Rolling Stones on Hiatus; Jagger Working on Film Script

I'm a great believer in not doing it for a while," says Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, who hasn't seen much of his band mates since they came off tour last summer. Now that Watts has released his latest project — a world-beat album with fellow drummer Jim Keltner — he plans to spend the summer lazing around his wife's horse farm. So what have his fellow Stones been doing with their downtime?

Mick Jagger is working with Martin Scorsese and Rolling Stone's Rich Cohen on a film script, The Long Play, about a fictional rock star. The nonfictional star is also producing two other movies, the thriller Enigma and a comedy, Swap. Keith Richards dropped by the studio to record on blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin's new album of Muddy Waters tunes. Watts says he's not sure when the Stones will regroup, but he's not committing to anything else in the meantime. "I don't want to play in another band," he says. "I already play in the best one."

This is a story from the June 8, 2000 issue of Rolling Stone.