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In the new issue of Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and producer Don Was tell the story behind the Rolling Stones upcoming Exile on Main Street reissue, which is due May 18th in a variety of special editions — several of which feature 10 never-before-heard Stones tracks from the Exile era. At the end of our phoner with Richards, we asked about the possibility of a new Stones studio album in the near future. “There’s no definite plans, but I can’t see any of them stopping,” he says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we did some recording later this year.” But the guitarist admits he’s uncertain whether any sort of tour would follow. “I don’t know how the rest of them feel about roadwork at the moment,” he tells RS. “Maybe we’ll search for a different way for the Stones to go back on the road. Maybe not the football stadiums anymore. Maybe something different. You can’t go around there in lemon-yellow tights forever.”

The intimate Rolling Stones: photos from the band’s 1969 tour.

Richards also addressed reports he had stopped drinking. “Listen, the rumors of my sobriety are greatly exaggerated,” he says. “And we’ll leave it at that.”

See the new issue of Rolling Stone for much more on the new Exile on Main Street reissue, Keith’s forthcoming memoir, the documentary that Johnny Depp is currently prepping about his life, and the next Stones album.

Related Stories:

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• The Rolling Stones Photo Gallery
• The Rolling Stones to Reissue Most Recent 14 Albums

Photo: AFP/Getty
The Rolling Stones’ classic Exile on Main Street — one of Rolling Stone’s highest-ranking Greatest Albums of All Time — is returning as a very special reissue. On May 18th, Universal Music Group is re-releasing the album with 10 never-before-heard tracks, including “Plundered My Soul,” “Dancing in the Light,” “Following the River” and “Pass the Wine,” that were produced by Jimmy Miller, the Glimmer Twins and Don Was. The disc also features alternate versions of “Soul Survivor” and “Loving Cup.”

Mick Jagger tells Rolling Stone when the record company asked him to dive in his files for possible bonus songs, he initially believed the band had used all they’d written on the 1972 double album (read RS’s original review). “I went back in the archives and dug out a load of things,” he says. “I added some percussion and some vocals. Keith put guitar on one or two.” Jagger wrote fresh lyrics for “Following the River,” but other than some light revisions to the other songs, “I really wanted to leave them pretty much as they were,” Keith Richards says. “I didn’t want to interfere with the Bible, you know. They still had that great basement sound.”

The intimate Rolling Stones: photos from the band’s 1969 tour.

A deluxe edition of the reissue will also include Stones in Exile, a documentary directed by Stephen Kijak that tracks the making of Exile, along with footage from Cocksucker Blues and Ladies and Gentlemen… the Rolling Stones. After seeing the Exile film for the first time recently, Richards says, “I must not have noticed all the cameramen while I was making the record. I was amazed at how much footage they actually found.”

The Exile on Main Street reissue will be sold a CD featuring the original 18 tracks or as a deluxe CD edition with the 10 bonus tracks. The super deluxe package includes vinyl, the 30-minute documentary DVD and a 50-page collector’s book with photos from the Exile era.

For much more news on the Rolling Stones’ Exile reissue, check out the next issue of Rolling Stone, on newsstands Wednesday, March 3rd.

Related Stories:

• The Rolling Stones on Making Their Exile Masterpiece
• The Rolling Stones’ Photo Gallery
• The Rolling Stones to Reissue Most Recent 14 Albums

Photograph by Ethan Russell courtesy of Let It Bleed

This Sunday, December 6th, marks the 40th anniversary of an event Rolling Stone called “Rock & Roll’s Worst Day”: The Altamont Speedway Free Festival in California. Taking place just four months after the triumph of Woodstock, Altamont featured the complete opposite of “peace and love.” Hell’s Angels hired as security for a rumored $500 infamously got into altercations with the crowd, resulting in a homicide captured in the documentary Gimme Shelter.

“The violence just in front of the stage was incredible,” the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards said in the days following the festival. “Looking back I don’t think it was a good idea to have Hell’s Angels there.” The Stones were onstage (the performance actually featured the live debut of “Brown Sugar”) during the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter. Earlier in the day, the Hell’s Angels also punched Jefferson Airplane’s Marty Balin, knocking the singer unconscious. The Grateful Dead were also scheduled to perform at Altamont but absconded, sensing the escalating violence between the crowd and the Angels.

