The Rolling Stones
„Charlie Watts,  Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Ron Wood,“

          Charlie Watts, - how much engergy to you get from the audiance as a drummer?
       „A lot. From the audience – they certainly don’t get it from me – but I get a lot from them. I mean, you know, audiences are the thing that   keeps you going actually. Otherweise you’d soon get fed up with doing this.“

  In february 2006 you did play in front of more than 1 Mill. people. Was this a special feeling for you?
„No, it was another show, another one on the list. But there was a bit of preparation, it was a different stage, that was all. And we flew down there, I think we were in Puerto Rico before and we went there and then on to Brazil. But it was a fantastic day! But we didn’t actually prepare for it, we just go on a do the show, that you do, and you hope they like it.“ 

           In how far did your Rock'n'Roll Lifestyle change after 40 years bandhistory?
„Well I don’t live like a Rock’n’Roll lifestyle. I don’t… I don’t. I never lived like you think I do, or did. Ever.“

     Who do you think has the biggest chance to become the soccer worldchampion?
„I got no idea. I’m not a great football-fan . But I will be watching it! Ehm..., Brazil, one should think?  But that’s easy to say that. Germany have a good chance! They’re home and the got a… I think it’s, if they play like they can, that’ll be good. But rather like England, they don’t have the great sight that they did had. And Holland don’t have the great sight they had. They used to have a fantastic sight, the Dutch. But – I don’t know, it’s anyone. But I think Brazil will get it – they are so good at the World Cup Competition. I mean, they loose at friendlies, you know, all that, but when they get in that competition, they just play every game and somehow win them. Except the one in Paris  but I mean, everyone had money on them winning that, and they got into the finals… so, but, you know. So I imagine, I would think Brazil will be there at the final, but it’s anyones. If England plays well, they gonna get there. But the chances of that...?“ 

           Are you gonna watch the championships?
„I’m not sure.  Ronnie’s a football-fan. So is Mick, anything that is to do with sports. Mick’s a great sportsfan. He’ll go to the final. He did last time, we were in Europe, when it was in Paris. He takes the day off.“ 

         In summer you are coming to Germany with your Bigger Bang Tour. Are you looking forward to meet the german fans?
„Germany for some reason, I don’t know why, but Holland and Germany have always been fantastic audiences, at least for us! So they are always good to go. Yeah the’re great.“ 

             Will you be taking a good holiday after this tour?
„No, I’m not a great vacation-person. But, erm, no, I probably just go home. As usual.“
 

      How is the general feeling after an extensive tour is finished?
„You wake up with nothing to do. You actually carry on, it’s a bit like: when the chicken get’s his head chopped off, it moves around laughing. So you wake up, you get up and you start preparing for the next…, your mind, you know… When you do these, you don’t have a week, there’s always some tighs. Even when you have days off, within the week, there’s always tighs. So you’re actually still thinking about the tour, you think of the end of this! But that soon wears off rather rapidly and then you join everybody else on the street.“

                                                                                               

         Ron Wood, -  how do you do, still getting the audiance such enthusiastic at your shows?
„I don’t know, that’s what surprises us! I think it’s, when we all get together on mass, because there’s thirteen of us in the actual band, like apart from the four principles kind of thing, but… something magic happens, when we all get together. And people just come out of the woodwork to attend a concert. After the million and a half people in Rio, that was mad! But, it was also great, there was no violence, nobody got hurt. It’s amazing to proove, that everyone can have a great time at no expense of any disaster .“

           Was the concert in Rio de Janeiro a personal highlight in your carriere, or was it just a gig like any other?
„No, it – personal highlight! I think you will find that for all of us. It was just mindblowing.“

      After more than 40 years Rolling Stones the devotion of the fans is still unbreakable, how that?
„I don’t know. We’ve just been filmed by the National Geographic, they are doing a special magazine along with the conquering of the Mount Everst, the new attempt to climb the Everst. And so we must be one of the wonders of the world after those 40 years .“

      Do you never feel very tired after a tour in this size?
„Oh, no. We do feel tired. And sometimes you don’t get enough time to get really ill. But sometimes you go on stage, feeling really exhausted, and then sure enough the energy comes back from the audience again and it’s enough to get you through. And then I go back a crash at the earliest opportunity. It often takes me four hours to wind down.“ 

      How important is it for you, to take your family along with you on tour?
„Well just their presence is enough, really. And their support, just to say “You played great tonight, Dad” or whatever. Or “You could have done better”! And that kinda kicks you, you know.“
  

      Do your children sometimes tell you, that you sucked at the one or the other occassion?
„Oh yeah, you get all kinds of interaction with them. But usually it’s positive, which I love.“

      Do you have to take care about yourself  more, the older you get?
„I think as you get older, you have to take it a little easier . Even though it’s really hard to hold up to that. But it’s true, you have to pace it better.“
 

      Are you sad about the limit of your Rock’n’-Lifestyle nowadays?
„Yeah, very sad. But then again there are rewards. It all comes down to the music, you know, just, the rewards are that the music is getting better. So who am I to criticize that.“
 

      As a huge soccerfan as well, what do you think, how many chances we get to become worldchampion ?
„Maradonna told me, when I was in Argentina, he said: “Watch out for Germany!” and I said “OK – you’re the man!” And I said “What about England?” and he said: “Good chance…!” and I said “And Brazil?”, he said “Very good.” And he said: “Argentina: not so good!”

