STILL THE ROLLING STONES: NOW STREAMING ON NETFLIX
*Dive Into the Untold Truth, Chaos, and Glory Behind the World’s Most Enduring Band*
By Ava Montez | June 3, 2025
They’ve been on the road longer than most of us have been alive. They’ve outlived rivals, presidents, even some of their own legends. Now, Netflix’s new original documentary series, **“Still The Rolling Stones”**, pulls back the velvet curtain on **the greatest rock band of all time** — and the result is **as raw, revealing, and electric as the music that made them immortal**.
The six-part docuseries, which premiered globally today, is already stirring headlines and fan meltdowns across the internet. With never-before-seen footage, unscripted backstage moments, and interviews that teeter between heartbreak and hilarity, *Still The Rolling Stones* is the definitive story — not just of a band, but of survival, addiction, reinvention, and rock ‘n’ roll defiance.
### *“We Never Planned to Last This Long”*
The opening episode, *“London Calling,”* begins not in a studio or concert hall, but in a quiet English garden. Mick Jagger, barefoot and 81, sips tea and stares into the camera. The first words he speaks?
> “We never planned to last this long. Honestly, we thought we’d burn out before we turned 30.”
That tone — candid, wry, self-aware — sets the rhythm for the entire series. Directed by Oscar-winner **Chloe Zhao**, *Still The Rolling Stones* skips past sanitized legend-building and leans into **the mess and mystery of longevity**.
We see rare footage of the Stones’ first rehearsals in a cramped London basement. We hear Keith Richards describe the “holy trinity of chaos”: “drugs, women, and management.” We watch as the band battles addiction, grief, and the changing tides of culture — from Altamont to disco, punk to grunge, all without losing their core identity.
And yet, it never feels like a eulogy. It’s a celebration. A confession. A roar.
### *The Watts Tapes*
Perhaps the most powerful sequence of the series arrives in Episode 3, *“Time Waits for No One”*, which focuses on the late **Charlie Watts**, the Stones’ stoic, jazz-obsessed drummer.
In an emotional twist, producers obtained over **50 hours of audio diaries** Watts recorded privately during tour downtime between 1995 and 2015. His voice — calm, dry, observant — narrates segments of the episode like a ghost-guide through the band’s most turbulent years.
> “Mick performs like the world’s ending. Keith lives like it already did. Me? I just keep the bloody beat.”
Viewers are left breathless as Charlie’s voice overlays a sequence of clips from the 2005 world tour: Jagger sprinting across a stage in Brazil, Richards passed out on a couch with a cigarette dangling, Ronnie Wood painting alone in a dressing room.
It’s a rare, humanizing lens into the legends — stripped of myth, loaded with meaning.
### *The Uncensored Interviews*
What sets *Still The Rolling Stones* apart is how **unfiltered** it allows its subjects to be.
In Episode 4, *“Sex, Suits, and Satan,”* the band tackles their darkest controversies head-on — from the infamous drug busts in the ‘60s to their falling-out with Brian Jones, whose death in 1969 remains a subject of myth and speculation. For the first time, the remaining members discuss **Jones’ final weeks** in chilling detail.
> “We didn’t know how to help him,” Jagger says. “We didn’t even know how to help ourselves.”
Episode 5, *“Bridges to Nowhere,”* explores the band’s foray into 21st-century digital culture — complete with footage of Mick learning how to use TikTok from his grandkids, and Keith openly mocking the metaverse: “You can’t download rock ’n’ roll, mate. It has to bleed.”
There’s also a surprise guest: **Lady Gaga**, who appears in a sit-down interview, recalling her first time performing with the band in 2012 and again on their 2025 album *Gravestone Blues*.
> “It’s not that they made rock cool again,” she says. “It’s that they never let it stop being cool.”
### *The Final Chapter: Hyde Park, Again*
The final episode, *“This Could Be the Last Time,”* is a full-circle gut punch.
Shot over three nights during the band’s *Final World Tour* stop at London’s Hyde Park in July 2025, the finale captures the magnitude of legacy — and the fragility of time. We see the Stones walk the stage with 200,000 fans screaming their names, many for the last time.
But it’s the quiet moments that linger.
Backstage, Mick massages his knees. Keith tunes his guitar, then says quietly, “This might be it.” Ronnie Wood grins and replies, “Then let’s go out swinging.”
The performance of **“Wild Horses”** is cut with silent footage of their younger selves — black and white shots of 1964 — and it lands like a punch to the chest.
As the series ends, Jagger turns to the camera and simply says:
> “We’re still rolling. Until we’re not.”
### *Critics and Fans: Unanimous Praise*
Within hours of its debut, *Still The Rolling Stones* shot to #1 on Netflix in 28 countries. Rotten Tomatoes awarded the series a rare **100% critics’ score**, and Rolling Stone Magazine declared it “the best music documentary of the decade.”
Fans have flooded social media with tributes, tears, and thank-yous.
> “They gave us the soundtrack to our lives,” tweeted @VinylQueen87.
> “Now they’re giving us the behind-the-scenes documentary we never thought we’d see.”
Even Taylor Swift weighed in, posting on Instagram:
> “Legends. Legends. Legends. *Still The Rolling Stones* is a masterpiece.”
### *What’s Next?*
Rumors already swirl about bonus footage and a deluxe Blu-ray release, including extended interviews and unseen tour rehearsals. Netflix has hinted that the series may expand into an interactive concert archive — a kind of “Stonesverse” — allowing fans to explore decades of setlists, shows, and studio sessions.
But for now, *Still The Rolling Stones* stands as the final love letter, written in volume and vinyl, to a band that refused to fade.
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**Still The Rolling Stones** is now streaming exclusively on Netflix.
Watch it loud. Watch it twice. Watch it while there’s still time.
Ava Montez is a senior entertainment correspondent for Vibe . Her latest book, “Legends on Loop: The Artists Who Never Left Us,” hits shelves fall 2025.