Re: Chuck Leavell says......(From www.RocksOff.org)
Date: August 21, 2006 11:12
Apparantly Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie love to be on stage with this band, it is crearly the way the Stones want to perform. So all agruments: they shouldn't be there, they should play without all these background musicians, are bullsh*t. They will not play without them because they do not want to. I've said it before: the Stons have not become what they are, by listening to what other people would like better. They have never cared and should never care.
I think it is safe to say that without these people, there would be no Stones live performances anymore. If the four of them would be convicted to spend 1,5 year on the road with just eachother to look at...
Besides that: if you listen to Chuck and his playing for other artists, like Clapton, you can hear that he truely is a great bluesplayer. Clapton - Old Love, what more can you say? Maybe he has less musical freedom to excel in a band like the Stones, I don't know.
And there is of course the added value of setlist director. A great relieve to Keith, and also to Mick, who only has to approve or comment and make some changes here and there if he's not feeling 100%. This value counterweights to a maybe not so great stage performance, although you can't say that he doesn't play good enough.
Jelle