Photo: Getty

A London museum purchased the original Rolling Stones’ tongue-and-lips logo over the weekend for $92,500. One of rock’s most famous logos, “The Tongue” was created by John Pasche in 1970 and featured on 1971’s Sticky Fingers. In what was perhaps one of the first cases of rock brand marketing, Jagger reportedly approached the Royal College of Art in 1969 looking to commission images for the band. Pasche designed the logo and ended up working for the Stones from 1970 to 1974. “Face to face with him, the first thing you were aware of was the size of his lips and his mouth,” Pasche said. (more…)

The Rolling Stones made the move from their longtime label EMI to Universal official today, signing a long-term deal that not only encompasses future albums but also includes the band’s post-Sticky Fingers catalog. The Stones released their concert film soundtrack Shine A Light through UMG earlier this year. EMI lobbied hard to bring the band back after their contract expired, but the tumultuous year the label has had since being acquired by equity firm Terra Firma perhaps ushered the Stones’ exile from EMI. Live Nation were also rumored to be in the bidding for the band’s services. The Stones will release their UMG albums through the company’s Polydor label, marking the first time the entire Stones catalog shared the same label. The UMG deal also includes the digital rights to the Stones discography. The Rolling Stones mark the third major artist to leave EMI in the past year, joining Paul McCartney and Radiohead.

The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood has reportedly entered rehab for a drinking problem. “Following Ronnie’s continued battle with alcohol he has entered a period of rehab,” Wood’s spokeswoman said. “His close family and friends say he is seeking help and look forward to his recovery.” Wood’s struggle with substance abuse has been well-documented; one time, his drug use was so bad that Keith Richards (of all people) had to persuade Wood to get sober, sometimes using a knife or gun. Wood also admitted last year that his wife and Mick Jagger recommended he enter rehab prior to the Stones’ 2002 tour.

[Photo: Hogan/Getty]

The Rolling Stones have denied a report that the band was on the verge of signing a massive deal with Live Nation. According to the band’s spokesman, “We are not in talks with Live Nation in connection with any record deal.” The supposed deal would have seen the Stones not only sign a new contract with Live Nation but also bring along their lucrative back catalog, thus costing EMI an estimated $5.9 million a year. Industry experts ultimately expect the band to leave EMI, as they released the soundtrack to their concert film Shine A Light through rival Universal earlier this year. The Stones’ exit from EMI would be the third major artist to leave the industry giant (following Radiohead and Paul McCartney) since the label was taken over by equity firm Terra Firma.

Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones concert film Shine A Light shows Mick, Keith, Ronnie and Charlie running as a well-oiled rock and roll machine on stage. As their catalog of live albums proves, they’ve been tearing up live shows since the beginning. For audio highlights from the band’s seven live albums, from Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! through Shine A Light, click here.

• The Rolling Stones Live: Key Concert Album Tracks

What happens when you stick a trio of rock legends in the same room for a Rolling Stone cover shoot? They crack a bottle of wine, grab some acoustic guitars and get comfortable chatting about playing live and Martin Scorsese’s new documentary Shine a Light. Click above to check out Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Jack White in action as photographer Max Vadukul snapped away.

[Video: Jennifer Hsu]

In honor of this week’s release of the stunning new Martin Scorsese-directed concert film Shine a Light, the new issue of Rolling Stone (on newsstands today) features Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones along with Jack White (who plays with the band in the movie on “Loving Cup”). Click below for excerpts from the cover story and a gallery featuring forty years of live Rolling Stones photos.

• Excerpt: Interview with Mick Jagger

• Excerpt: Interview with Keith Richards and Jack White

• Gallery: Forty Years of the Rolling Stones In Concert

[Photo: Max Vadukul]

For a complete gallery of photos from this show, click here.

