Coming to Epix on August 7th is the four-part docuseries, My Life As A Rolling Stone. The specials, produced in conjunction with the band in celebration of its 60th anniversary, will feature an hour-long look each on Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, and the late-Charlie Watts. Neither former members Bill Wyman nor Mick Taylor will be given their own spotlight docs.
Rolling Stone reported the shows’ co-directors — Oliver Murray and Clare Travenor — are no strangers in covering rock’s original bad boys with Murray directing the 2019 doc on co-founding bassist Bill Wyman, The Quiet One, and Travenor behind the camera for TV special based around Keith Richards’ memoir, Life.
Back in April, when the British rights for the series were picked up by the BBC, The Guardian reported the films would feature, “unseen footage and exclusive stories from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood interwoven with new and archive interviews and performance,’while the Watts film is told through his bandmates and peers. Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, Steven Tyler, Chrissie Hynde, Slash, and PP Arnold are among those who have contributed to the films.”
Although the Rolling Stones have always been dealing with the shadow of their early days — Mick Jagger explained that for the most part, they remain one of the lucky bands not lumped in with any particular era or decade: “I find it fascinating when I hear other people talking about it and other groups copying certain periods. I don’t find it, very, kind of, interesting to look back too much. You can’t ignore what you were, but I think to kind of take that stuff too seriously. . . I’m glad that the Stones aren’t labeled a ”60’s band’ — and I find increasingly that they’re not. They’re just not completely tracked in there. That’s taken quite a lot of effort.”
Keith Richards said that more often than not over the years, he’s been the one to lead the charge when it comes to the studio: “I always am for that, because, y’know, the guitars and drums — I have to play and I have to get them to play, y’know? So that Mick has something (laughs) decent to sing to. I mean, I am the winder-upper in that respect, yeah.”
The Rolling Stones next play on June 25th at London’s Hyde Park.