Rolling Stones Announce 2019 U.S. Stadium Tour
By Jem Aswad
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The Rolling Stones, who have toured every year since 2012 and whose principals are all in their 70s, have announced a North American tour for next year that launches April 20 in Florida and wrap in Chicago on June 21. The initial announcement includes 13 dates, however there are several days between each tour date so additional shows seem likely, even with the Stones’ average of 3-4 days between shows. The dates, which appear in full below and are an extension of the group’s 2018 “No Filter” tour, were first announced by Rolling Stone .
“It’s a thrill when we play stadiums in the States,” Mick Jagger said in a statement, “the energy is always amazing!”
Keith Richards added, “I’ve always loved playing the states. It’s a great crowd.”
The group has been teasing the announcement for several weeks, with banners featuring its iconic logo hanging at football stadiums and various other hints.
Rather than doing months-long campaigns as they did over the past few decades, the group’s strategy over the past five years has been to do a dozen-odd shows per continent every few months. The group’s most recent tour, the European segement of “No Filter,” had a first leg spanning September and October of 2017 and concluded with a second run spanning May to July of this year. The Stones toured Latin America in 2016; they last toured North America in 2015, although the group has performed in Las Vegas, at the Desert Trip festival and at a pair of private gigs in the States since then.
While the group continues work on a new studio album, Abkco, which curates the group’s early catalog, is celebrating the 1968 Stones with three special releases emanating from that year : a remastered and repackaged “Beggars Banquet” vinyl reissue; a restored version of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Sympathy for the Devil” film (which documents the Stones recording the titular song); and, early next year, an expanded reissue of the legendary “Rock and Roll Circus” video and album.
Shortly after the tour was announced, Jagger and Richards did a brief but exclusive Q&A on iHeartRadio, hosted by New York Q104.3 host Jim Kerr. Excerpts follow.
Kerr: What can we expect when we see you next year?
Richards: Well, first off, it’s great to be there playing back in America actually. It’s been a while, basically our stomping grounds from the early ’60s, so I always feel like I’m coming home. We finished off a few months ago in Europe and it just felt so good that when they said, “Do you want to do the States?” “Yeah!,” because I didn’t want to get off, I thought we were just getting going.
Kerr: The band has been on a pretty consistent role when it comes to performing with tours – how do the instead of dialing it down, keep turning it up?
Jagger: Well, we’ve been pretty regularly on the road – we’ve not been doing long, long, long stints we’ve been doing a lot of short ones. Last year we did a lot in UK and a little bit in Europe. We’re keeping our hand in and not getting too rusty, I hope. I haven’t been to quite a few of these places in a while.
Kerr: What’s your personal training regimen like to get ready for those gigantic big stages?
Jagger: Well, pretty stupidly, I made the stage even wider and a bit longer.
Richards: Oh, thanks a lot, Mick.
Jagger: Between these tours I have to keep a sort of plateau of fitness, so after I talk to you I’m probably going to go into the gym. I do a little bit of sprints and jogs, and I do dancing.
Richards: If Mick can do it, I can do it.
Kerr: This year, we’ve seen a lot of pretty prominent artists announce that they are embarking on farewell tours. You have never said that:
Richards: No, other people have always said this could be the last one. I never think of it that way, no: This is a “hello again” tour.
Kerr: Would there be separate set list for United Kingdom than for the Unites States?
Jagger: It will be slightly different, you know, if I do my research I can see that there are certain songs that might be popular in one place. Say slightly different songs in France might be more popular than, say, in Britain. I mean, not all of them, but there are slightly regional variations. I do look at it and go, “That’s a big song here, so we can do that instead of this one.”
Kerr: Do you lobby for any specific songs in the setlist?
Richards: Oh yes, I do, I do push a few in – “Under My Thumb” we started on again. I had an old one we did called “Cry To Me,” an old Solomon Burke song, which I broke into rehearsals. It didn’t make it yet on stage but I’m going to keep pushing that one.
Kerr: What is the meaning behind calling the tour, “No Filter”
Jagger: “It’s supposed to mean that it’s pretty straight-ahead, and no frills.”
Rolling Stones 2019 U.S. Tour Dates
April 20 – Miami Gardens, FL @ Hard Rock Stadium
April 24 – Jacksonville, FL @ TIAA Bank Field
April 28 – Houston, TX@ NRG Stadium
May 7 – Glendale, AZ @ State Farm Stadium
May 11 – Pasadena, CA @ The Rose Bowl
May 18 – Santa Clara, CA @ Levi’s Stadium
May 22 – Seattle, WA @ CenturyLink Field
May 26 – Denver, CO @ Broncos Stadium at Mile High
May 31 – Washington, D.C. @ FedExField
June 4 – Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field
June 8 – Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium
June 13 – East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
June 21 – Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
