Artificial intelligence is the new technological innovation. What do you think about AI in music?

Richards My thoughts are: I’d rather hear something original. Music could do a lot better than just trying to copy itself. After all, it’s pretty simple stuff — this is not Beethoven or Bach, and I’ve no doubt AI can do that, but so what? We want new input. We don’t want more and more copying and synthesizing. At least that’s my point of view. Music is to play around with. Surely there’s enough originality without having to copy nursery rhymes.

Jagger Obviously I don’t want to be imitated by AI, vocally and instrumentally, and the band doesn’t. I don’t want people just putting stuff out there that can sound exactly like The Rolling Stones — I think that’s obviously wrong. If someone wants to make music by AI, go ahead. But it has to be original — 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’t do that.

You guys were doing commercial synchs before most major rock bands — you had “Start Me Up” in the Windows 95 launch. At the time, people gave you some grief for that, but now it’s standard practice to have a song in a commercial. Did it bother you guys back then?

Jagger No. We knew we were doing something that was going to become the norm, honestly. Like when we did sponsorship for tours, people said, “What is that?” I said, “Well, it’s going to become the norm.” And this is the total norm now. This is America; this is how it works.

Richards It depends. If you’re going to sell out, it depends how you sell out.

Do you see yourselves touring behind this album? Or perhaps doing a residency?

Jagger I don’t know at the moment, honestly. I would like to tour. I like touring, like going to people. If it can only be a residency, it can only be a residency. But the thing about a residency — the only downside for people is that it’s much more expensive for the further-out people that want to come and see the show.

Richards I know that this is all being kicked around. This year, we just decided, “Look, let’s get the record out, and let’s not rush things.” So I see no reason why next year — I don’t see anything this year, I can’t rush it that much — but I see no reason why next year, good Lord willing, we shouldn’t be able to, as you say, maybe a residency, something. Maybe you find a different way of taking the thing on the road. Bring the road to us. That’s my suggestion.

“Mr. Charm” might be my favorite song on the album. There’s a line in it, “the darkest days of 1916.” Is that a reference to the Battle of Somme in World War I? Mick, are you a history buff?

Jagger Somme or Ypres. I can’t remember which. I am a history buff, but I don’t know why it came to me to throw that in there as a seductive line. (Laughs.) I was just showing off.

What are you reading now?

Jagger It’s not so much a history, it’s an argument between physicists about what happened before the Big Bang. It’s a layman’s thing. The whole argument is, if we accept that the Big Bang happened, which not everyone does, then what did it come from? Did it come from nothing, or what happened before the Big Bang? There are lots of different scientists with different theories about what this could be. It hasn’t been figured out yet, and probably never will.

If you’re not touring or recording, what are you doing on a given day? You wake up, what’s next?

Richards “Wake up” is important. After that, it depends on the weather. If there’s no fixed plans for the day, let’s see where the day takes me. I’m spoiled in that way, that I can basically turn the day on or turn the day off if I wish. Who’s arrived? The grandkids. And we’ll get into that area of life. You get beaten up a lot. (Laughs.) It’s a whole new thing for me. It creeps up on you. You try and get to know them. It’s a fascinating thing — enjoying it very much.