Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have both been detailing stories of the legendary rock n roll excess which was such a huge part in the making of their landmark 1972 release ‘Exile On Main St.‘ over the last few days.
Speaking to XFM for an interview to be broadcast on the station’s Rock Show this Saturday, Richards, who is credited with playing a leading role in the sound and direction of the LP, said the making of the album was ‘Hitleresque’: “It was hard work down there”, he remembered. “It was a bit like stoking the boilers. It was the height of the summer in the south of France and it did get pretty sticky down there, it had a dust floor. It was kind of Hitleresque.”
Meanwhile, Mick Jagger, who has generally tried to downplay the amount of drug-taking which is said to have gone on during the album’s recording , has admitted to Absolute Radio that the band-members did indulge in some drugs, but insisted it wasn’t as widespread as is often claimed: “That was a period of time when everyone took loads of drugs, it was very fashionable, but I mean, we did a lot of hard work as well,” he said. “So it was a bit of a party atmosphere, loads of visitors, you know, there was a lot of drugs floating around, but not everyone was completely out of it all the time and we did a lot of good tracks, you know.
I don’t remember how bad it was. Drug taking tends to be kind of semi-secretive for a lot of people, so you don’t ever really know, and it’s not a sort of breakfast question, ‘How much heroin did you take? Oh did you? Oh I only took, you know, five milligrams’.”
The making of the legendary album, which took place largely at the Villa Nellcôte in the South of France when The Rolling Stones were UK tax exiles, has become almost as famous as the record itself, and has been the subject of many books and documentaries over the years. A new documentary entitled ‘Stones In Exile‘, which will tell the story of the album from the group’s point of view, will be broadcast in the UK on May 23rd. A deluxe re-issue of the album to coincide with the documentary will be released on May 17th.