The Rolling Stones responded to questions from the “Twitterverse” with video (taped?) answers on Monday:
For Keith Richards:
@samturnbull4: what was your favorite memory of making Sticky Fingers?
@officialKeef: I guess finishing it! It took a while to work. There are so many, really, I’m only kidding. Each track has certain memories. You remember who was there, you know, when my guitar fell apart in the middle of “Brown Sugar,” or something. Overall I have a really good recollection of those sessions at the time. It was a good ‘un.
@FLPintheHEB: Do you ever look in the mirror and think I’m one lucky SOB? See you boys in Dallas on 6/6
@officialKeef: I look in the mirror as less as possible honey. Just to shave it. but ta tht esame time, i know what you mean. on a good day I get that feeling.
@GuitarGuy22 Can you get Keith to teach me the secret to immortality?
@officialKeef: I ain’t there yet. so far so good. I think a clean and healthy life, plenty of exercise, go to church on sunday
For Mick Jagger:
@thechuckwolf What’s your secret for in keeping your voice so strong?
@mickjagger: Practice! You have to do warm-ups. There’s a regimen.
@bluemelonika: You’ve been performing for over 50 years .. Do you still get pre-gig nerves? How do you overcome them?
@mickjagger: I don’t really get nervous, I get excited before the first show of a tour. I get anxious because a lot of things could go wrong, the lights don’t come on. I don’t get nervous. I get a bit over enthusiastic sometimes. You have to watch out for that. It serves you but you have to control it. You could forget what you’re supposed to be doing. You have to control the adrenaline rush. You can make it work for you.
@mitch909 What’s your favourite BB King song?
@mickjagger: Yeah, BB King, I was just looking at a picture of myself and BB I think it was in 1969 he was playing with us. he played a lot of gigs with us on that tour. he was a great guy. I last played with him at a blues concert at the White House. So, yeah, sad, he had such a huge, long career sad we won’t be listening to him live. He’s got so many recordings it’s difficult to choose. the one we all had when we were young was live at the regal.
@eenek: Did Warhol turn in any rough sketches/ art of the Sticky Fingers concept…?
@mickjagger: Andy kept them, all in this Pittsburgh hoarding place. I’m sure I saw them, but I never got any of them.
@raylu02: What is the song Moonlight Mile about? I named my dog after that song.
@mickjagger: It’s about your dog … It’s about being being a bit lonesome on the road, I think. I think it’s a lonesome road tune. and how being on the road too long makes you sad, wistful all those kinds of things. i wrote it in london at my house.
For Ronnie Wood:
@mickjagswag: did you know what you were getting into when you joined the stones.
@ronniewood: I think i did. I bumped into on a few occasions, mick charlie and keith i knew mick taylor from before. I think when i made my firrst solo album in 1974 keith came over for the evening and and stayed four months. i knew that was the start of a good friendship. we actually prepared it’s only rock and roll in my basement in richmond
@Wildaboutmusic: you fine gentlemen are even better live now than when I saw you in the 80s. Explain yourselves!
@ronniewood: you got that right! we are better live now, I don’t know what’s happened. every time we go into rehearsals, like now, after this interview, I’m going to go back and enjoy the next stage of the rehearsals we’re in now. They’re fun and the music is high quality, it’s getting higher, I don’t know we’re going to explode one day i think.
@twogun69: How do you keep your hair looking so good playing for 2 + hours on stage? It’s fantastic!
@ronniewood: my hair is my biggest gift anyone could ever be born with. somebody up there likes me. i cut it almost every day. it’s hard to tame. i have to keep it. like one day, I have huge dog ears hanging off have to cut it off again.
For Charlie Watts, who showed obvious annoyance at his new hashtag, #charliestoocoolfortwitter
@HSAddict will you ever make a twitter account?
CW: No.
@kenhanssen: Charlie, how important is the hi hat in a rock n roll beat? Or jazz?
CW: very important.
@leeknot: Are you sick of seeing mick’s arse after all these years?
CW: No. One of the finest views in the country. I don’t really see it.
@seamusmcrot – which stones song would you like to have heard Charlie Parker or Duke Ellington cover?
CW: None of them. They’re geniuses I can’t get my head around that one. Charlie parker could play satisfaction very well. He could do it well. Sonny Rollins … played fantastically well “Waiting on a Friend,” “Neighbors,” I never dreamed he’d play on “Neighbors.”
@ juliusschrdtr: Do you get butterflies?
CW: Always, even if playing in a bar with two people.
Several people noted that the Q and A may not have actually been live, as reported, and that in fact, the responses were taped ahead of time, as evidenced from some editing that one astute Twitterer found.
But some of the questions that went unanswered were clearly some of the best, and most amusing, including everything from “What tea do you drink?” by @dr_ziggy, to “What are your views on today’s music?” by @devonkearney.
Here are some of the others.
@chadtrudgeon: what was your last day job?
@hdiallo: how did you all get so much soul?
@FROGGY_LBC: Would you still be rivals (let it bleed) if all the beatles had lived and were touring today?
@real_table: Are all of your songs w a name in the title based on an actual person you know?
And some funny miscellaneous ones we would have like to have seen get an answer:
Why does jagger looks like grandma?
Why don’t you bugger off?
Will you go to prom with me?
Would it be possible to wish my mom a happy birthday?