Start Up the Eighties

Later on in 1986, the band released another album, Dirty Work, but again they did not tour to promote it. Instead, the band continued to rest, relax, and pursue their hobbies. Keith started touring with his new band, the X-Pensive Winos, Mick recorded with David Bowie and ultra-diva Tina Turner, and Charlie continued exploring traditional jazz and big band music. They say, though, that you can't keep a good man down, and the same goes for a good band. Toward the end of the decade, in 1989, the Stones planned something huge for the public.

Since they had not toured at all since 1982, and had only really played together once since that time, public curiosity was high when they announced a brand new world tour. For the tour, they linked up with a promotional company called CPI (Concert Productions International), and they stood to make $70 million. To avoid the appearance that this would be a dusty oldies show, the band went back to the studio to record a new album, to be titled Steel Wheels. Now was the perfect time for the band to strike, as they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 18, 1989 (by Pete Townshend of the Who). If ever there was an opportunity to remind the public that they were still a functioning, rocking band, this was it.

Even though the Stones had not been together much throughout the decade, they managed to put their personal interests aside to create some of their strongest music in years. They knew that they had a lot to prove, as the press was constantly mentioning their increasing age, and it would have been easy for them to come off as feeble old men trying to look young. On the tour, however, the questions of age were shattered as the band muscled through a two-hour-plus set every night.

The tour continued from North America on to Europe, with sell-out crowds every night. Suddenly, the Rolling Stones were red-hot again. There was so much demand for the band at the time, in fact, that much of the tour was recorded and filmed for a live album and video. The album, called Flashpoint, was released in 1991. It captures a band at the peak of their powers, a band who know each other's playing so well that it sounds seamless. With the close of the tour, the Rolling Stones found themselves wealthier and more popular than ever, and in the best possible position to enter their fourth decade, the 1990s.