The Rolling Stones are geared up to celebrate their 50th anniversary in style as they prepare for their five concert tour of New York and London.
HBO will broadcast a documentary on Thursday on the Rolling Stone's formative years which the band released on Tuesday and titled "Crossfire Hurricane". This documentary talks about the band's journey over the years as they celebrate the band's 50th anniversary as they line up five concerts in New York and London over the next month.
"Without saying yes or nay," Keith Richards said in an interview this week, "once this starts rolling, I can't see it stopping. The band feels good about themselves, they still feel they've got something to offer. Obviously there are a lot of people out there who agree. We'll go along with it."
The 50 years has seen the band go through many ups and downs and even a break-up. However, they've stood the test of time and are excited to celebrate the achievement of this milestone.
"I thought it would be kind of churlish not to do something," Jagger said. "Otherwise, the BBC would have done a rather dull film about the Rolling Stones."
In the interview Richards mentioned that anniversaries have never been a big deal for the band but this one is special and there was immense pressure on the band on this event.
"This band is famous for not obeying the rules and bowing to pressure or anything," Richards said. "But over the course of the year we felt more and more aware that there are folks out there counting on us. You can't let them down. At the same time, you realize that the folks are right. Playing together over the last five months you realize that there's this thing out of your life that's been missing."
The band has already spent several weeks in Paris rehearsing for the concerts. Band member Mick Jagger, at first didn't want the band to do too many songs at first. However, he gave in saying, "I thought it was important to do some sort of a show, even if it was just a club gig," he said. "I didn't want it to be too nostalgic and I wanted to be pretty irreverent about it. My idea of the tour is calling it 'F--- Off, We're 50'."
