Legendary musicians including ABBA, Whitney Houston and Tupac Shakur have been immortalized with AI-powered performances
Legendary musicians including ABBA, Whitney Houston and Tupac Shakur have been immortalized with AI-powered performances. Will The Rolling Stones follow suit?
Keith Richards opened up about the possibility of the band performing as holograms in a new interview with Matt Wilkinson on Apple Music 1, revealing his thoughts on the trend overall.
“Well, I certainly wouldn’t rule it out. I’m pretty sure that it is bound to happen,” said the 79-year-old guitarist.
“Do I want it? Now, that’s another thing,” continued Richards. “But I don’t know if I want to hang around that long enough, man. But at the same time, it won’t be up to me, will it?”
While most artists’ hologram performances have occurred posthumously, ABBA’s Voyage concerts in London were dreamed up by the group itself and feature avatars of each member, so there are several options for The Rolling Stones to perform virtually — if they ever choose to.
Last week, the iconic U.K. rock band (which also includes Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood) released its first album of new material in nearly two decades, Hackney Diamonds, which features collaborations with Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder and Elton John.
Elsewhere in the Apple Music interview, Richards spoke about working with McCartney on “Bite My Head Off,” the band’s first official collaboration with the former Beatle.
“I felt that it was bloody time,” he said of working with McCartney, 81. “I’ve known Paul for 60 years, just about. Although him and John [Lennon] did do a few backup vocals with us in the ’60s. Great fun to play with.”
“Bite My Head Off” features McCartney on bass guitar, and the studio session left Richards feeling nostalgic. “At the end of it, I just said, ‘Well, that’s just like the good old days,'” he recalled.
Wonder and Gaga feature on the song “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” and Richards explained to Apple Music how the ballad came together.
“The thing is, it was such a spontaneous and organic session. We knew that Stevie was coming by, and I think Gaga only dropped in because she happened to be working in a studio across the hallway and just walked in,” he said.
Richards continued, “Playing with Stevie is always mind-blowing, and I thought that Lady did an incredible job, man. She snaked her way in there and took it over and gave [the session] as good as she got with Mick, and it was great fun.”
