The Rolling Stones’ ’20 Nil’—A Hidden Studio Cut (1997)

By Marcelo Sonaglioni on September 16, 2025

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Rolling Stones unreleased: 20 Nil

ANOTHER STONES’ LOST JAM
Buried deep in the Stones’ vault is 20 Nil, an unreleased cut from the Bridges to Babylon sessions back in 1997. Cooked up by Jagger and Richards at Ocean Way Studios in LA, it’s got all the swagger of a classic Stones track but never made it past the studio walls. Fans see it as one of those mysterious postcards from the band’s creative overflow—unfinished, unheard, and all the more intriguing for it.

Written by: Jagger/Richards
Recorded: Ocean Way Recording Studios, Los Angeles, March 13-July 1997 (Bridges to Babylon sessions)

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Rolling Stones Unreleased: 20 Nil

The Rolling Stones’ vault is packed with forgotten takes, half-finished songs, and full-on jams that never saw daylight. One of those hidden curiosities is 20 Nil, a track cooked up during the Bridges to Babylon sessions in Los Angeles in 1997. Written by the classic duo Jagger/Richards and tracked at Ocean Way Recording Studios between March and July of that year, it has all the DNA of a Stones song but remains unreleased—almost like a postcard from a studio nobody ever got to open.

What makes 20 Nil intriguing is the timing. By the late ’90s, the Stones were experimenting with new textures, modern production, and even hints of electronic beats while still staying rooted in their blues-rock swagger. The track’s very existence points to that creative overflow: not everything fit on the album, but plenty of energy spilled out in sessions that pushed boundaries. 20 Nil is part of that shadow history—more than a footnote, less than a single.

A Hidden Piece Of Stones History

Unreleased tracks like 20 Nil remind us that the Stones’ story isn’t just about the big hits or the arena anthems. It’s also about the rough drafts, the experiments, and the grooves that never made it past the studio walls. Even without an official release, fans love speculating on what the track sounds like—was it funky? Was it raw? Maybe both.

What’s certain is that the song reflects the band’s constant momentum, even three decades after their debut. It’s proof that Jagger and Richards could still churn out fresh material in the late ’90s, stacking up songs faster than they could release them. In the end, that mystery is part of the charm: sometimes the Stones’ unreleased cuts say as much about the band as their chart-toppers.

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