Rolling Stones: A Bigger Bang released

The Rolling Stones have released their new album, A Bigger Bang. The 16 songs were written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, mostly at Jagger's chateau in the south of France. Richards told us that he and Jagger almost stopped the sessions, however, when they learned that drummer Charlie Watts had been diagnosed with throat cancer:
[ click here to listen if you have a Backstage Pass] "Mick and I looked at each other and 'What can we do? Do we just sort of leave it and put it on hold and wait for Charlie? Within a few seconds, Charlie would, that wouldn't do Charlie no good at all. I mean, he'd be mortified to be stuck in a hospital somewhere thinking that he'd stuck us up or holding us up or whatever. No, we carry on."

Watts has since made a full recovery.

Meanwhile, guitarist Ron Wood did another stint in rehab for alcoholism and missed some of the recording sessions. Jagger, Richards, and Watts recorded some of the new songs as a trio.

In other news, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, and Lynyrd Skynyrd are among the performers added to the hurricane relief telethon that's taking place on Saturday (September 10th). Networks in America including MTV, VH1, CMT, VH1 Classic, and MTV2 will air ReAct Now: Music & Relief from 8 p.m. ET/PT to 11 p.m. ET/PT. The commercial-free broadcast will also feature John Mellencamp, Brian Wilson, Green Day, Melissa Etheridge, the Dave Matthews Band, Sheryl Crow, Motley Crue, and New Orleans natives the Neville Brothers and the Radiators, among many others. Money raised from the show will go to the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, America's Second Harvest, and other groups involved in the ongoing rescue efforts in the Gulf region that was devastated last week by Hurricane Katrina.

It's unknown which performances will be live, and which will be pre-recorded. The Stones, for example, will be on stage at Soldier Field in Chicago on Saturday night, although they could appear live via satellite.
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