Still Rolling: The Rolling Stones Drop Explosive 2025 Album, Announce Final World Tour — Date and Event Review
By Marla Jennings | June 3, 2025
LONDON — In a move that stunned the music world and defied the laws of age, mortality, and rock itself, **The Rolling Stones** have released what is already being called the **album of the year** — *”Gravestone Blues”* — and announced a **final, global farewell tour** that begins this fall.
And if that weren’t enough to rattle fans’ bones, the album dropped **live** at a secret London show inside the ruins of the Royal Albert Hall. That performance, limited to 250 guests — including celebrities, industry legends, and contest-winning superfans — marked the band’s **first live debut of new material in nearly a decade**.
To quote one stunned attendee: “It wasn’t a concert. It was a resurrection.”
### *The Album: “Gravestone Blues”*
Clocking in at 47 minutes across nine tracks, *”Gravestone Blues”* blends haunting nostalgia with the unrelenting swagger that made the Stones immortals.
The lead single, **“Dust Off My Halo,”** opens with a raw, distorted blues riff that echoes their *Exile on Main St.* days, while lyrics nod to legacy, loss, and surprisingly—redemption. Mick Jagger, now 81, sounds **unnervingly alive**, snarling lines like:
> *“Bury me with my sins and my setlist / Heaven can wait, I’ve got chords to twist.”*
The second track, **“Shanghai Cigarettes,”** is already climbing streaming charts in 40 countries. Critics are calling it their most creatively adventurous piece since the ’80s, blending Eastern string arrangements with heavy rock percussion and a gospel-infused chorus that somehow works.
But the emotional core of the album lies in the sixth track: **“Charlie’s Beat,”** a tribute to late drummer Charlie Watts. It’s quiet, minimalist, and aching—just piano, harmonica, and a recorded loop of Watts’ signature brushwork from a 1972 live session. At the end, you can hear Jagger exhale and whisper, “We still hear you, mate.”
That line left fans in tears.
### *The Secret Show That Shook London*
The Royal Albert Hall hasn’t hosted the Stones since 1966. The venue was unlisted on the invite—only disclosed to guests three hours before curtain. Helicopters buzzed overhead as the gates opened to a swarm of shocked attendees, including Paul McCartney, Harry Styles, Dua Lipa, and even Prince William, who was reportedly seen air-guitaring during **“Start Me Up.”**
The band played six songs from the new album, plus four classics. Keith Richards, now 81 and defying every conceivable medical prediction, was in rare form — laughing, chain-smoking backstage, and grinning his way through solos with a battered Telecaster and a skull ring that caught the light like a talisman.
One surprise? A fiery cameo by Lady Gaga, who joined the band on the new track **“Lipstick Jukebox.”** The two traded verses and sparks in a performance that had both generations screaming.
The show ended with a projected quote from Watts on the rear wall: *“It’s only rock ’n’ roll… but I lived for it.”*
Cue the encore: “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” performed acoustically, with every guest singing along in tears.
### *The Final Tour: “The Last Time”*
After the performance, a velvet curtain fell across the stage, revealing a massive world map glowing with **52 cities**. Then came the message: **“THE LAST TIME WORLD TOUR — Fall 2025–Summer 2026.”**
**The tour will begin September 15, 2025 in Chicago**, the city where Jagger said the band “learned to breathe blues,” and will finish **in London’s Hyde Park on July 4, 2026** — a symbolic full circle, 60 years after their iconic 1969 concert there.
### *Key Dates (Subject to Demand, and let’s be honest—it’ll sell out instantly):*
* **Chicago, IL – Soldier Field – Sept 15, 2025**
* **New York, NY – Madison Square Garden – Sept 22, 2025**
* **Buenos Aires, Argentina – Estadio Monumental – Oct 12, 2025**
* **Tokyo, Japan – Tokyo Dome – Nov 3, 2025**
* **Sydney, Australia – ANZ Stadium – Nov 28, 2025**
* **Paris, France – Stade de France – May 3, 2026**
* **London, UK – Hyde Park – July 4, 2026 (Final Show)**
Fans have already begun camping outside ticket outlets in cities across Europe and North America, despite the fact that ticket sales don’t open until next week.
Promoters say this is **”100% the final tour”**, and for once, everyone believes it.
### *Legacy Mode: But Never Retired*
As if the album and tour weren’t enough, a deluxe box set of *”Gravestone Blues”* is coming this fall, complete with behind-the-scenes studio footage, handwritten lyrics, and a feature-length documentary **narrated by Martin Scorsese** titled *”Still Rolling.”*
The Stones also announced the establishment of the **Charlie Watts Foundation for Jazz Education**, donating £10 million in seed funding to help underprivileged youth access musical training worldwide.
Even in goodbye, they’re giving back.
### *What Now?*
Can a rock band cheat time forever?
If any group could pull it off, it’s the Rolling Stones. Their final album, *”Gravestone Blues,”* is a masterclass in reinvention and reverence. It’s not an echo of past glory — it’s a defiant reminder that they’re still creating **new** reasons to be legendary.
Critics are already pushing the album toward Grammy consideration, and social media exploded overnight with millions of reactions. Taylor Swift called it “a masterwork in energy and mortality.” Elton John said, “I’m honestly jealous.”
Mick Jagger, ever the provocateur, closed the evening with a wink.
“Final tour, yeah,” he said. “But we never said anything about retirement parties.”
-Marla Jennings is the Senior Music Editor for Soundline.
Her upcoming book “A Hundred Years of Rock” will be released in December 2025.