The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards praises producer Andrew Watt: “He knows his stuff musically and technically”

Keith Richards has shared what it’s like to work with producer Andrew Watt, describing him as a “breath of fresh air and a kick up the ass”.

Richards, who plays guitar for The Rolling Stones, notes that Watt can at times be “impetuous”, but it seems his nature is exactly what the band needed when it came to crafting their previous record, Hackney Diamonds, and forthcoming record Foreign Tongues.

Speaking to The Guardian, Richards says, “Mick [Jagger]’s been very prolific lately, which is one reason this album has come out so quick, because he won’t bloody stop. And the momentum from Hackney Diamonds was such that this is basically carrying on in the same breath. I was just letting it roll – we had enough stuff if we wanted to keep pushing, and so Mick and I gave each other the usual wry look and said: ‘Yeah, let’s keep pushing.’”

Richards goes on to credit Watt, who at 35 years old has already worked with Paul McCartney, Elton John, Iggy Pop and a slew of contemporary acts like Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus, for their current creative synergy.

“He knows his stuff musically and technically, and he doesn’t put up with any bullshit – he just gets on with it. So I found him very easy to work with. He’s a bit impetuous at times, but then so what?” Asked if Watt has ever “given him a talking to”, Richards replies, “No. But he may have given somebody a talking-to.”

Paul McCartney also made similar comments about Watt earlier this year. He told MOJO, “I came away from the first session thinking, ‘Well, I like him, but he’s a bit pushy.”

In a 2025 interview with And The Writer Is…, Watt himself spoke of his intense approach to production. He said: “I’m so detail-oriented in my mixing process and production process. There’s not a thing in, like, a millisecond of any of my records that I don’t know exactly what it is and what it’s doing and why it’s there. So mixing the record is a very intense process for me.”

He added, “Once it’s out, I’d never listen to it again. If I did listen to it, I would want to change 100 things.”

The Rolling Stones’ new album, Foreign Tongues, lands on 10 July. Find out more via The Rolling Stones website.

Rachel is a DIY musician who began learning guitar and keyboard from her bedroom at 14. She has written news and features for MusicTech since 2022, and also has bylines across Kerrang!, Guitar.com, and The Forty-Five. Though a lover of heavy music, her guilty pleasure is 2000s pop.