Glencoe native chronicles time on tour with The Rolling Stones in new book

CHICAGO (WLS) -- "The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones" is a new book about what many call the greatest rock band in history. It was written by Rich Cohen, who grew up idolizing the group in north suburban Glencoe.

The author joined the band on tour as a reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine when he was 26. It was the assignment of a lifetime!

"What's it like to live in a world where the Stones were always there? For you, there's always been the sun and the moon and The Rolling Stones," Keith Richards asked Cohen when they met.

"It was very important for me to talk about how the music made me feel. So when I first heard the Rolling Stones, my brother was playing it in his room with his door locked, and I wasn't allowed in. It made me feel like, 'God, there are a lot of dirty, nasty things in the world.' When I got older, I wanted to try them all," Cohen said.

Drummer Charlie Watts gave Cohen his seal of approval on the road.

"One of the things we bonded over was Chicago music. I told him I was from Chicago and he loved that. We sort of became friends," Cohen said.

The Stones met artists who inspired them, like Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, at Chess Records in Chicago.

"When Jagger first sings at Chess in the studio, he's so nervous to be watched by his idols that for the first hour he actually turned around and faced the wall because he couldn't watch them," Cohen said. "At the beginning they started out imitating these black blues musicians and at the end, now, they're imitating themselves. There was a period in the middle though when they were the greatest rock band in the world."

The author said Mick Jagger can't be pegged.

"No one really knows what he's thinking and as a result he's mysterious and he's fascinating," Cohen said. "Keith is the guy you can sit in the back of the room, play guitars with and smoke cigarettes."

"These guys play rock and roll and they will play rock and roll until somebody comes up and says you died a couple of years ago and no one told you. This is the life for them, if they don't do it, there's no reason to be alive," Cohen said.

Cohen also wrote an acclaimed book called "Monsters, The 1985 Chicago Bears and The Wild Heart of Football." He wants his next topic to be the Chicago Cubs!