The Rolling Stones Return with New Song "Living in a Ghost Town"

It's their first new material since 2012

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Apr 23, 2020

Out of nowhere, the Rolling Stones have released a new song called "Living in a Ghost Town."

The track — their first new composition since 2012 — comes as the legendary group were forced to postpone their North American tour and while much of the world lives in isolation during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Hear "Living in a Ghost Town" below.

In a new interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Mick Jagger explained "Living in a Ghost Town" is a song he and Keith Richards wrote over a year ago.

"It wasn't written for now, but it was just one of those odd things," Jagger said. "It was written about being in a place which was full of life but is now bereft of life so to speak…I was just jamming on the guitar and wrote it really quickly in like 10 minutes."

That said, Jagger said he updated the song's lyrics to reflect what we're going through right now.

"Keith Richards and I both had the idea that we should release it," he said. "But I said, 'Well I've got to rewrite it.' Some of it is not going to work and some of it was a bit weird and a bit too dark. So I slightly rewrote it. I didn't have to rewrite very much, to be honest. It's very much how I originally did it."

And while it's unclear when the Stones will actually get back on the road, the band did confirm they are working on a new studio album — something they can focus on more now that they have extra time on their hands.

"We've got another five or six tracks and there's a lot of sort of soul feel about it for some reason without anybody intending to," Richards told Lowe. "Obviously right now we've got nothing else to do but write some more songs, right?"

"Living in a Ghost Town" is the Stones' first new original song "Doom and Gloom" and "One More Shot" came out on their 2012 compilation GRRR! In 2016, however, they released a collection of blues covers called Blue & Lonesome.





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