     You gonna have a bet with the others?
„We will have a friendly bet, yeah! Well, I’m gonna go for Germany, England and Brazil to be finalists, two of those three.“

      Are you looking forward to the days off inbetween on this tour?
„You have to relax, you have to make the most of days off. Usually a Day Off turns into being a Day On. Like we do interviews or we have to do a video! When we were in America, we have done at least three videos, which is a whole, exhausting day long thing, you know. I’d rather do a show sometimes than videos or interviews all day, you know.“

                                                                                                    

     Mick Jagger - with the „Bigger Bang Tour“ once again you enjoy millions of fans all over the world, - how come?
„I don’t know. I just, I treat each tour differently and try and make each showdesign as interesting as possible and as new as possible and give the audience as much visual stuff as possible. Especially in a big stadium I think it is very important to give a lot of visual value, you know, without making it so distracting that the music doesn’t survive. So I think this show, which we are trying to do, you know, some of the audience gets to sit right behind the stage on these balconys right behind us – it’s quite of fun! And I think it’ll be really fun once we do it in Europe, because that’s were we only will be doing the stadium shows, so we will be able to really work on that and make that more visually interesting. And so, I think we try to make each show anti, so this is a quite of fun show. I have been away from these big stadium show for a bit. The day before yesterday was the first time we have done it for a while, so it is quite of interesting to get back to it. So I am looking forward to doing the European one.“

          From where do you take your motivation from to put always new standards on a new tour?
„I don’t know. I think we’ve always been very passionate about what we do and try and do it with as much approach doing a new tour with the same intensity that we always have. And, you know, we really care about it without being too sort of aimal about the whole thing. We kind of care about and pay a lot of attention to detail. Usually, by the time we get to Europe, we know the show pretty well because we’ve had a lot of experience in the show by then.“
 

          Is it still as much fun for you, as it used to be 40 years ago?
„I mean almost every night we do a show – that’s how I feel, you know. I really enjoy doing a show. I mean, it’s very rarely, that I come off… well, sometime I can get a little cynical about it, but then, as soon as I go on, I’m kind of like all vibed up by the shower and the audience and everything. And even if sometimes it is a difficult night and you don’t feel well and you have a cold or something – you can’t always obviously feel 100% - and you just get out. Normally you just get over it.. Before you go on, you might think “Oh, I really whish I should be in bed, sipping some orange-juice or something” , but then you get out there and you feel good.“
 

          Does it happen, that you're really unhappy with a certain show?
„Well, people get, some people really do get off nights. But you always have to try and stay on top of this. This tour is pretty high-standard. Let’s say, The Rolling Stones in the 1970ies, used to be very up-and-down. You know, some nights, The Rolling Stones would give a great show! All fantastic and that. And on some nights you come off from stage and say “Oh, I really wasn’t that good”. So really like a Jojo up and down. Were as now, I think we all try to keep a certain high level. And sometimes it just zigges off and you get a really fantastic show. I mean, nearly all the shows are really good, I can’t remember on this tour that there was a really bad one. So we’re all very please with that. Let’s say, it’s like being a soccer club, where you know, you think you have really set yourself a really high standard and you don’t really have any bad games, you know.“

          Is there a new developement, that bands nowadays go even more on tour as they used to in the past?
„Well, it’s not very new.  I mean, touring pre-dates late record-recording! People toured shows before they had records. So I guess you could say it’s going backwards. In the 19^th century, there was very little recording, but people used to go to shows a lot, I mean the theatres were very filled up. But you have other things also, people download more ringtones, people download more music, wether they pay for it or not, they download it. And people buy merchandise a lot, more than they used to do, in retail-markets. So some things go up and some things go down. Maybe the thing was, CDs had a very good run and people now actually buy more DVDs than they used to. You know, when we put DVD out of shows, they tend to sell very good. So nothing stays the same in any market, everything changes a lot. But I guess the touring business is quite a good business, but it’s always been quite a good business.“

     Same question to you as a huge soccerfan. Are you looking forward to the worldchampionships in Germany?
„Yeah, well if England go to play in the final. The thing is, we are only playing one show (überlegt) during an important match, you know, important on the way to it. We are not playing at any quarter-finals or something. And even though, we are not IN Germany, we are very close to being in Germany, we are in Warsaw or, you know, somewhere. So if England gets to play Germany, like in a quarter final or something, I can still visit, because we are not plying those days ! And Europe isn’t that big, so.  I’ll be there, anywhere, wether in Germany or not!  But I’d love to go to the final. I hope it’s going to be a fantastic final, I am really looking forward to going, if we can. Especially if England and Germany are playing in the final.“ 

