Hackney Diamonds, The Rolling Stones’ first album of original material in 18 years, is here. To celebrate, the legendary band played a short set at a 500-seat club in New York City, which included famous audience members like Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Mary Kate Olsen, Chris Rock, Jimmy Fallon, Trevor Noah, Taylor Hill, Christie Brinkley, Ed Burns, Keegan-Michael Key, Minka Kelly, Christy Turlington, Diana Krall, and Elvis Costello, per Variety. Though the band was sans late drummer Charlie Watts, his hand-picked stand-in Steve Jordan played percussion for Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger, and by all reports brought the house down. Plus, the band was joined on stage by none other than Lady Gaga.
According to Rolling Stone, the band of the same name played a few old songs along with the new, including “Shattered,” “Tumblin’ Dice,” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” as well as Hackey Diamonds tracks “Angry” and “Whole Wide World.” Gaga joined the group for their encore, performing their new collaboration “Sweet Sound Of Heaven.” (Stevie Wonder, though not present at the show, is also featured on the album track.)
The album launch also included a performance of the new track “Bite My Head Off,” which on the album features bass playing from none other than Paul McCartney. “He had been doing some work with [producer] Andrew Watt as well, and happened to be around and dropped by,” Richards told Guitar Player of the iconic Beatles/Stones crossover. “I don’t even think he intended to play bass on a track, but once he was in there, I just said, ‘Come on, you’re in. You ain’t leaving till you play.’”
The song is a hilariously grumpy rocker: “Why ya bite my head off, acting such a jerkoff,” Jagger sings. “You think I’m your bitch, I’m fucking with your brain.” Putting on a Scouse accent over the interlude, he calls out, “C’mon Paul, let’s hear something.”
“The school boy! He was so happy,” Wood told NME of the collaboration with McCartney. The guitarist also teased more to come in the future: “He actually played on two tracks, one which we’ve got up our sleeve for, you know, more music to come because we cut about 23 songs and we only picked the first 12.”