For more on about the history of the Altamont Festival, check out Rolling Stone’s features below, including our original report from February 1970:

• Rock & Roll’s Worst Day: The aftermath of Altamont
• “Let It Bleed”: Behind the Rolling Stones’ 1969 U.S. Tour
• Seaborne Hells Angels Bent on Killing Mick Jagger Foiled by Storm

Photograph by Mark Seliger

Over two nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden last month, rock history was made again and again: Bono, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen and more legends united on one stage to celebrate the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th anniversary with a pair of concerts featuring some of the biggest talents of the past six decades. Metallica rocked with Lou Reed. Stevie Wonder sang with Smokey Robinson. The Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie and Will.i.am joined U2 and Jagger for “Gimme Shelter.” Rolling Stone has the story behind these epic concerts, and an unprecedented look behind the scenes of one of the greatest rock events ever in our new issue, on stands today.

Get a look at all of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s inductees.

David Fricke and Brian Hiatt trace the concerts’ journey from the first entreaties to artists (Led Zeppelin declined to reunite again; David Bowie couldn’t make it) to convincing HBO to air the shows as a prime-time special on November 29th to the incredible rehearsals, where Springsteen almost rocked his voice away trading “Fortunate Son” verses with John Fogerty. The issue also features an annotated set list for every tune performed by the two epic lineups: Crosby, Stills and Nash, Paul Simon, Simon and Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on night one (see live photos); Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck, Metallica and U2 on night two (see live photos). Both shows opened with Jerry Lee Lewis and featured special team-ups that helped demonstrate the evolution of rock as a cultural force. As Jann S. Wenner — the editor and publisher of Rolling Stone and the driving force behind the concerts — writes in his editors’ notes, “To me, rock & roll has always been about soul and community. These shows had to tell a story, from the heart.”

Check out all of Bono, Jagger and Springsteen’s Rolling Stone covers.

In a series of special essays in our new issue, artists reflect on their Hall of Fame heroes: Alicia Keys reveals how Stevie Wonder taught her to break musical rules. Wayne Coyne recalls his first Black Sabbath concert. Brandon Flowers speaks about the moment he first heard “Born to Run.” Plus, there’s a guided tour of the Rock Hall and an explanation of exactly how an artists gets included into the Cleveland institution.

We’ll be revealing the Rock Hall’s most memorable moments — from Clapton reuniting Cream to Mike Love’s crazy speech — in videos and photos, as well as Mark Seliger’s exclusive backstage photos. Check out all of our Essential Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Coverage for photos, our full coverage of the anniversary concerts and much more.

Also in this issue: Adam Lambert on his influences, in the studio with My Chemical Romance, the story behind Pearl Jam’s 41-song Philly blowout and our review of Them Crooked Vultures’ anticipated debut.

A digitally remastered version of the Rolling Stones’ 1991 film Live at the Max — the first feature-length concert movie to be shot using IMAX technology — will be released on Blu-ray and DVD tomorrow, November 10th. Live at the Max was filmed during the Stones’ 1990 European tour in support of their album Steel Wheels, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. To this day, it remains the most successful IMAX concert film of all-time.

While your TV set isn’t exactly a towering IMAX screen, you still will be able to appreciate Live at the Max’s crisp picture and excellent audio quality. In addition to the Stones’ greatest hits, ranging from “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” to “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” the 90-minute film also boasts a trio of Steel Wheels songs.

Look back at the Stones’ beginnings in early photos.

The DVD release of Live at the Max comes just a week after the Rolling Stones’ reissued perhaps their most famous live document, Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert, for its own 40th anniversary. Another Stones’ film, the controversial 1972 documentary Cocksucker Blues, recently had a rare screening in New York.

Check out the track list for Live at the Max below:

1. “Continental Drift”
2. “Start Me Up”
3. “Sad Sad Sad”
4. “Tumbling Dice”
5. “Ruby Tuesday”
6. “Rock And A Hard Place”
7. “Honky Tonk Woman”
8. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
9. “Happy”
10. “Paint It Black”
11. “2,000 Light Years From Home”
12. “Sympathy For The Devil”
13. “Street Fighting Man”
14. “It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll”
15. “Brown Sugar”
16. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”

Related Stories:

• Rolling Stones’ Controversial Tour Documentary “Cocksucker Blues” Screens in New York
• Mick Jagger Joins U2, Metallica, Aretha Franklin at the Rock Hall’s Epic 25th Anniversary Bash
• Rolling Stones Reissuing “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!” With Big Bonuses