      Is there something like the right age to settle down?
     "Some people should retire when they’re thirty, to be perfectly honest! And some people not, you know. So , I mean, the thing is, it’s   

      different   when you are working for a big company, people want to get rid of you or they want to keep you on – depending. I know, that  there is a big argument going on about that. But if you’re a painter, or a poet or if you’re a musician or if you’re in the creative area, you know,  you’re not in the same set of rules. These rules are rules made by bureaucrats. Everybody knows, that these rules do not really apply to people in artistic endeavours. Some people in artistic endeavours, they’re finished when their twenty-one! And some people go on and able to be creative until their later life. And that takes a lot more work. So hopefully I can manage to do that.“ 

       Keith Richards - what's your explanation for this still so huge enthusiasm?
„It feels very much the same. I don’t quite see, why, I think a lot to do is that we just get better at it and also, I do have to say that our sound system and our sound guys have come up with a way of translating The Stones, which is streets ahead of what it was before. So the band on stage are basically lysicians, so being able to hear yourself rolling through it has made a lot of difference to the way we can deliver what we are doing, I gotta say that! But at the same time you always hope that, when you put a new tour on, that it’s gonna be bigger and better than before. You are always working, nobody wants to go backwards, you wanna go forwards. And yeah, this has been a very positive tour so far for us, it has been brilliant. So the band’s feeling good. And  when the band’s feeling good, I’m feeling good and so nobody gets hassled, you know.“
  

       And what's your motivation?
„Yeah, I don’t know really. I think that they still feel to be a very good band and they do love to do what they do. And then there’s enough people out there that say “Come and do it!”. So in a way it’s kind of obvious, but it’s not our task for us. It’s hard work, but it’s not a burden. It’s just, hey, sometimes the band needs hard work! It is hard work, but the guys really love it. I mean, I can tell it on stage, I mean, hey, you couldn’t drag these guys anywhere, not with money or with chains and whips, if they didn’t want to do it.  So in a way, it’s just what they wanna do it, we all want to do it. It’s great. And may I add, that I’m a lousy plumber, so there’s nothing else I could do really.“

      Does the financial aspect still do any matter for you?
„I don’t think it’s just a matter of making money, I mean, records still sell and radio still plays songs. I just think that basically Rock’nRoll, it’s basement is music, the main force is when you’re face to face with an audience. It’s that exchange of energy that counts. You can make great records, but then you got to imagine the audience, but when it all comes together… I think people just love to get into a crowd and have a good time. I mean, it’s more than just having a good time, it’s not like going to the fairground, there’s a certain meeting of energy. I mean, recorded music is one thing, and you can make the best record you can in the studio, but you don’t have an audience! And that’s always the missing ingredient on a record. When you put them two together, that’s when it really works, that’s what I’m doing, right?
 

     Are you still attending any other concerts?
„I do go to a few here and there, but I mean, it’s kind of difficult, you’re always creeping about, because you don’t want to get in the way. No, in actual fact, the one thing I’ve never seen in my life is a Rolling Stones show "

      Is there any other band, who might get so successful as you are right now?
„Ah, should we scratch our heads for about ten hours…? I can’t think of nobody, I don’t know. It’s an open field, people are out there. If you can deliver the show (schnipt mit dem Finger), bum, go ahead! Hey, maybe, if we find somebody, who does it better than we do it, we may just give it up. But, I can’t see anybody yet…. We just feel like we’re finding out, who The Rolling Stones are! It’s a quest for us, really. Who are The Rolling Stones? Everybody wants to know, who they are – nobody more than The Rolling Stones themselves!  You see, so we are kind of looking for ourselves and so the question will not stop, it will be on and on, you know.“ 

      What's special for you in Germany?
„Well, I could give you a couple of answers to that, but I won’t go there…! Erm , I had a rude awakening, when I was born. But to me, I was always amazed, the first time we went there, I always feel like “Oh, I don’t feel any different than at home, everybody is the same”. And lovely women (lacht), you know, I am famous for that, I made love to the enemy "

      You are in Europe on tour during the worldchampionships. Are you gonna attend one or the other personally?
„We always clash with the World Cup, but I guess there’s room for us all! I watch it kind of in a way, where are we playing next, ah, Leipzig, oh and Germany are playing Brazil, ah, so that means I’ll be in Switzerland or whatever, you know? But it’s a strange thing that we always seem to coincide in Europe with the World Cup. I never thought about it, but there it s. But at least, there is something for the people that are not into the Stones to do, they can go and watch soccer! May the best man win!“