Rolling Stones Retire 50 Year Old Song From Setlist Following Slavery Controversy

The legendary rock and roll icons The Rolling Stones have set course on another massive tour. Shortly after the death of founding drummer Charlie Watts at the age of 80 in August, the tour was sure to be a difficult one for even the most weathered of road veterans.

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times revealed that the band wasn’t just continuing their pandemic-shortened tour without their drummer. They’re doing it without a song they’ve been playing for 50 years.

When the times asked Keith Richards why the hit Brown Sugar had been missing from the setlists, the guitar God was candid on his thoughts. Controversy has surrounded the song because of it’s lyrical discussion of the slave trade.

“I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is. Didn’t they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery? But they’re trying to bury it. At the moment I don’t want to get into conflicts with all of this s***. But I’m hoping that we’ll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory somewhere along the track.”

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Stones frontman Mick Jagger framed the song’s removal from the setlist in a more mundane way. “We’ve played ‘Brown Sugar’ every night since 1970, so sometimes you think, We’ll take that one out for now and see how it goes,” he said. “We might put it back in,” the singer told the Times.

In a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone, Jagger said that he wouldn’t have written such a controversial song at the time. “I never would write that song now,” he told the famous music ‘zine. Today, he’s talking about bringing it back. Check out the video below of the band performing the song way back in 1972!

Should The Rolling Stones bring back ‘Brown Sugar’ or is it a relic of the past? Share your thoughts in the comments!