NEW ORLEANS — It's a rock and roll reunion, 60 years in the making. The Rolling Stones and Irma Thomas -- two acts that redefined popular music in the 1960s are set to perform together at Jazz Fest on Thursday.
"I rehearsed with them yesterday and it's on," Thomas told WWL Louisiana Thursday about her reunion with the Stones. "I will be called somewhere in the middle of his set."
Nineteen-sixty-four was a defining year for both the vocal stylings of The Rolling Stones and their lead singer Mick Jagger. Arriving in The United States just a few months after The Beatles, the song "Time is On My Side" was The Stones' first top 10 hit in America.
They even performed the song on their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show in October 1964. But the band owes the success of that hit to the Soul Queen of New Orleans herself -- Irma Thomas, whose improvisations and vocal stylings can be found inside and all around The Rolling Stones' hit.
Thomas, now 83, and Rolling Stones' lead singer Mick Jagger, now 80, had to work out some of the kinks of the classic hit before their performance Thursday.
"(Jagger) was very pleasant to me and we had fun," Thomas said Thursday. "He had to relearn the song because he had not sung it in a long time - I can relate to that."
And even though Thomas had released and recorded her cover of "Time is On My Side," months before the Stones did, the British band's rendition eclipsed the commercial success of Thomas' version. As a result, Thomas often had to contend with the fact that when she sang the song, people would associate her epic vocal riffing with Jagger's version.
"I've never been angry with them," Thomas told NOLA.com in April. "I just got tired of explaining it all. Now people can Google it and realize that I'm not singing the Rolling Stones."
Other New Orleans artists have been scheduled to play alongside the Rolling Stones on Thursday night, including Dwayne Dopsie and The Zydeco Hellraisers.
"I just rehearsed with the Rolling Stones who asked to have me be apart of their show tomorrow at the New Orleans Jazz Festival," the zydeco group posted on social media Wednesday. "This is a legendary rock and roll band I grew up listening to and now to be playing on the stage with them giving my zydeco feel to their music is just mind blowing and a true blessing!"
The Rolling Stones' Jazz Fest appearance will be the band's first at the festival and their sixth time performing in New Orleans. Although The Rolling Stones had been slated to headline Jazz Fest in 2019, Jagger had to undergo heart surgery forcing the band to perform at the Superdome later in the year instead.
The Rolling Stones first performed in New Orleans in 1978 at the Superdome, playing to a crowd of 80,000. Tickets cost $13.50 back then.