According to Ron Wood, the four core members of the Rolling Stones are little more than schoolboys, with only their descriptors shifting (Keith being a “thieving” schoolboy, while Mick is of the “sly” variety). But this comparison to co-eds on the red carpet at last night’s premiere of Shine a Light was apt, as the Martin Scorsese-helmed concert film about the Stones’ 2006 two-night stint at Manhattan’s Beacon Theatre paints the band as more youthful than collectives half their age: Mick swivels his hips; Keith lunges during skyrocketing riffs; Ronnie flashes his ripped biceps; Charlie thwacks his kit insistently.

Jagger wouldn’t unveil his secret for maintaining his high onstage energy levels, but he did reveal it has nothing to do with a health regimen. “I didn’t go to the gym and I had no vitamins,” he said of the days on which the film was shot. But perhaps Wood ingested some B-12 before the premiere, as the guitarist practically skipped down the red carpet gushing with excitement, gamely jawing with anybody who wanted his time. He even grinned while musing about Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, offering the starlets the following nugget: “You gotta go through it to get to it.”

Fashion mogul and rabid Stones fan Tommy Hilfiger may have been even more exhilarated than Wood. (more…)

• Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is the new face of Louis Vuitton. Richards will donate his fee for the Annie Leibovitz-shot campaign to Al Gore’s Climate Project.
• Björk has issued a statement on the controversy sparked by her dedicating “Declare Independence” to Kosovo and Tibet. She writes on her official site, “I am first and last a musician and as such I feel my duty to try to express the whole range of human emotions.”
• Gnarls Barkley’s video for “Run” failed the test designed to prevent seizure-inducing material from appearing on TV, and will not air on MTV in the U.K. until the duo reworks the clip. It is still available online.
• A spokesperson for London theater the Donmar Warehouse confirmed ex-Libertines bandmates Pete Doherty and Carl Barat are working on a musical together.

[Photo: Getty]

A new BBC documentary is once again exploring claims that angry members of the Hells Angels hatched a plot to assassinate Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger at his house on Long Island, New York, in 1969. The Stones and the Angels famously clashed at the ill-fated Altamont free concert on December 6, 1969, where members of the motorcycle club working security used extreme force on concert-goers and bandmembers and ultimately stabbed an eighteen-year-old gun-wielding fan to death. (The events were chronicled in the concert film Gimme Shelter). After the chaotic show, Jagger promised to never employ the Angels again.

“The Hells Angels were so angered by Jagger’s treatment of them that they decided to kill him,” says Tom Mangold, who hosts the BBC’s The FBI at 100 documentary, which airs tonight. The Hells Angels planned to murder Jagger when he visited his Long Island home during the holidays, and coordinated a siege on the house from the sea. However, the boat the Hells Angels chartered was itself attacked by a storm, throwing all the Angels overboard. While all the Angels survived, they called off the Jagger strike. Mick Jagger’s publicists have yet to comment on the assassination plot, but something along the lines of “Thanks, Poseidon” is probably appropriate.

Related Stories:

• Scorsese Unveils Rolling Stones Doc at Berlin Film Fest
• “Let It Bleed”: Photos from Behind the Scenes of the Rolling Stones’ 1969 U.S. Tour
• Stone Alone: Mick Jagger On Some Favorite Cuts From His New Solo Hits Album

[Photo: Getty]

The Rolling Stones and Martin Scorsese opened the Berlin International Film Festival today with the world premiere of the Stones concert film Shine a Light. After a screening, the band and the director met with an overflow crowd of reporters for a press conference full of mutual admiration. Mick Jagger pointed out that “Shine a Light is the only Martin Scorsese movie I know that doesn’t have ‘Gimme Shelter’ in it!” In other rock movie news, Scorsese said that he is currently “looking at footage” for his upcoming George Harrison movie, and that it’s going to be a “straight documentary.”

