Keith Richards apologized to Mick Jagger for joking in a recent Wall Street Journal interview that his 73-year-old bandmate should get a vasectomy. Jagger and girlfriend Melanie Hamrick welcomed their first child (and Jagger's eighth child) Deveraux in December 2016.
 
We've covered the Rolling Stones like no other band; they've given us their greatest interviews, even communicated with one another in our pages

 

"Mick's a randy old bastard," the Rolling Stones guitarist said in the profile that published Wednesday. "It's time for the snip—you can't be a father at that age. Those poor kids!" After the interview was printed, Richards issued a statement apologizing for suggesting that Jagger undergo a vasectomy.

 

"I deeply regret the comments I made about Mick in the WSJ which were completely out of line. I have of course apologized to him in person," Richards tweeted.

 

Richards' swipe at Jagger didn't prevent the Rolling Stones from announcing a European leg of their No Filter Tour earlier this week, an 11-date trek that includes the band's first U.K. gigs in five years.

 

Elsewhere in the interview, Richards promised Rolling Stones fans that a new album from the band will arrive, eventually. "I'm going to sound like Trump – 'It will happen; don't worry about it' – but it's in the early stages," he said.

 

"We have some stuff down, which is very interesting. It's more difficult for us to write together the further apart we are, but it also has its benefits in that we come back to it from a different angle."

 

The Rolling Stones last released Blue and Lonesome, their album of blues covers, in December 2016.