The 1985–1986 rift between Jagger and Richards that almost broke the Stones

By 1985, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had been playing together for over twenty years, but they were suddenly two very different people with two very different agendas. Jagger had just finished his first solo album, She’s the Boss, and was chasing a slick, radio-ready sound and a solo tour. Richards wanted to get back on the road with the Stones. That clash turned the Dirty Work sessions at Pathé Marconi in Paris into a pressure cooker.

Richards has said Jagger would show up to the studio late or not at all, and when he was there, he seemed more interested in his side projects than in writing Stones songs. The band tried to keep things moving—Ronnie Wood and Richards were often jamming on guitar, and they brought in guests like Jimmy Page and Tom Waits—but the album feels like a fight caught on tape. The production is thin, the songs don’t quite lock, and Jagger’s vocals sometimes sound like they’re coming from another room. The low point might be “Harlem Shuffle,” a cover the band half-heartedly threw together. It became a hit, but it also summed up the disconnect: the Stones were no longer a band pulling in the same direction.

When Dirty Work came out in March 1986, Jagger refused to tour. Instead, he launched his own solo tour, and Richards responded with a famous public comment: “I hope he breaks a leg.” The feud dragged into the press for two years,