Keith Richards says Mick Jagger needs to ‘take it easy’ as he has ‘already proved it all’

Legendary guitarist Keith Richards says that The Rolling Stones‘ frontman, Mick Jagger, needs to “take it easy” in ramping up to work more.

Richards is rumoured to be one of the main reasons the Jagger and Ronnie Wood-featuring band aren’t back on the road to promote upcoming album, Foreign Tongues. Fans believe the guitarist’s arthritis, as well as the welcoming of his great-grandson, are reasons he isn’t as keen as his bandmates to be back on the road. Whether a tour comes is yet to be seen, but Jagger sounds hopeful of reuniting the band on stage for the first time since 2024. The band were also rumoured to have scrapped scheduled appearances in 2025 and rubbished claims that there had been talks of a tour this year.

No shows have materialised, and some fans are now wondering whether the band will ever perform again. Jagger’s keenness to get back on stage was made clear in a recent interview with BBC Radio. But even before this want to return to the stage and studio, Richards had told his longtime collaborator to calm down as he had “already proved it all”.

Speaking to MOJO Magazine to promote his third solo album, Crosseyed Heart, back in 2015, Richards outlined why he and Jagger would “joust all the time”. Part of the reason appeared to be that the two could not agree on when the right time to tour would be.

He said: “Mick and I joust with each other all the time. From my end it’s never been a fight. Mick’s a control freak – it’s necessary for him to believe he’s Numero Uno, so most of the time I go along with it – unless I think he’s making a really wrong decision affecting the Stones. Maybe we enjoy jousting with each other. I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and jot down a line – ‘I’ll save that one for him!’

“We’re mates, and as far as work goes, I couldn’t think of another frontman to back up. He’s amazing. What he puts in there is a rare dedication. I think he has a lot to prove to himself but it’s unnecessary, because he’s already proved it all. It’s like, ‘Relax, Mick, take it easy.’ But Mick Jagger relaxing? That’s very rare. He’s one of those guys that has to be doing something all the time.”

The pair would spar over the setlist of their shows whenever on tour, too. Detailing how the Forty Licks show came together, Richards would claim Jagger has only the obvious songs in mind.

Richards said: “In general I let Mick decide the set lists because he’s the one who has to sing the songs, and his decision depends on how he feels on any particular day, but sometimes if I thought he was flaking me, I would push him. I’d have to make a decision between Mick’s natural conservatism and the fact that the band would get bored if there wasn’t enough variety.

“For instance, Mick would want to open the shows with Start Me Up because he’d say it was totally obvious, and I would say, ‘Yeah, that’s what’s wrong with it, it is totally obvious!’ that is the difference between our brains. That’s Mick and me.”