The Rolling Stones guitarist, Keith Richards, has said that the band are “bound” to have a hologram concert in the future.
The guitarist was speaking following the release of his band’s new album Hackney Diamonds. The record features collaborations with Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga and Paul McCartney, and is the first LP of original material from The Rolling Stones since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. However, their last number one came in 2020 thanks to the reissue of 1973’s Goat’s Head Soup.
Now, during an interview with Matt Wilkinson on Apple Music 1, Richards has refused to rule out a future hologram Rolling Stones show. He said: “Well, I certainly wouldn’t rule it out. I’m pretty sure that it is bound to happen”.
He did express some form of reluctance regarding the matter, though. “Do I want it? Now, that’s another thing,” the guitarist continued. “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?”
Richards’ songwriting partner and bandmate, Mick Jagger, also recently weighed up the possibility of a future hologram tour by the band once they are no longer able to play.
“You can have a posthumous business now, can’t you? You can have a posthumous tour,” he said in an interview. “The technology has really moved on since the ABBA thing [the pop group’s recent “Voyage” virtual show], which I was supposed to go to, but I missed it.”
In a three-star review of Hackney Diamonds, Far Out wrote: “We can technically say that Hackney Diamonds is the best Rolling Stones album in 30 years, even if it is a slight misdirection. In reality, it’s a perfectly fine album with some cool guests and some inspired songs, none of which actually stack up against any of the group’s greatest hits.”
The review concludes: “That being said, it’s impossible not to get a kick out of these elder statesmen of rock and roll putting their best collective foot forward to see what remains of their creativity. You can call Hackney Diamonds whatever you want, but you have to call it a success.”
