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\n\tHot off their best rock album Grammy win in 2025 for Hackney Diamonds<\/em>, T<\/a>he Rolling Stones<\/a> come roaring back this month with a new (and even better) album, Foreign Tongues.<\/em> For the latest Billboard<\/em> cover story<\/a>, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards sat down with me (separately \u2013 Mick in London, Keith in New York) to talk about famous guests on the album, their songwriting processes and if technology has changed their studio dynamic.<\/p>\n \n\tSince debuting 63 years ago, the Stones have recorded through numerous technological evolutions. \u201c[When] we started off, it was two-track [tape],\u201d Richards told Billboard<\/em> inside the Roxy Hotel\u2019s Django Room. \u201cThat was cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me. Within a year it was four. You always had these technological leaps \u2013 before you knew it, the 16-track. There was always something new on the plate to play around with. And you\u2019d say, \u2018Not another push button.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe latest \u201cpush button\u201d that tech innovators are throwing at music creators is artificial intelligence<\/a>, which has provoked heated debate about human agency in art and what legal protections creators should have against those who would train AI<\/a> to imitate them without compensation.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cObviously I don\u2019t want to be imitated by AI, vocally and instrumentally, and the band doesn\u2019t,\u201d Jagger stated definitely while speaking to Billboard<\/em> in London. \u201cI don\u2019t want people just putting stuff out there that can sound exactly like The Rolling Stones \u2014 I think that\u2019s obviously wrong. If someone wants to make music by AI, go ahead. But it has to be original \u2014 you have to have your own input and your own thoughts. There are people who use AI to just make a song from scratch, in the style of The Rolling Stones. If you were any kind of creative person, you wouldn\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Glimmer Twins might not agree on everything, but their thoughts on AI dovetail. \u201cI\u2019d rather hear something original,\u201d Richards stated. \u201cMusic could do a lot better than just trying to copy itself. After all, it\u2019s pretty simple stuff \u2014 this is not Beethoven or Bach, and I\u2019ve no doubt AI can do that, but so what? We want new input. We don\u2019t want more and more copying and synthesizing. At least that\u2019s my point of view. Music is to play around with. Surely there\u2019s enough originality without having to copy nursery rhymes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Stones did, however, rely at least partially on AI to create the music video for \u201cIn the Stars,\u201d one of the Foreign Tongues <\/em>tracks. While the Odessa A\u2019zion-starring clip was filmed with real actors\/musicians in vintage clothes on a real set, deepfake technology was used to superimpose the faces of Jagger, Richards and Ronnie Wood over the actors who resembled them. The final product makes it look like the Stones of yesteryear are performing a Rolling Stones song from 2026.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe had a lot of fun with that,\u201d Jagger said. \u201cIt\u2019s only the faces of the musicians that are different. They\u2019re not fake people in a fake room; they\u2019re all in a room, really playing together. The musicians are real musicians that look a bit like The Rolling Stones in 1968. The only thing was the faces. So they worked on mine first, and it kind of looked like me, but not really \u2014 like one of my children when they were 23 or something. And then I saw Ronnie, and I said to the people working on it, \u2018It looks more like Jeff Beck,\u2019\u201d he continued, referencing the British guitar god Wood used to play with as part of the Jeff Beck Group in the late \u201860s. \u201cSo they had to do a bit extra work.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThat\u2019s our brushing with AI,\u201d Richards mused. \u201cI said, \u2018Very nice. I wish I looked like that now.\u2019 But maybe that\u2019s what they\u2019re good for \u2014 music videos. Put it in its proper place. It\u2019s a cartoon of me, younger. \u2018Very nice. What\u2019s for breakfast?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor Richards, even the concept of a music video is a bit suspect.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe idea of video and music together \u2014 I knew it was a disaster way back in the \u201970s,\u201d he told me. \u201cYou can\u2019t shove the ears and the eyes together and say, \u2018Here it is, look at this.\u2019 But that\u2019s the commercial end of the business, and you duck and dive. The video became, for a while, more important than the record \u2014 which is where it really screwed it up for me as a viable thing. It was just, \u2018Have you seen the new video?\u2019 \u2018No \u2014 I just made a record.\u2019 But that\u2019s just me being ornery, probably.\u201d<\/p>\n