While Charlie Watts may have passed away in 2021, the Rolling Stones drummer handpicked his replacement in Steve Jordan.
Ahead of the band’s new album, Hackney Diamonds, Keith Richards talked about Charlie Watts wanting to have Steve Jordan take over for him. When talking about cutting the tracks, Richards recalled in a press conference, “We have Steve Jordan, who was Charlie’s recommendation. If anything should happen to him, Steve Jordan’s your man. He’s been a friend of ours, so it was a natural progression”.
Jordan had been known for his work on Richards’s solo projects, such as Main Offender and Crosseyed Heart. He has also been known as a session musician, working alongside such artists as John Mayer, Cyndi Lauper, and Chuck Berry.
The album also promises to feature tunes that Watts played on prior to his death, with Mick Jagger saying, “Most are with Steve, but two are tracks that we cut in 2019 with Charlie, so we used the tracks that we recorded with Charlie before”.
Hackney Diamonds promises to be the first album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. Outside of one-off singles, the group’s last album Blue and Lonesome, consisted mainly of blues covers from their youth from the likes of Little Walter.
The album also coincided with the release of various promotional images of The Stones’ logo being posted around various landmarks about England, also making an appearance on the side of The Chrystler Building in New York.
