9 Fifty Years and Counting

CHAPTER 9 Fifty Years and Counting By the early 1990s, the Stones had been playing together for thirty years. This new decade brought some changes to the band. Bill Wyman decided to leave the Stones. Charlie released a solo jazz album with the Charlie Watts Orchestra. Ron, Mick, and Keith each released solo albums. Ron, who had always been an artist, held exhibitions of his paintings.

But the band was unstoppable. They signed a multimillion dollar record deal with Virgin Records. In 1994, they toured for their album Voodoo Lounge, with Darryl Jones replacing Bill. During that tour, one of their Dallas performances became the first major live concert to be streamed over the Internet. The album won them a Grammy, an award given for outstanding work in the music industry, for best rock album. Once that world tour ended, they started another tour to promote their album Bridges to Babylon.

The band was still going strong. The Stones were all in their fifties. They seemed to have more energy than ever before. When someone asked if this tour was their last one, Keith answered, "Yes—and the next five." The Stones continued to work hard to write music, make albums, and perform for fans.

They released albums and held large-scale tours into the 2000s. In 2002, the Rolling Stones released Forty Licks to mark their forty years together. No other rock band in the world had played together that long. Their Bigger Bang tour lasted for two years, from August 2005 to August 2007. It included the halftime show at the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit, Michigan. On

the football field, they played on a stage shaped like their own logo: a gigantic lips and tongue. The tour included 147 concerts to about four and a half million people in thirty-two countries around the world. The band kept on doing what they did best: playing rock and roll.

Dread Pirate Richards Keith Richards's well-known style—head scarf, earrings, black eye makeup, and silver rings—became the inspiration for Johnny Depp's character, Captain Jack Sparrow, in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. In 2008, Keith himself appeared as Captain Jack's father in the third movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.