Why the Stones Ended 'Hackney Diamonds' With a Muddy Waters Cover That Gave Them Their Name

The Rolling Stones named themselves after a Muddy Waters song. So it only made sense that on what could be their final album, they’d close the curtain by covering that very track. “Rolling Stone Blues” isn’t just any Muddy Waters song—it’s the one that inspired the band’s name back in 1962, when Brian Jones called the local paper looking for musicians and used that title as the group’s moniker.

By placing it as the last song on Hackney Diamonds, their first album of new material in 18 years, the Stones essentially wrote their own eulogy. They’re acknowledging that the band started with that blues song and, after six decades, they’re signing off with the same raw, unadorned 12-bar blues. No studio polish, just Mick Jagger on harmonica, Keith Richards on acoustic guitar, and a bass drum—a stripped-back return to the sound that made them want to play rock & roll in the first place. It’s a quiet, knowing wink that says: this is where we came from, and this is where we end.