How Keith Richards's 'Talk Is Cheap' Responded to Mick Jagger's Solo Ambitions After 'Dirty Work'

The Stones were barely a band during the Dirty Work sessions in 1985–86. Mick Jagger was more interested in promoting his first solo album She’s the Boss, showing up late or not at all, while Keith Richards tried to hold the sessions together at a Paris studio. The friction is baked into the record — scrappy, unfocused, with Jagger’s vocals often sounding detached. Richards later called the album “a piece of shit” and admitted the two weren’t speaking much.

Richards channeled all that