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The Rolling Stones in the press: “The Rolling Stones: Mick & Keith mouth off”
The Rolling Stones in 1977 are hardly sitting around enjoying a quiet year, and the newspapers are having a wonderful time with it. Keith Richards faces a serious legal mess, Mick Jagger is generating headlines of his own, and Ronnie Wood is settling into the Stones while seemingly finding plenty of ways to stay busy. Behind the chaos, the band is also navigating a surprisingly complicated musical period between albums, tours, and the sessions that eventually lead toward Some Girls. Looking back through the press coverage, 1977 feels less like a routine chapter in Stones history and more like rock ’n’ roll with absolutely no adult supervision.
1977—the year punk exploded, disco ruled the charts, and the Rolling Stones? Well, they were having a time. It wasn’t exactly their finest hour, but it sure was entertaining if you weren’t the one getting arrested.
Let’s start with Keith Richards. Because, of course, we have to start with Keith. In February, he was busted in Toronto for heroin possession—again. This time, though, it was serious. The Canadian authorities weren’t messing around, and Keith was facing potential jail time. But because he’s Keith Richards and seemingly immortal, he somehow got off with a court-ordered charity concert for the blind. Yes, really.
While Keith was dealing with that mess, the rest of the band wasn’t exactly sitting around behaving themselves. Mick Jagger, always the social butterfly, was spending time with Jerry Hall, leaving behind a trail of tabloid headlines and one very unhappy Bianca Jagger. Ronnie Wood? He was busy moonlighting with The New Barbarians and probably having just as much fun offstage as on it.
Musically, things were… slow. The Stones didn’t release a new studio album in 1977 (they put out the double LP Love You Live instead, a live record, that is), which, considering their usual output, was kind of a big deal. They did, however, record tracks that would end up on Some Girls (thankfully), and Mick and Keith somehow avoided strangling each other long enough to keep the band going.
So yeah, 1977 wasn’t exactly the Stones’ golden year. But in true rock ‘n’ roll fashion, they survived it—barely—just to come roaring back in 1978 with Some Girls and remind everyone why they were still the biggest band in the world. (Ref. the rolling stones: mick & keith)
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