Related Stories:

• Rolling Stones “Shine a Light” on Universal, Tenure With EMI Likely Over
• Martin Scorsese to Direct George Harrison Documentary
• Trailer for Scorsese’s Rolling Stones Documentary

[Photo: Kate Burton]

The Rolling Stones have signed a one-album deal with Universal Music Group for the release of their next album, the live soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s concert film Shine a Light. The Universal deal likely spells the end of the Stones’ sixteen-year partnership with EMI, as the band’s record contract with that label expires next month. If they do sign a long-term deal with another label, the Stones would join Paul McCartney and Radiohead as the latest big-name artist to exit EMI in the wake of their tumultuous takeover by private equity firm Terra Firma. Earlier this week, EMI head Guy Hands announced that the label would allow for the corporating sponsoring of bands, as well as cut 1,500-2,000 jobs in order to free up $400 million. Still-contracted EMI artists like Robbie Williams, the Verve and Coldplay hinted at withholding new albums until EMI proved they were capable of appropriately promoting and distributing those releases.

Scorsese filmed Shine A Light during two Stones gigs at New York City’s relatively intimate Beacon Theatre in 2006. Among the special guests who joined the band on stage were Jack White and Christina Aguilera. The film will debut at the Berlin Film Festival next month before hitting American cinemas on April 4th.

Related Stories:

• EMI Chairman Confirms Cutbacks, Says Bands May Be Sponsored Like Football Teams
• Rolling Stones Doc Set to Drop
• Trailer for Scorsese’s Rolling Stones Documentary

[Photo: Getty]

After weeks of speculation about which publisher would score Keith Richards’ forthcoming autobiography, the deal is officially closed. Little, Brown and Company will publish Richards’ life story in 2010, and the guitarist is already apparently working on the memoir with James Fox, a writer and close friend. The publishing house paid a whopping $7.3 million for the book. So, how does Richards’ paycheck compare to other major non-fiction book deals?

• Republican presidental hopeful Rudy Giuliani received a reported $3 million for the rights to his autobiography
• O.J. Simpson was paid a reported $3.5 million for the dubiously titled (and most likely doomed) O.J. Simpson: If I Did It Here’s How It Happened
• Kurt Cobain’s Journals sold for a reported $4 million
• Newt Gingrich was paid a reported $4.5 million to tell his story
• Eric Clapton reportedly received $5 million for his forthcoming book
• Marlon Brando was paid a reported $5 million for his autobiography
• Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s memoir Living History earned her a reported $8 million
• Former chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan was paid a reported $8.5 million for The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World
• Bill Clinton’s My Life landed him a reported $10 million, still the largest advance ever for a non-fiction book

Yesterday Rock Daily updated you on the Beatles “Yellow Submarine” iPod and in response, lots of you clamored for ‘Pods dedicated to KISS, the White Stripes, David Bowie, Prince and the Rolling Stones — so we made them for you. Click here for a look at how we imagine these special-edition iPods might look.

But whichever actually manufactured iPod you wind up with, beware: CNN reports that iPod users are suffering severe electrocution burns after getting struck by lightning while jamming to their favorite tunes. An unidentified Canadian jogger was running during a thunderstorm when lightening hit a nearby tree and jumped to his body, throwing him eight feet and leaving red burns where his iPod was strapped to his body. Last summer, 18-year-old Jason Bunch suffered a similar fate while listening to Metallica as a storm brewed nearby. Both victims had ruptured eardrums, as well. (more…)

As many of you know, Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun passed away in December of last year. Ertegun made a monumental impact on the history of music, whether he was helping distribute R&B to a wider audience, writing songs for Ray Charles, or signing some band called Led Zeppelin. He was also one of the founders of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in which he was enshrined in 1997. He touched the lives of many people, including the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, who recently spoke at length about Ahmet at a tribute dinner.

Today we present three audio excerpts from Jagger’s memorial speech. The two men were intertwined, both personally and professionally. It was Ertegun’s Atlantic Records that distributed the output of the independent Rolling Stones Records label. Talking to a packed audience of colleagues and associates, Jagger reminisces about what made Ertegun different than the average record executive, doing business together, and why Ahmet threw the best house parties. (more…)