The Stones’ new album, “Hackney Diamonds”, is the first since the death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021. His successor, Steve Jordan, was (almost) already part of the group.
Rolling Stones fans have been waiting for new music for 18 years. Their 24th album was released on the night of Thursday October 19 to Friday October 20. His name is Hackney Diamonds and we find there the last participations of drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021. But also, on most of the titles, the one who replaced him: Steve Jordan.
Charlie Watts is there on two tracks of the album but on the first singles released, Angry And Sweet Sounds of Heaven, the drums are entrusted to another artist. Ten of the twelve tracks take place with the successor that Charlie Watts had chosen himself, which suited Keith Richards and his friends well: “Thanks to Charlie Watts, we have Steve Jordan, who was his go-to in times of trouble, and yes, it would have been a lot harder without his blessing.”.
Steve Jordan, 66, is no stranger to the group. “The meeting with the Stones was a bit due to chance and the bad habit that the Stones had, in the mid-1980s, of being stoned 24 hours a dayexplains Belkacem Bahlouli, editor-in-chief of the magazine Rolling Stone. Charlie Watts was really, really addicted. He was no longer able to play. That’s when Jagger and Richards decided to recruit Steve Jordan on drums to replace him.” It was in 1986, on the album Dirty Work.
“It’s Charlie Watts who is credited on the ‘Dirty Work’ album, but it’s already Steve Jordan who blended into the style, down to the millimeter, of Charlie Watts”
Belkacem Bahlouli, editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone magazineat franceinfo
Jordan was already touring with quite a few stars. He started behind Stevie Wonder, he found himself in the Blues Brothers adventure. It doesn’t come from the Stones, and that’s what pleases it, according to the magazine’s editor-in-chief Rolling Stone : “Basically, he’s not just a rock drummer. He played jazz, classical percussion, etc. He brought another approach to rock’n’roll by adding little elements that were a little more funky than ‘especially loved Keith Richards’. It was he who hired him at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. “Keith Richards recruited him for his first and second solo albums. And better, I think Mick Jagger invited him to compose a Stones song on an album”, underlines Belkacem Bahlouli. It was the piece Almost Hear You Sigh. When Charlie Watts fell ill, Steve Jordan was logically called back for the tour, then for the album.
“And at that moment, it became clear that Steve Jordan was really the man for the job because he understood everything about the Stones group. Listening to the album, you see that the together works, and to perfection”estimates the editor-in-chief of the magazine Rolling Stone.