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Rolling Stones quotes: Keith Richards about not touring behind Dirty Work (1986)
“Dirty Work I built pretty much on the same idea as Some Girls, in that it was made with the absolute idea that it would go on the road. So when we finished the record and then… the powers that be – let’s put it like that (laughs) – decided suddenly they ain’t gonna go on the road behind it, the team was left in the lurch. Because if you didn’t follow it up with some roadwork, you’d only done 50 percent of the job…
…The album didn’t do all that well because there was no promotion behind it. As it came out, everyone sort of said, Well, they’ve broken up or They’re not gonna work. So you got a lot of negativity behind it. In all honesty, it was Mick decided that he could do… I don’t know whether “he could do better” is the best phrase, but he felt, actually, that the Rolilng Stones were like a millstone around his neck. Which is ludicrous – and I told him so… He said, I don’t need this bunch of old farts. Little do you know, Sunny Jim.”
Keith Richards and the Lost Momentum of Dirty Work
For Keith Richards, Dirty Work was meant to be more than just a studio effort—it was designed as a live project, crafted with touring in mind. Echoing the successful blueprint of Some Girls, the idea was to take it on the road and let the songs breathe onstage. But when the album was completed, the unexpected happened. The higher-ups, as Keith slyly put it, pulled the plug on touring plans. Without a live follow-up, the effort felt incomplete—like delivering only half of the message.
The consequences were immediate. With no tour and minimal promotion, Dirty Workstruggled to gain traction. Whispers of the Stones breaking up began circulating, feeding a cloud of negativity around the release. Richards placed the blame squarely on Mick Jagger, who seemed increasingly disillusioned with the band. In a moment that stung, Mick reportedly dismissed the group as “a bunch of old farts” and claimed he didn’t need the Rolling Stones anymore. To Keith Richards, the idea wasn’t just misguided—it felt like a direct betrayal of everything the band had built together over years of shared risks, music, and survival. He didn’t keep that reaction private. Keith made absolutely sure Mick Jagger understood how deeply that suggestion cut, and why it crossed an unspoken line between them.
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