Rolling Stones launch ‘Hackney Diamonds,’ their first new album in almost two decades, with Jimmy Fallon Q&A

By Issy Ronald, CNN

(CNN) — The Rolling Stones announced the details of their new album, “Hackney Diamonds,” in a live-streamed interview with comedian Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday in London, marking the release of their first new music in 18 years.

Composed of 12 tracks, the album also marks the band’s first new music since the death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021, though he plays on two tracks they recorded two years earlier, frontman Mick Jagger said.

The band unveiled the album’s lead single, “Angry,” with a music video starring “White Lotus” star Sydney Sweeney, and announced that the full album will be released on October 20. Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder will guest-star on one of the tracks.

“We wouldn’t have put this album out if we hadn’t really liked it,” Jagger told the packed crowd at the Hackney Empire theater in east London. “We didn’t want to make just any record and put it out…We are quite pleased with it, we’re not big-headed about it but we’re pleased with it and hope you all like it.”

“Hackney Diamonds” was a name the band settled on after “flinging ideas around for titles,” Keith Richards said, adding: “We went from ‘Hit and Run,’ ‘Smash and Grab’ and somehow between that we came up with ‘Hackney Diamonds,’ which is a variation on both and also it’s a London band.”

Jagger explained the title was a reference to a London slang phrase for the shards of glass left on the street from broken car windscreens.

The band wrote “Angry” in Jamaica along with many other tracks, “but it was the first one to stick out,” Richards said, adding that “it is still fun” for the band to come together and record in the studio.

“Hackney Diamonds” is the Stones’ 24th studio album, after a career that has spanned six decades and seen them become pop culture icons with songs like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Sympathy for the Devil.”

The band first teased new music in a fake ad for a glass-repair business, published in local London newspaper the Hackney Gazette last month.

The ad contained references to several of the band’s biggest hits and a phone number that went to a recording saying, “Welcome to Hackney Diamonds, specialists in glass repair. Don’t get angry, get it fixed. Opening early September, Mare Street, E8. Register for a call at hackneydiamonds.com. Come on, then.”

Since that cryptic ad, the band has offered glimpses of the new album and its launch, releasing a preview of one of the songs on a website called dontgetangrywithme.com and a video of Jimmy Fallon answering the band on his “Stones Phone” to confirm his involvement in the album’s announcement.

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CNN’s Hafsa Khalil contributed to this report.