Rolling Stones Ask Bettye LaVette To Open In Chicago

Written By Mike Greenblatt
Bettye and the Stones

Bettye LaVette—while on the road—took a moment to field a few questions about getting a call to open for the Stones June 27 at Soldier Field in Chicago. “I am very excited,” the Essex County resident exclaimed. “They are my contemporaries. In fact, my first single came out in 1962 before their first record. Like I’ve said, `I’ve been waiting for them to call for sixty years. They finally found my number!”

LaVette will not be performing any Stones songs in her opening set. “I will be selling my new album, LaVette,” she explains. In her career, though, she has recorded (and invigorated) two Stones classics.  “Salt Of The Earth” is on her masterful 2010 The British Rock Songbook album. She did it live on the Latenight With David Letterman TV show:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAbgnnX51MY. “Complicated” is from her 2015 Worthy album. “I altered the lyrics to make it about myself,” she adds. As far as the set itself, she says, “it’s a shorter time slot and I will keep it more mid- to up-tempo.”

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Mike Greenblatt

MIKE GREENBLATT has been writing for Goldmine magazine and New Jersey's Aquarian Weekly for more than 35 years. His writing subjects fill the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He's interviewed Joe Cocker, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Carlos Santana, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash, and members of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. He was 18 when he attended Woodstock in 1969.

In addition to writing about music, Greenblatt has worked on publicity campaigns for The Animals, Pat Benatar, Johnny Winter, Tommy James and Richard Branson, among others. He is currently the editor of The Jersey Sound.

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