“He Was Looming in Front of Me”: Keith Richards Haunted by Brian Jones While Recording the Stones’ Blues Revival
In a revelation both eerie and moving, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has admitted that the spirit of founding member Brian Jones seemed to be “looming in front of him” during the recording sessions for the band’s highly anticipated blues revival album. The encounter, according to Richards, was not just an emotional moment but a haunting, almost supernatural presence that shaped the soul of the project.
The Stones’ forthcoming album, Back to the Crossroads, marks their most direct return to blues since their early 1960s days when the group was formed out of a mutual obsession with the genre. This project, set to release in October 2025, sees the legendary band digging deep into the roots of Delta and Chicago blues, channeling the raw, unpolished emotion that first brought them international acclaim. But as Richards tells it, the journey was also one of spiritual reckoning — and spectral encounters.
“It happened one night in London,” Richards told Mojo magazine in a recent sit-down interview. “We were cutting a version of ‘Little Red Rooster,’ and I was working out this bottleneck slide part. Suddenly, the hairs on my arms stood up. I looked up, and it was like Brian was there in the corner. Not a ghost in the white-sheet sense, but his presence. I swear to you, he was looming in front of me.”
Brian Jones, who co-founded the Rolling Stones in 1962, was more than just a band member — he was their original leader and visionary. His deep devotion to blues music and his prodigious ability to master multiple instruments helped shape the band’s earliest sound. However, as the group rose to global stardom, Jones struggled with drug abuse, legal issues, and personal alienation. He was pushed out of the band in June 1969 and was found dead less than a month later at his home in Sussex. His death at age 27 became one of rock’s earliest and most tragic casualties.
Richards’ recent comments suggest that Jones’ influence — and perhaps even his unresolved story — has continued to linger within the band’s legacy.
“I’ve never been one to get all woo-woo,” Richards said, lighting a cigarette during the interview. “But something changed in that room. It was like he was saying, ‘Don’t forget where you came from.’ And, well, we didn’t.”
Richards said the sensation repeated itself throughout the recording process. When the band laid down “Hellhound on My Trail,” a Robert Johnson classic that Jones loved, Richards said the slide guitar tone sounded so much like Brian’s style it left everyone in the studio stunned.
“Mick just turned to me and said, ‘Did you hear that?’” Richards recalled. “And I said, ‘Yeah. It wasn’t me — it was him.’”
Mick Jagger, who rarely discusses Jones publicly, acknowledged the weight of the experience in a recent BBC interview. “There are moments in music where you feel something more than just rhythm or melody. This album had a lot of those moments. Maybe Brian’s still part of the band in some way.”
Indeed, Back to the Crossroads is already being talked about as a full-circle moment for the Rolling Stones. With a stripped-down sound and raw energy reminiscent of their early records, the album pays tribute to the blues legends who inspired them — and now, perhaps, to the bandmate whose ghost still lingers in the grooves.
The album features covers of songs by Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, Bessie Smith, and Muddy Waters — names that Brian Jones championed in the Stones’ early years. Notably, two original tracks, “Cotchford Farm Lament” and “Spirit Slide,” are being called sonic tributes to Jones. Richards even used one of Jones’ old National guitars on the latter track, adding to the album’s haunted ambiance.
Producer Don Was, who has worked with the band since the 1990s, confirmed the unusual tone of the sessions. “There was something electric in the air. Keith would sometimes just stop playing and look around the room. We all felt it. It was like the past was alive.”
Longtime Stones drummer Charlie Watts passed away in 2021, and while Steve Jordan now fills in on drums, Richards admitted that the band’s connection to their history — and the ghosts within it — has become more poignant with time.
“We’re old bastards now,” he laughed. “And with that comes memory. Loss. Regret. And music has a way of digging it all up again.”
Fans have already begun speculating whether the album will serve as a spiritual farewell — not only to Jones but to the Stones themselves. But Richards dismisses any talk of finality.
“This isn’t goodbye,” he said. “This is a thank you. To the blues, to the fans, and to Brian. Especially to Brian.”
As the world prepares to hear Back to the Crossroads, it’s clear this isn’t just another Rolling Stones record. It’s a reckoning, a return, and, in some ways, a resurrection.
“He was the one who got us here in the first place,” Richards said quietly. “So it’s only right he gets to come along for one more ride.”