Why The Rolling Stones Finally Made 'Hackney Diamonds' After 18 Years

The Rolling Stones hadn’t released an album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang — not out of writer’s block, but because Jagger and Richards hit a creative stalemate and tours were more profitable. The real catalyst for Hackney Diamonds was Charlie Watts’ death in 2021. Watts had been the band’s rhythmic anchor and his passing made Jagger, Richards, and Wood realize that if they wanted one more original record with the classic lineup, they had to do it immediately.

The actual recording started with leftover ideas from the Blue & Lonesome sessions and some riffs Richards had been sitting on. But the emotional push came from Watts himself — he had privately told Jagger before he died that he wanted the band to make one more proper album. His blessing gave the project a sense of purpose. The Stones brought in producer Andrew Watt (no relation) to shake things up, and they booked time with Paul McCartney and Elton John as guests to make it feel like a celebration rather than a farewell.

Interestingly, they kept the entire project under wraps for over a year. Not even the band’s management knew they were making an album until just before the announcement. The secrecy was deliberate: they wanted to avoid the pressure of a “last album” narrative. Hackney Diamonds ended up being a defiant, high-energy record that sounds nothing like a band trying to wrap things up — it’s them making one more stab at being a great rock band, on their own terms.