Wood waits on Keith as Jagger pushes for the road

Foreign Tongues is out and Ammo takes him to South America, yet Glastonbury 2027 and any wider Stones run remain locked until the whole band share the drive he says Mick already has.

Ronnie Wood has said The Rolling Stones are not currently planning live dates because Keith Richards is not ready to commit, even though Mick Jagger is eager to get back on the road.

On 2 October 2026 the guitarist laid bare the difference within the band. “I know Mick is busting to go, and Keith is not busting to go. And you’ve got to have everybody’s enthusiasm to do it.”

That shared enthusiasm is the condition Wood sets for any return to touring. The band released Foreign Tongues in July 2026 and have discussed taking the record out live, but no dates have been confirmed. On his own availability he was clear. “When my compadres say, ‘Let’s go’, I’ll be ready. I’ve got no plans yet though, except my plans to play South America with the Ammo band next.”

Ammo on the road, Stones on hold

Wood has just completed a European run with the Ammo band and is preparing South American shows with the same project. Those gigs sit apart from any Rolling Stones schedule and keep him on stage while the parent group remains undecided. He also said he would be willing to play festivals such as Glastonbury in 2027 if the full band agreed. That is not a booking but a statement of readiness tied to the same test he applied to a wider tour: everyone has to want it.

The remarks leave the public position of the Stones in plain view. Jagger’s appetite alone does not open the diary. Richards, as Wood describes him, is not there yet. Wood will not force the issue. He frames himself as the member who steps up when the others give the word, not before. The band still move, on this account, only when the will is mutual.

After Foreign Tongues

Foreign Tongues reached listeners in July 2026. It is the band’s latest studio album in work that has continued after the death of Charlie Watts in 2021. The drummer’s long tenure remains part of how the group is heard and remembered; what follows him does so without him on the stool. An album without a confirmed tour is the shape of the moment Wood has now explained: the music is available, the live chapter is not.

For listeners who mark years by Stones itineraries, the practical result is straightforward. There is no set of dates to plan around. Nothing has been announced because the internal green light Wood describes has not been given. Any talk of arenas, stadiums or a festival slot remains provisional until Richards is ready to match the enthusiasm Wood attributes to Jagger.

Wood’s immediate future is the Ammo band’s South American run. Whether that work sits quietly beside a later Stones decision, or simply fills a gap that stays open, is not something he said he knew. What he did state is the order of events as he sees it. The call has to come from his bandmates together. Until Keith Richards is busting to go, in Wood’s phrase, that call will not come.

Glastonbury 2027 is the one named horizon beyond the Ammo dates. Wood did not say the Stones would play it. He said he would be prepared to if the whole band agreed. That keeps the festival in the realm of possibility rather than plan, and it puts the same condition on a summer bill that he puts on a full tour.

As things stand, the picture is the one he drew on 2 October. Mick Jagger wants to move. Keith Richards does not. Ronnie Wood is ready when they are, with Ammo work already in hand and no Stones dates on the board. Foreign Tongues is out. The road, for the Stones, is still waiting on a shared yes.