Rolling Stones Unveil Foreign Tongues Album at Brooklyn Event with Conan O’Brien

The band's 25th studio album arrives July 10, featuring collaborations with Robert Smith, Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, and a posthumous Charlie Watts appearance.

The Rolling Stones officially announced their 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, at an invitation-only event Tuesday, May 5, inside the converted Williamsburg Savings Bank in Brooklyn, New York. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood appeared alongside host Conan O'Brien to discuss the record, preview tracks, and reveal a guest list that includes Robert Smith of the Cure, Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The album is due July 10.

How Robert Smith Ended Up on a Rolling Stones Record

The most talked-about collaboration on Foreign Tongues came together by pure accident, at least according to Jagger. He arrived at a London studio to record vocals and found a stranger standing with his back to him, wearing a long gown and covered in lipstick.

“I turned up one day to do my vocals in London, and there's this bloke standing there, with his back to me, with this long gown on,” Jagger told the Brooklyn crowd. “And when he turned around, he was covered in lipstick.”

The mystery figure turned out to be Robert Smith of the Cure, whom Jagger had never previously met. “And I said, ‘You are Robert Smith from the Cure!' And he said, ‘Yeah!'” Jagger recalled. The encounter ended with an impromptu recording session. “So I said, ‘Well, while you're here, then you better go and do something.'”

O'Brien offered a comic alternative scenario: “What if it hadn't been Robert Smith, and you said, ‘Let's do a track,' and you found out later he was there to fix the air conditioning?”

What's on Foreign Tongues: 14 Tracks, Notable Guests, and a Punk Rocker

Foreign Tongues runs 14 tracks and was recorded quickly, with Jagger noting the band had roughly a month to complete it. “Only having four weeks gave us an urgency,” he said. “We're having fun most of the time in the studio, but it's a lot of concentration too — you've really got to make (a song's) five minutes count.”

Richards echoed that sentiment. “It was great to be working in London again, and to have that London vibe around us,” he said. “It was a month of concentrated punch. To me, it's all about the enjoyment of it. I'm blessed to be able to do this and long may it last.”

Jagger described the album as one of the band's more varied efforts. “The thing about this record is — the Stones are a rock band that also has the capacity to do ballads, country music or dance music. So we don't get stuck in one kind of style.”

Among the 14 tracks is Hit Me In The Head, which Jagger called “a real punk rocker,” featuring a posthumous contribution from founding drummer Charlie Watts, recorded during one of his final sessions before his death in 2021. A second Watts appearance also features on the record. A collaboration with Paul McCartney, recorded during the Hackney Diamonds sessions, also appears on the album.

The lead single, In the Stars, was released digitally on May 5 alongside the opening track, Rough and Twisted. A physical release of In the Stars is scheduled for the end of the following week. Rough and Twisted had previously circulated as a limited vinyl single released under the name The Cockroaches ahead of the official announcement.

Album Guests

The confirmed collaborators on Foreign Tongues include:

• Robert Smith (the Cure)
• Paul McCartney
• Steve Winwood
• Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
• Charlie Watts (posthumous, two tracks)

The Brooklyn Event and Conan O'Brien's Backstory with Jagger

The launch event at the Williamsburg Savings Bank gave O'Brien a chance to revisit his first encounter with Jagger, which took place backstage at the 96th Academy Awards, where O'Brien was host and Jagger made a surprise appearance to present the Oscar for Best Original Song.

O'Brien recalled hearing someone repeatedly asking, “How's the crowd? How's the crowd?” before turning around to find it was Jagger. “And I said, ‘What the fuck do you care how the crowd is? You're Mick Jagger! They're just gonna urinate when they see you come out.' Which they did,” O'Brien told the Brooklyn audience.

“But it was the Oscars,” Jagger replied with a laugh.

O'Brien connected that anecdote to the new album, suggesting the band's attentiveness to its audience still comes through in the music of Foreign Tongues.

The album's cover art, a painting by artist Nathaniel Quinn, depicts a composite of the three surviving Stones' faces. Jagger described it plainly: “I call him Mr. Ugly. He's painted by a famous new artist called Nathaniel Quinn,” adding that “it's not computer-generated.”

TV Appearances and the Question of a Tour

Jagger, Richards, and Wood are scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon across multiple nights. Jagger appears on May 6, Richards on May 7, and Wood on May 13.

On the subject of touring, Jagger was direct about his intentions without confirming any dates. “I would love to tour the album,” he said. “I absolutely would love to. I hope to do it as soon as that's possible.”

Tonight Show Appearances

The three Stones are scheduled across three separate Tonight Show dates:

• May 6 — Mick Jagger
• May 7 — Keith Richards
• May 13 — Ronnie Wood

What we know

• Foreign Tongues is the Rolling Stones' 25th studio album and is scheduled for release on July 10.
• The album was announced at an invitation-only event on Tuesday, May 5, at the Williamsburg Savings Bank in Brooklyn, hosted by Conan O'Brien.
• Foreign Tongues contains 14 tracks and was recorded over approximately one month in London.
• Guests on the album include Robert Smith of the Cure, Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
• Charlie Watts appears posthumously on two tracks, including Hit Me In The Head, recorded during one of his final sessions before his death in 2021.
• The lead single In the Stars and the opening track Rough and Twisted were both released digitally on May 5.
• Rough and Twisted was previously released as a limited vinyl single under the name The Cockroaches.
• Jagger said he would love to tour the album but no live dates have been announced.

The take

Foreign Tongues arrives at an interesting moment for the Stones and for legacy rock acts broadly. Hackney Diamonds in 2023 was widely treated as a genuine creative comeback rather than a contractual obligation, and the commercial and critical reception gave the band real momentum heading into this follow-up. The fact that Foreign Tongues was recorded in roughly a month is notable; the Stones spent years assembling some of their mid-career records, and the compressed timeline here echoes the urgency that defined their best early work. The Robert Smith collaboration is the kind of cross-generational pairing that tends to generate genuine curiosity rather than just headlines. Smith's influence on post-punk and goth rock is enormous, and his sonic palette sits far enough outside the Stones' wheelhouse that the result is genuinely unpredictable. The continued presence of Charlie Watts, now across two albums, reflects a broader industry trend of honoring deceased members through archival recordings, something the Beatles, Foo Fighters, and others have navigated in recent years. Whether that practice feels like tribute or something more complicated tends to depend on execution. The Paul McCartney collaboration, carried over from the Hackney Diamonds sessions, keeps the record connected to that album's spirit while pushing the guest roster into new territory. With no tour dates confirmed yet, the album's commercial trajectory will depend heavily on how the promotional cycle lands.

Why it matters

For Classic Rock fans, Foreign Tongues represents the Stones operating with genuine creative momentum for the second album running, a rarity at this stage of any band's career. The guest list spans generations and genres, and the posthumous Watts contributions give the record an emotional weight that extends beyond nostalgia. The Robert Smith collaboration alone signals that Jagger and Richards are still willing to take risks rather than simply deliver what the audience expects. How the album performs will say something meaningful about the appetite for new music from legacy acts in 2025.

What's next

Foreign Tongues is due July 10. The lead single In the Stars is available now digitally, with a physical release scheduled for the end of the week of May 5. Jagger, Richards, and Wood are set to appear separately on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on May 6, May 7, and May 13, respectively. No tour dates have been announced, though Jagger stated he hopes to tour the album.

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