What Mick Jagger Thought of The Rolling Stones’ ‘Honky Tonk Women’ After Singing It For 20 Years
Keith Richards revealed what inspired The Rolling Stones‘ “Honky Tonk Women.” Subsequently, Mick Jagger discussed what he thought of the song after singing it for 20 years. Notably, The Rolling Stones recorded two very different versions of the song with different titles.
Keith Richards said The Rolling Stones’ ‘Honky Tonk Women’ was supposed to be cowboy music
The book Keith Richards on Keith Richards: Interviews & Encounters features an interview from 1971. During the interview, Richards discussed The Rolling Stones’ time in South America. “I know what we did do in South America,” he recalled. “Went to a ranch and wrote ‘Honky Tonk Women’ because it was into a cowboy thing.
“All these spades are fantastic cowboys,” he added. “Beautiful ponies and quarter horses. Miles from anywhere. Just like being in Arizona or something.” The Rolling Stones released the original version of the song as a single and a country version of it called “Country Honk” on the album Let It Bleed (1969).
Mick Jagger said the tune stood out from The Rolling Stones’ other popular songs
During a 1989 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jagger discussed his feelings about the track. “I remember being with Keith in Brazil and writing it,” he said. “It started as a pure country song, the way ‘Country Honk’ is on the Let It Bleed album. All the really popular songs are hard for me to rank because you’ve heard them so much over the years. But I do like that one. I still enjoy singing it.”
Richards praised the track. “Great for its sound,” he said. “That’s another record which is interesting for the way it developed. It was written like ‘Country Honk,’ but then we were saying, ‘Let’s just change it around a bit’ — and it was amazing to watch it become something altogether different. It would definitely be in my Top 10.”
How ‘Honky Tonk Women’ performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom
“Honky Tonk Women” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks, staying on the chart for 15 weeks in total. The original version of the tune appeared on the compilation album Hot Rocks 1964–1971. The compilation reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for 396 weeks — longer than any of The Rolling Stones’ other releases.
According to The Official Charts Company, “Honky Tonk Women” was No. 1 in the United Kingdom for five weeks, spending a total of 17 weeks on the chart. Meanwhile, Hot Rocks 1964–1971 peaked at No. 3 in the U.K. and remained on the chart for 59 weeks altogether.
Jagger was a big fan of “Honky Tonk Women” even if the song was very different from the way it started.
