Melinda Newman interviews Mick and Keith for Billboard:

It's a little hard to imagine, but Keith Richards says he fears that playing live with his Rolling Stones bandmates may one day feel like just another day at the office. He pauses, slides into a hard guffaw, and adds, "Not that I know what a day at the office feels like."

No, but the Rolling Stones gross more than most corporations when it comes to their night jobs. In the 1990s, the band took in a staggering $750 million from three tours. With a nearly sold-out concert outing newly under way and a greatest-hits package that for the first time spans its entire career, the top touring act of all time is poised to reach a new plateau.

The hits package, "Forty Licks," is a joint venture among Virgin Records, Universal Music International (UMI), and ABKCO Records that will be distributed worldwide by Virgin parent EMI Recorded Music. The first half of the two-disc set contains the ABKCO-controlled material, starting with the group's first U.S. chart single, 1964's cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away." The second half features the post-ABKCO material. The project is due Sept. 23 in Japan, Oct. 1 in North America, and Sept. 30 in all other markets.

"Forty Licks" features four new songs, which Richards, Jagger, Watts, guitarist Ron Wood, and bassist Darryl Jones recorded in Paris in May. "The last tour ended in 1999, and I thought, 'I probably won't get a phone call for about 18 months,'" Richards says via phone from Toronto, where the band was rehearsing for the tour. "And, sure enough, slightly after [18 months had passed], Mick calls up and goes, 'Do you think we should do something next year?' I just wait for people to get antsy at home."

At the Paris sessions, the band turned out to be amazingly prolific, cutting 28 tracks in four weeks. There was never any doubt, Richards says, whether some of the new material would be included on "Forty Licks," "because [of] this Beatles and Stones sort of thing. The main difference between the Stones and the Beatles, I guess, is that the Stones are still going. So we decided it would be important to have this sort of hint of 'to be continued,' rather than it all just being totally out of the can. At the same time, I wanted [new material], because the boys haven't played together for almost three years."

In addition to driving first single "Don't Stop," the new tracks on "Forty Licks" are "Keys to Your Heart," which Jagger describes as "a soul tune with a sort of Curtis Mayfield [vibe]"; "Stealing My Heart," which the singer says is "more of a 'battle of the bands' thing, with a hook"; and "Losing My Touch," which features Richards on lead vocals. "It's about a guy on the run who's gotta say goodbye," Richards explains, "and he's doesn't really know how to say it."

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