By Aidin Vaziri, Staff Writer
July 6, 2026
Gift Article (SFChronicle.com)
The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger performs at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on July 17, 2024.Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle
Mick Jagger is not ready to hand the Rolling Stones’ creative process to artificial intelligence.
In a new interview with the Sunday Times, the band’s 82-year-old frontman said he once tried using AI to help title the Stones’ 2023 album, “Hackney Diamonds.” It did not go well.
“No one could agree, and I threw all these titles at it, and it came back with such rubbish; it didn’t help me at all,” Jagger said. “I was saying, ‘These are my 12 album titles, give me some more,’ and of course in the end we never used any of them.”
The comments come as the Rolling Stones prepare to release “Foreign Tongues,” the band’s next studio album, on Friday, July 10. The band has already experimented with AI-linked visual effects in the video for “In the Stars,” which features digitally de-aged versions of Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood.
That tension places the Stones inside a broader debate over AI’s role in music and the arts.
Earlier this year, Spotify moved to add verification badges to help distinguish real artist profiles from AI-generated personas, while artists including Grammy-winning producer Jack Antonoff have criticized AI-assisted music-making as a threat to the purpose of creating art.
The issue has particular resonance in the Bay Area, where OpenAI and Anthropic have major operations in San Francisco and Google, which operates Gemini, is headquartered in Mountain View.
Jagger’s view appears more pragmatic than absolutist. He dismissed AI as a writing partner but said it may have some use for artists.
“It can unstick you, and you think, ‘OK, that was rubbish,’ or ‘Mine are loads better than yours,’” Jagger told The Sunday Times. “It gives you confidence.”
Beyond its album release, Jagger told the Argentine newspaper La Nación that the band does not expect to tour this year.
“I’d love to tour this album,” Jagger said. “I hope to tour next year and I hope to do it as soon as possible.”
He sounded less enthusiastic about the residency-style model used by some major acts, including a potential run at the Las Vegas Sphere, saying such runs can make concerts more expensive for fans who have to travel to one city.
“I like to go places,” Jagger said.
In the Sunday Times interview, Jagger, Richards and Wood also discussed making “Foreign Tongues,” the band’s creative momentum in its eighth decade and “Ringing Hollow,” a new song that reflects on the current state of affairs in America.
Richards, a longtime Connecticut resident, described the track as “a nostalgic love affair with America, and (it being) a bit of a disappointment at the moment.”
“Foreign Tongues” follows “Hackney Diamonds,” which gave the Stones a late-career jolt in 2023. The new album was produced by Andrew Watt and includes contributions from Paul McCartney, Robert Smith, Chad Smith and Steve Winwood.
July 6, 2026
Staff Writer
Aidin Vaziri is a staff writer at The San Francisco Chronicle.