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(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
Mon 22 December 2025 16:45, UK <\/p>\n
Given the longevity of The Rolling Stones<\/a>, it\u2019s easy to forget that there was once a period when they genuinely didn\u2019t think they\u2019d survive. The music was bad, the atmosphere was worse, and the situation was really, really nasty.\u00a0<\/p>\n There had been plenty of other incredibly rocky moments for the band. As the situation with Brian Jones hit a fever pitch, the future looked troublesome. At points when Keith Richards\u2019 various addictions worsened, it seemed like a struggle too far. But there was no moment as treacherous for the group as the 1980s.<\/p>\n The decade nearly destroyed them. In a classic case of what goes up must come down, their commercial peak in the 1970s crashed into chaos. Keith Richards\u2019 heroin habit was worsening, making him more and more erratic. The mess pushed Mick Jagger further into the idea that maybe he wanted to go solo<\/a>, taking precious time away from the group to instead make some truly awful records on his own, like 1985\u2019s She\u2019s The Boss.<\/p>\n The combination of those two things led to the biggest blow-up yet between the lifelong friends. Jagger basically declared he didn\u2019t care about the band anymore, signing a solo record deal and looking away. In response, Richards called the group and Jagger a \u201cmillstone\u201d around his neck and the pair fell into a back-and-forth spat that encompassed everything from each other\u2019s bad habits to their talents, even to the music they listened to, as Richards once said that \u201cMick listens to too much bad shit\u201d.<\/p>\n The situation was so bad that even Charlie Watts was crashing out. The band\u2019s resident voice of reason and the member that was typically all calm and fine, keeping the rest of them grounded with his own rejection of fame and a more normal life \u2013 if he\u2019s also losing it, that\u2019s when you know things are dire. <\/p>\n But as the band was collapsing more and more into chaos, it all seemed to get on top of Watts. His previously normal alcohol and drug consumption<\/a> stepped up as Watts said, \u201cI think it was a midlife crisis. All I know is that I became totally another person around 1983 and came out of it about 1986. I nearly lost my wife and everything over my behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n