(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Fri 13 March 2026 4:00, UK
Ageing rockstars constantly seem to be gripped by the mutual fear that rock and roll is dying out.
“The band thing at the moment is pretty dead,” Noel Gallagher once told Gibson, lamenting that there is no new Oasis, wondering, “Where are the 14-year-olds in bands now?” and Keith Richards seems to feel the same as he wants to take one vital The Rolling Stones album and mail it to all the teenagers as if its their duty to save the genre.
But the genre is doing just fine. If Gallagher were only to genuinely open his eyes and look around, rather than just ranting to the press, he’d find not only plenty of 14-year-olds still cobbling bands together in their garage, but also a huge and healthy class of exciting new rock acts are blooming everywhere.
Even in terms of rock and roll acts, Richards would find the same. Old rockstars constantly seem to be afraid that they’re the final and dying faces, the last ones that know the truth and the fading beacons of real, good music, but the kids are more than alright when you start looking towards Westside Cowboy, Divorce, TTSSFU, and so many more.
Gallagher’s gripes are static as always, as the ‘90s legend rarely does anything to actually help 2020s rising stars. For Richards, however, when asked if there was one gift he’d like to impart on the incoming class of rock and roll, the Stones record he’d choose to have them all sit down and listen to is interesting.
“You expect to be rejected by the next generation because that’s what they do. But there seems to be some thread in what we do that busts through all that,” he said with some awareness that rock music always endures. In particular, he thinks the band’s 1972 record should be the one that lives on, stating that if he could show all 14-year-olds one album, he’d pick “Exile On Main Street, mainly because it’s a double album, so there’s more range on it. But it also is the pointer.”
It’s an interesting choice because when it came out, Exile was largely slammed by critics for being inconsistent, since the band were experimenting with so much across the 18 tracks. There were also complaints about the actual recorded quality of the album, as the band made it during their tax exile, meaning it was crafted across a few different locations, including just their home, so it didn’t seem quite as polished in that regard. Over time, it has come to be considered one of their most essential, most interesting and most impactful records. “It’s amazing,” Richards deemed it, “We had to fight to put that one out, but eventually everybody got it”.
So perhaps more than wanting to pass the album down for its various riffs and lyrics, that’s the kicker. When Richards said it’s “the pointer”, what he meant was that Exile On Main Street is a point for how to be a band and the need to overcome obstacles to show endurance.
When the world collapsed around the Stones, forcing them out of the UK, they could have just given in, yet this 1972 album stands testament to resilience more than anything, and for 14-year-olds just starting out in music, Richards might be the person who knows that’s what they’re going to need.