“A great boost”: The song that gave Keith Richards his drummer
If an artist decides they’re going to go solo or pursue an entirely different project, surely the point would be to completely distance themselves from the work they had previously created with their other band in order to further separate the identities of the two projects. If Damon Albarn had enlisted the help of Graham Coxon, Alex James or Dave Rowntree to create the first Gorillaz album, then would it really have been a new project, or would it just have been a remarkably different Blur album?
The point is that it’s a good thing for an artist to branch out and attempt something different, no matter whether the end result ends up being worthwhile or an utter disaster. The desire to create something that fully captures your own creative ambitions without having to bend to the preferences of those you’re constantly having to compromise with lives within many artists, and even if it does spark the end of another project, it’s easy to understand and empathise with most decisions to go in a different direction.
Sure, it might lead to some awkwardness with your current bandmates when you approach the subject of going it alone, telling them that you won’t be requiring their services for some time while you pursue a different dream, but then again, there’s nothing that can halt the other members from following a different path in the meantime either.
In 1987, while Mick Jagger was pursuing his own solo career and causing a few rifts in the Rolling Stones’ camp in the process, guitarist Keith Richards sought to do exactly the same thing, and formed his own group, the X-Pensive Winos. While the band were simply a backing group used by Richards for his three solo albums, there was a consistency to the group that would accompany him on his releases, and the fashion in which they came about is partially down to the blessing of another of Richards’ Rolling Stones bandmates.
Having worked alongside drummer Steve Jordan on Aretha Franklin’s 1986 cover of the Stones’ hit ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ for the film of the same name, Richards became friends with the drummer, although he admitted in a 1992 interview with Guitar Player that “we had been looking at each other for several years.”
When Richards mentioned to the Rolling Stones’ own drummer, Charlie Watts, that he was looking to break away from the rest of the band to record his own solo material, Watts allegedly told the guitarist: “If you’re gonna work with somebody else, work with Jordan.”
Richards was taken aback by Watts’s response to his inquiry, and he expressed his delight at the positive way in which Watts had approved of him working with another musician. “I had Charlie’s blessing on that one,” claimed Richards, “so that was a great boost.”
While the X-Pensive Winos recorded three albums alongside Richards in 1988, 1992 and 2015, the Rolling Stones would return to action as a group and have continued to release music, with their latest release, Hackney Diamonds, being released in 2023, proving that there can be harmony between bands and their respective side projects when handled in such a way.
