The Rolling Stones will play at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival for the first time tonight (May 2), and the band apparently is preparing some special performances for the concert.
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Local TV station WWL Louisiana reports that legendary New Orleans soul singer Irma Thomas will be joining The Rolling Stones during the show for a rendition of “Time Is on My Side,” a song both artists recorded and released back in 1964.
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“I rehearsed with them yesterday and it’s on,” Thomas, who is known as the Soul Queen of New Orleans, told WWL on May 2. “I will be called somewhere in the middle of his set.”
In April 1964, Thomas released her version of “Time Is on My Side,” a song first recorded by Kai Winding the previous year. The Rolling Stones recorded their version in June 1964, after hearing Thomas’ rendition. The Stones’ version went on to become the band’s first Top-10 hit in the U.S., peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November of ’64.
Thomas said of her Stones rehearsal “[Mick Jagger] was very pleasant to me and we had fun. He had to relearn the song because he had not sung it in a long time. … I can relate to that.”
According at Setlist.fm, the last time The Rolling Stones performed “Time Is on My Side” in concert was at a March 1998 show in Osaka, Japan.
Thomas Didn’t Perform “Time Is on My Side” for Many Years
For many years, Thomas stopped singing “Time Is on My Side” live because she got upset that many people thought she was covering a Rolling Stones song.
“My problem was not the Rolling Stones, but the audience who didn’t realize that I had performed it first and [thought] I was doing the Rolling Stones song,” she explained in a 2022 interview with Grammy.com. “I got tired of explaining that, so I stopped doing it altogether.”
Years later, Thomas eventually put the song back in her live repertoire after Bonnie Raitt asked her to perform it with her at one of Raitt’s shows.
The Stones’ Jazz Fest Show Will Feature Another Special Guest
In other news, another New Orleans act that will performing with The Stones at JazzFest is zydeco accordionist Dwayne Dopsie. Dopsie posted a photo of him with Jagger, Ronnie Wood, and Stones backing singer Bernard Fowler on May 1, on his socials along with a note that reads, “I just rehearsed with the [Rolling Stones,] who asked to have me be [a part] of [their show tomorrow] at the New Orleans jazz festival.”
He added, “[T]his is a legendary Rock and Roll band I grew up listening [to], and now to be playing on stage with them giving my zydeco feel to [their] music is just mind blowing and a True blessing!!!! Hard work pays off!!”
Watch Jagger Rehearse “Dead Flowers” with Backing Singers
Meanwhile, Jagger posted a new video clip on his social media pages of him rehearsing the classic 1971 country-flavored Stones song “Dead Flowers” with Rolling Stones backing singers Fowler and Chanel Haynes.
The Stones didn’t play the song at their 2024 tour kickoff on April 28 in Houston, although they did perform it a couple of times during their 2022 trek in Europe.
More About The Rolling Stones’ 2024 Tour
The New Orleans concert is the second show of The Rolling Stones’ 2024 tour in support of their Hackney Diamonds album. The trek, which features a total of 19 concerts, runs through a July 17 performance in Santa Clara, California.
Tickets for The Rolling Stones’ concerts are available now via various outlets, including StubHub.
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