney Diamonds, I recall that Keith made a comment along the lines of, ‘We recorded it because Mick found enough songs that he wanted to sing.’ Keith has admitted that he doesn’t pick up the guitar much between tours, while in contrast, Mick often goes into his home studio alone to mess around and work out new ideas.

“I believe Mick knows how to program a drum machine, while Keith (when songwriting) prefers to spend time in a professional studio jamming with a real drummer and waiting for his musical inspiration to ‘come down the antenna.’ I also get the feeling that Don Was just didn’t have the authority to push The Stones at all any more and was serving mostly as a recording engineer rather than an active producer.

“Mick has said that their occasional recording sessions with Was was resulting in music that was good but not great, and Mick wanted to break away from that. Hiring Andrew Watt (who doesn’t come cheap) gave them a fresh sense of urgency to set themselves a deadline and bring a new album to completion. Watt also provided them a third party to mediate any disputes between Mick and Keith.”

Another fan suggested that while material had been recorded in the eighteen years between A Bigger Bang and Hackney Diamonds, not much of it was any good. They wrote: “From what I have read and am trying to remember, I think there was a lot of material recorded in that space of time. Particularly between the 50th Anniversary and Charlie’s death. They seemed to struggle to pull it together into one coherent album between tours, I think.”

A third shared: “They released Doom and Gloom and One More Shot as singles in 2012 and included them on GRRR!, along with the new overdubbed versions of Plundered My Soul and No Small Parts.”