The 1972 'STP' Tour: Exile on Main St., the 'Battered Wreck' jet, and 'Cocksucker Blues'

The Rolling Stones’ 1972 North American tour—officially dubbed the “Stones Touring Party” (STP)—is the stuff of rock ’n’ roll legend, not just for the shows but for the sheer chaos that surrounded them. It was the band’s first full tour since 1969 and their first with the new Exile on Main St. material. The tour plane, a Lockheed JetStar nicknamed the “Battered Wreck,” became a mobile den of drugs, booze, and groupies. Keith Richards later called it “a party on wings.”

The real fascination, though, is the documentary footage shot by Robert Frank. Hired by the band to make a concert film, Frank instead captured backstage sex, heroin injections, and general debauchery so raw that the Stones sued to suppress it. Cocksucker Blues was finished in 1972 but was almost never shown publicly—a court order limits screenings to once a year, with Frank or a band member present. The film is less a rock doc and more an ethnographic nightmare of fame spiraling into addiction. If you ever get a chance to see a legal screening, go.