Keith Richards has reflected on the likelihood of a hologram performance by the Rolling Stones, saying it is “bound to happen”.
In an interview with Matt Wilkinson on Apple Music 1, Wilkinson asked if “in 10, 20 years’ time, we could be watching holograms of the Stones on stage”. Richards replied: “I certainly wouldn’t rule it out. I’m pretty sure that is bound to happen. Do I want it? Now, that’s another thing. I don’t know if I want to hang around that long, man. But at the same time, it won’t be up to me, will it?”
Earlier this year, Mick Jagger acknowledged the technology in an interview with Wall Street Journal, but wouldn’t be drawn on whether the Stones would use it. “You can have a posthumous business now, can’t you? You can have a posthumous tour. The technology has really moved on since the Abba thing.”
Jagger was referring to Abba Voyage, the successful stage show currently playing in the bespoke Abba Arena in east London, which features recreations of the Swedish pop stars. They were created by visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic, who motion-captured the quartet before de-ageing them for the virtual performance, where the group appear alongside a live band. In a five-star review when it opened in June 2022, the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis wrote: “Voyage is the kind of triumph that’s destined not merely to run and run but be repeatedly copied.”
Director Baillie Walsh told Variety last month that other unnamed artists “have been in touch” about similar shows, “but you’ve got to be a band of a certain stature to even contemplate it”.
The show, which cost $175m to stage, has been a frequent sellout and is now booking until November 2024. “I don’t even know if we’re halfway to breaking even,” producer Svana Gisla told Variety. “The audacity of how much this show costs – it was all a bit mad. But we will get there.”
The Abba Voyage performances don’t actually involve three-dimensional holograms – rather, the band were filmed and edited to look real when displayed in 2D on a vast high-definition screen. This tech allows for a greater range of motion and visual flair than actual holograms, which have also been used in concert tours – for example a recreation of the late Roy Orbison played UK arenas in 2018.
Other acts have shared in Richards’ wariness at recreating themselves on stage in one form or another. In 2022 Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin said the band had been approached to do “that sort of thing”, referring to Abba Voyage, but that the former band members couldn’t agree on the approach. In 2021, Christopher Dalston of booking agency Creative Artists Agency said he had been approached with the concept of resurrecting late AC/DC frontman Bon Scott as a hologram. “You have to be careful what you do there – AC/DC is still a very current band with Brian Johnson singing,” he said.
The Rolling Stones, meanwhile, returned to flesh-and-blood live performance last week with a one-off show in New York, promoting their new album Hackney Diamonds. Playing the 650-capacity Racket NYC, they performed seven songs, four of them new, including recent single Sweet Sounds of Heaven, with Lady Gaga appearing to perform her guest vocal.
Their previous tour was in summer 2022, with 14 dates marking the band’s 60th anniversary. A tour for Hackney Diamonds has not been announced, but Richards has hinted at one, saying: “The second stage of the rocket is to take [the album] on the road … to break these songs out on the road is sort of the next step.” Speaking to Matt Wilkinson, he said they were “at that planning stage now … I’m just waiting for news myself.”
He added that new drummer Steve Jordan, who replaced the late Charlie Watts in 2021, is a superb mimic of Watts’s style: “Sometimes on the last couple of tours, I turn around and expect to see Charlie. Steve can play so much like Charlie, that I’m fooled.” Richards also continues to play after being diagnosed with arthritis, saying: “It is scary, and a couple of joints have slowed down a bit, but it doesn’t hurt at all. Knuckles just get big and get in the way.”
Richards also paid tribute to the bond the band still have. “When you’re playing together with a certain bunch of guys, there’s a sort of therapy that goes on between you. You get a little sense of togetherness you don’t get in normal life – which is why we do it.”
