In a new interview, Ronnie Wood says he associates his start in the band with their secret shows at the venue, a wild era that inspired the band's new album Foreign Tongues. A new single from the album is slated for June 26.
The Rolling Stones are throwing it back to their early days in Toronto.
In a new interview with the Canadian Press, the legendary band's guitarist Ronnie Wood reveals that the Rolling Stones' forthcoming album Foreign Tongues, set for release on July 10, is largely inspired by the period in which the band played its legendary shows at El Mocambo in Toronto in 1977.
Wood recalls getting his start in the band around the same time and the chaos and incidents that were occurring at the time. He fell sick around those shows, and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards famously raided his hotel room and drank his champagne in jest, which Wood called his "initiation" into the band. The RCMP had also raided Keith Richards and his then-girlfriend for heroin possession, adding to the trip's rambunctious nature.
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"That started in Canada. The Cockroaches and the El Mocambo was a great initiation time for me. Great fun," Wood says.
Back in 1977, the legendary band used the Cockroaches pseudonym to advertise an intimate concert at the 300-person venue, where this unknown act was set to open for the Canadian rock band April Wine. Instead of headlining, April Wine opened the show, and the Stones were revealed to be the real headliners, treating fans to an intimate show by one of the world's biggest bands.
These concerts were referenced in the unique rollout for "Rough & Twisted," one of the two lead singles for Foreign Tongues, which was secretly released under the Cockroaches moniker as a limited vinyl run sold in select Canadian record stores for Record Store Day in April. There was also a Cockroaches promotional website set up ahead of the single release, which featured the pseudonym and a poster for the El Mocambo shows featuring the Rolling Stones' logo. The same artwork was used for El Mocambo 1977, a live album of the legendary Toronto stint that was released in 2022, almost 45 years later.
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The carefree and rowdy nature of that era has since inspired this new record, down to how the songs have been structured. Wood claims that he has numerous guitar solos across the album, which reflects that carefree energy from over 40 years ago. "I said, 'Mick, I want more solos. He said, 'Ronnie, you've got a solo on every bloody song!'" Wood explained in the interview.
Wood also teased several songs from the new record, saying that the band "got that energy back and that drive." The album is also set to have tributes, including a cover of the late British singer Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good" (2006) and a track titled "Back in Your Life" that pays homage to late friends, which Wood personally dedicated to the famed American singer-songwriters Brian Wilson and Sly Stone.
As the rollout for Foreign Tongues continues, lots of content is on the way. The band released a trailer for an upcoming podcast titled Speaking in Tongues, a six-episode series narrated by Norah Jones and featuring interviews with Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards that is set to take fans behind the scenes and into the band's songwriting process. The group also announced a new single titled "Jealous Lover," which drops June 26.
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Foreign Tongues is out July 10, with 14 tracks and contributions from Paul McCartney, Robert Smith of The Cure, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Steve Winwood.
