What with the news of Ronnie falling off the wagon--which if I remember caused Mick to want to fire him back around '81 or '82--the rumors that the Stones think he's unreliable for touring and the fact that Mick and Little Mick were in the studio together for the first time in years working on the Exile unreleased tracks, do you guys see any possibility of Mick Taylor returning to the fold for a last tour or last album? I mean he left largely because of the decadence of the band eating at him, and I doubt at their age they're not really decadent anymore, and because when he left there was no 1975 tour plans, which bored him; Maybe he'd return for a final Stones tour. I mean if his guitar on Plundered My Soul is new, then it shows me he really hasn't lost that golden touch/chemistry he had with Mick (Jagger) from '69-'74.

It just seems that with the re-release of Exile, and the DVD release of Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a special importance or special attention being put to the '69-74 lineup...Which says to me maybe somebody in the band is pining for those days, perhaps. It just seems that out of the 3 lineups of the band there has lately been focus on the works of that one, as if that lineup is being promoted.

Pretty much no chance, I would imagine.

Aside from the business reasons for it not happening, I would imagine Mick's recurrent health problems (as seen by his latest unfortunate illness which is dealt with in a separate thread) would indicate that he simply wouldn't be a reliable option for any prolonged touring.

The reissues have nothing to do with anyone in the band pining for a bygone era. As part of the contract with their new label, Universal remastered and reissued all their post-1970 studio albums last year and 'Exile' is the final one to get that treatment. They simply asked the band to agree to participate in assembling an expanded reissue of it. They probably did so because they've nothing new to release and no immediate plans to do anything fresh.

Welcome to Rocks Off, by the way.