The Rolling Stones hit the stage Monday night at Ford Field, as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and company played their first Detroit show in six years.
The Motor City was the latest stop on the band's No Filter Tour, which launched in 2017 but got derailed last year by the pandemic. The Stones' Ford Field show was originally scheduled for June 2020.
Monday's show was the Stones' first in Detroit without Charlie Watts: The drummer died in August at age 80.
Jagger also made sure the Ford Field crowd knew that he, and the Stones, knew exactly where they were. After some in the entourage spent part of Sunday, Nov. 14, visiting the Motown Museum and Jagger bopped around downtown Detroit, posting photos on social media him standing near sights such as the Joe Louis fist on Woodward Avenue and the Stevie Wonder mural, there were other moments of Motor City love on Monday night. The group broke its COVID bubble a bit to welcome Motown legend Martha Reeves for a pre-show visit backstage, while on stage Jagger talked about the Stones’ affection for Motown as youths, and said “we can’t come to Detroit and not do a Motown song” before performing the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” for the first time since 2007.
There is much speculation that the No Filter Tour, which began back in 2017, could be the Stones last — though the band has said no such thing. If that does prove to be the case, the Stones left Detroit with parting shot that was memorable, and a far, far cry from mediocre.
Photo: AFP