Rolling Stones tour presale sends AARP site tumbling down
After six decades, the Rolling Stones’ oldest fans still can’t get no satisfaction.
That’s what didn’t happen on Wednesday morning when the AARP site crashed after tickets for the Stones 2024 “Hackney Diamonds” tour went on presale for members of the oldie org, which is sponsoring the stadium trek.
But what was supposed to be an early-bird special proved to be anything but that.
A message on the site read: “We are currently experiencing technical difficulties and are unable to complete your request. Our team is actively working to fix the issue, and we hope to resolve it soon. Thank you for your patience.”
So much for those senior perks.
Of course, the Rolling Stones are rock-star seniors themselves. Mick Jagger, 80; Keith Richards, who turns 80 Dec. 18; and Ronnie Wood, 76, will be a combined 236 years old when the tour backed by the organization once known as the American Association of Retired Persons kicks off April 28 in Houston, Texas.
The two-month trek — which includes a headlining show at the New Orleans Jazz Fest on May 2 and a MetLife Stadium stop in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on May 23, before wrapping up in Santa Clara, California, on July 17 — is behind the Stones’ new album “Hackney Diamonds.”
The band released its first LP of original material since 2005’s “A Bigger Bang” — and its first since the 2021 death of beloved drummer Charlie Watts — in October.
Reflecting on the 18 years since their last album of new material in September, Jagger quipped, “We’ve been very lazy.”
But, he added, “We didn’t want to make just any record and put it out … Before we went in [to make ‘Hackney Diamonds’], we all said, ‘We’ve got to make a record that we really love ourselves.’ Other people may like it, other people may not. But we must say that we are quite pleased with it.”
“Hackney Diamonds” was launched with a star-studded album release party at NYC’s Racket club, where the Stones played a seven-song set including classics such as “Shattered” and “Tumbling Dice,” as well as new songs “Angry,” “Whole Wide World” and the Lady Gaga-Stevie Wonder collab “Sweet Sounds of Heaven.”
“This the first club gig we’ve done here in a long time,” said Jagger of playing the unusually small (for him) stage in Chelsea.
But the Stones — who last played North America on their No Filter tour in 2021, while gigging across Europe on their Sixty tour in 2022 — will be back to rocking the big stages that they are accustomed to in 2024.