Blondshell on her love for The Rolling Stones: “Intimate, up close, really sweet personal moments”
“Would you let your daughter marry a member of The Rolling Stones?” is one of the best marketing campaigns in music history because it’s only partially down to their look. Sure, they were young men who looked rough, but they sounded it too. Their music was gritty, raunchy rock ‘n’ roll stuffed with riffs, pounding drums and led by Mick Jagger’s catty, spiteful howl. All things you’d expect an up-and-coming rock musician like Blondshell to be into as well, right?
After all, it would make sense. The influence that The Stones have on rock ‘n’ roll as we know it might legitimately be second only to The Beatles themselves. While the artist born Sabrina Mae Teitelbaum might have come around over 30 years after the original release of ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, it stands to reason that they’d shape her music at least a little. Perhaps even more than that, considering that The Stones were her first ever concert!
The truth is, The Stones are a big influence on her work, but not in the way you might think. After all, Blondshell’s music may carry a rock star kick to it. At least, on record, however, hers has a dreamy, poppy edge all her own. One that takes it far away from the raucous likes of ‘Gimme Shelter’, ‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Rip This Joint’. However, that doesn’t mean she didn’t take great inspiration from them, just from an underrated part of their discography.
For all the danger, edge and heaviness, The Stones had a softer, sweeter side that was always on the verge of breaking through. Sure, this is a band capable of some of the most banging riffs in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, but they were also capable of ‘She’s a Rainbow’, ‘As Tears Go By’ and ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want‘. This was the side that Teitelbaum took to her heart, and it is one you can hear in her music.
Which Rolling Stones song does Blondshell love?
During an interview with The Line of Best Fit, Blondshell talked about which Rolling Stones song is closest to her heart. Of all their sparkling back catalogue, she picked out the lesser-known gem ‘Fool To Cry’, the sole single from their 13th studio album, 1976’s ‘Black and Blue’. An out-there pick perhaps, but one that is clearly close to Teitelbaum’s heart.
She even compares it with another Stones classic she says has a similar feel, saying, “There’s a song of theirs called ‘Worried About You’ and that has a similar Mick Jagger falsetto thing that this song has, and I think it’s really nice when you have a band that’s famous for these super big songs that show more intimate, up close, really sweet personal moments, and this song is like one of those for me.”
It’s clear that she knows her stuff about The Stones, too, and not just from an appreciation standpoint. The band have influenced the music of Blondshell more directly, as she discussed in an interview with Rolling Stone (fittingly). When talking about her single ‘T&A’, she explained how the song is a direct callback to a Stones number with a similar title.
She said, “There’s a Rolling Stones song on Tattoo You called ‘Little T&A’ and at one point in the song, he says ‘tits and ass’, so I’m borrowing that. I think in music, it’s easy to see things as either more sexualised or more romantic, and I wanted this to be both.” If those aren’t the words of someone who isn’t just a fan of Jagger, Richards and co, but genuinely understands them, too, then I don’t know what is.
