Episode 9: Robert Greenfield

Today’s guest is Robert Greenfield, author of STP: A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones, one of the most vivid accounts of The Rolling Stones at their magnificent, hedonistic peak, and the first book ever written from inside a major rock tour.

As the UK’s Associate Editor for Rolling Stone in the early 1970s, the New Yorker earned rare access to the band at a pivotal moment in their history. He joined them on their 1971 ‘Goodbye Britain’ tour, before travelling to the south of France later that year, where he conducted what became Keith Richards’ first truly in-depth interview at his villa, Nellcôte, during the recording of ‘Exile On Main Street’.

That trust culminated in Robert travelling with the Stones on their infamous 1972 US tour, which he documented in his cult classic, STP. Rather than mythologising the excess, the book captured the day-to-day reality of the tour from its core: the songs, cities, excess, humour, and human fallout of life on the road at its most extreme.

In our conversation, Robert reflects on his formative years as a writer, the stark contrast between the Stones’ final days in Britain and their explosive return to America, and the extraordinary cast of characters that surrounded the band. He shares personal insights into Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, and Mick Taylor, the realities behind the infamous C*cksucker Blues documentary, and how a lifetime spent inside other people’s stories has shaped his own.

This is the sensational Stones of the ’70s up close and unfiltered, told by someone who was there, paying attention, and writing it all down.

STP: A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones is available to buy here. Robert’s piece on the 1971 tour is available to read on The Guardian, while his Rolling Stone interview with Keith is available here.

Lip Service is produced and presented by Simon Harper.

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