Legendary guitarist Keith Richards is ready to re-release his second solo album Main Offender, which is now 30 years old.
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Richards, who recorded the album with his side band The X-Pensive Winos, will release remastered recordings of the LP, along with a new live album from a concert recorded in London, also in 1992.
The collection is set for release on March 18.
Richards’ debut solo album was the 1988 LP Talk Is Cheap. The X-Pensive Winos was put together, at least in part, as a response to Mick Jagger’s 1980s solo work, which his Rolling Stones bandmate did not particularly appreciate.
Richards noted, Via Guitar World, as much in his autobiography, Life, saying, “It severely pissed me off…After that I decided, fuck it, I want a band. I was determined to make music in Mick’s absence… So I called in a bunch of guys I had always wanted to work with.”
The X-Pensive Winos included drummer Steve Jordan, guitarist Waddy Wachtel, bassist Charley Drayton, keys player Ivan Neville, vocalist Sarah Dash, and backing vocalists Bernard Fowler and Babi Floyd.
Said Richards of the group’s early ’90s era: “This is the second time around & the Winos are kind of developing—and if I can keep those guys together for as long as I can, it’s one of the best bands in the world. It’s a very intriguing band and the potential is only just starting to show itself.
“If I hadn’t have taken the Winos on the road, this record would probably have been totally different than it is. I tried to avoid making too much sense on this record because to me that ambiguity and mystery, and a little provocation to make you think, is something far more powerful and more important than just wagging your finger and saying, ‘I know what he’s saying don’t do this, do that.’
“If you’re a musician, silence is your canvas and you never want to fill in the whole thing because then you’ve just covered it all… One of the most interesting parts about music is where you don’t play.”
The new reissue material will be available on CD and vinyl. And if fans want the 12-track live record, they will have to purchase the two-CD pack or one of the deluxe boxsets.
Fans can pre-order the forthcoming material HERE.
Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for RS
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