Karl Denson To Tour With Rolling Stones

When The Rolling Stones kick off the Australian/New Zealand leg of their 14 On Fire tour, they will be joined by a new member of their touring band who’s quite familiar to jam fans -saxophonist Karl Denson. UT San Diego reports that Denson has signed on for nine concerts with the Stones.

Karl flies “down under” this Friday to begin rehearsals with the legendary band, which has necessitated the cancellation of a number of KDTU dates. The Stones tour runs from an October 25th performance in Adelaide through a November 22nd date in Auckland. Denson was recommended for the gig by longtime friend and collaborator Lenny Kravitz. He joins a sax section that includes Bobby Keys and Tim Ries.

Last week Denson chatted with Mick Jagger about the gig and told UT San Diego, “You know, it was pretty mellow. He’d already decided to hire me and asked me about what I’d been doing. He said: ‘You were with Lenny from this time to that time?’ I said: ‘Yeah. I left to do my own thing.’ Then he said: ‘Have you been doing your own stuff since then?’ I said: ‘Yes.’He explained to me about the nine shows we’d be doing and the logistics of getting together with the other sax player and sussing out the material. It was, like, a 10-minute Skype call.”

Karl’s certainly familiar with the Sticky Fingers material as performed the album with KDTU and Anders Osborne on a tour a few years back.