STONES & STEELERS KICK ASS IS SUPERBOWL XL! I credit the Stones with bringing the Steelers the luck to bring home "one for the thumb"!

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STEELERS & STONES READY FOR SUPERBOWL TODAY! LET'S GO STEELERS!!!

The Stones' 12 minutes of Super fame

By Brian McCOLLUM Detroit Free Press

Seven hundred and twenty seconds.

That's what it comes down to. Twelve minutes. The Super Bowl halftime show, the world's most-watched annual music event, involves millions of dollars, thousands of people and 15 months of preparation. And it lasts 12 minutes.

That figure doesn't come with any give-or-take this-or-that. Talk to the professionals behind today's halftime show featuring the Rolling Stones, and you discover new definitions for words like "precision" and "rigor."

"There won't be a frame of video that we haven't pored over and discussed thoroughly beforehand," says Bob Toms, senior producer of ABC Sports, which is broadcasting this weekend's Ford Field festivities. "It's the culmination of a whole lot of work."

"People look at what we do and call us stress junkies," says Don Mischer, executive producer for Super Bowl XL entertainment. "You just say to yourself, 'If I'm going to fall on my butt, what better place to do it than in front of a billion people?' "

Mischer, whose r�sum� includes three Super Bowls and a Summer Olympics opening ceremony, says his task is even tougher this year: As of Monday, Stevie Wonder still hadn't settled on the songs for his pregame set, where he'll be joined by soul crooners John Legend, Joss Stone and India.Arie for a Motown retrospective. As for the Stones, well ... they're the Stones. Unlike every other performer today, and virtually every Super Bowl performer of the past decade, the band won't be playing along with the safety net of a taped track. The Stones will be "live, live, live," as one NFL executive stressed � and stressed is what it leaves Mischer.

"With Paul McCartney last year in Jacksonville, the decisions had all been made early, he'd rehearsed it many, many times, and as a result it was a very clean kind of coverage," Mischer says. "Here it's a very different kind of group. You don't necessarily know what they're going to do. There's more moving around, more raw energy, more unpredictability. There's no question that's going to make my job more difficult."

To the delight of Super Bowl organizers, the Stones have proved to be masters of keeping secrets. The band is tightly guarding its set list, and was still mulling over song possibilities this week, Mischer says.

"The options are wide open," he says. "Decisions could be made up to the very last minute in terms of what the Stones do."

Charles Coplin, the NFL's vice president of programming, says the league likes to view the relationship with its performers as a partnership, an alliance in which each party reaps big benefits from the other. Which means that even if Mick Jagger and company would take directions from anybody, the NFL hasn't been giving them.

"To come in telling them what or how to play isn't something we would do," says Coplin. "We make suggestions of what could resonate best with our fans."

The NFL and ABC do maintain veto power on the content of the performances, an area of particular sensitivity since Janet Jackson's 2004 halftime bust.

As the Super Bowl moved into its XXXs, the entertainment grew up. Mariah Carey on a national anthem here, Kiss on a pregame there, U2 on a halftime over here.

"It had been kind of ignored before that," recalls Mischer, who produced Michael Jackson's 1993 appearance. "Disney would do halftime with characters dancing on the field, that kind of stuff. It's become much more intense over the years."

STONES GIVE SUPERBOWL PRESS CONFERENCE IN DETROIT

By Patrick McManamon, Beacon Journal sportswriter

DETROIT - The Rolling Stones brought their irreverent selves to the Super Bowl on Thursday and told a packed news conference not to fret about what they might play or do during their halftime show Sunday.

``It'll all be worked out in the night,'' Rock and Roll legend Mick Jagger said. ``They needn't worry about it. Just calm down and take life as it comes.''

Of course, Jagger punctuated his remarks with a word that's a no-no on television, a word that had to have NFL Network folks running for the pause button as they showed the news conference live.

The way he did it, though, made everyone laugh, including the NFL representative running the show.

The Stones filled the largest ballroom at the Super Bowl Media Headquarters for their news conference, and they handled it with a nifty combination of wisecracks and aplomb.

They would not reveal what songs they will play but said they'd be limited to three in the 12-minute show. Asked if it was tough to boil their decades-old playlist down to that number, lead guitarist Keith Richards cracked: ``It's hard boiling.''

Jagger did not disagree when it was proposed to him that 20 years ago the band wouldn't have thought of doing a Super Bowl, but he said the cultural difference between America and the Stones has decreased.

``America has obviously changed since we came here,'' Jagger said. ``It's almost unrecognizable, to be perfectly honest. It's very hard to imagine what the U.S. was like 40 years ago. It wasn't like this.

``And the Super Bowl wasn't like this either. It wasn't such a worldwide event. I think we've grown with the American culture changes, and America has changed a great deal. Though both of us still have our core values intact.''

The ``core values'' remark came with just the right hint of skepticism, which brought audience laughter. As did other questions:

When a bald, middle-aged, portly Detroit radio guy stood up and said he thought that Jagger might be his father, Jagger deadpanned: ``There's a great similarity in resemblance.''

When another man opined that Jagger still looked young, he said: ``That man is my father.''

When the mini-controversy over whether Motown singers should be represented at halftime was brought up, Jagger asked, ``You mean, are we gonna do a Marvin Gaye tune?''

When someone mentioned that with one billion people watching, it could be the largest audience to watch the Stones, Jagger said, ``I don't know who actually counts these numbers.''

And when Richards cracked his way through several answers to serious questions, Jagger just shrugged and went to the next question.

Finally, Jagger discussed being on The Ed Sullivan Show almost 40 years ago (Feb. 12, 1966), and said the band had been warned that Sullivan might or might not want to shake their hands after they sang.

When another man opined that Jagger still looked young, he said: ``That man is my father.''

When the mini-controversy over whether Motown singers should be represented at halftime was brought up, Jagger asked, ``You mean, are we gonna do a Marvin Gaye tune?''

When someone mentioned that with one billion people watching, it could be the largest audience to watch the Stones, Jagger said, ``I don't know who actually counts these numbers.''

And when Richards cracked his way through several answers to serious questions, Jagger just shrugged and went to the next question.

Finally, Jagger discussed being on The Ed Sullivan Show almost 40 years ago (Feb. 12, 1966), and said the band had been warned that Sullivan might or might not want to shake their hands after they sang.

Jagger said the band performed, stood, waited and watched Sullivan, who gave them a small wave.

``Very odd show, really,'' Jagger said.

The exclamation point came late, when a questioner mentioned to Richards that the joke always had been that the only two things left after a nuclear war would be him and the cockroaches.

``What will you do to make sure you outlast the cockroaches?'' the question went.

``I'm going to eat them,'' Richards said.

At which point, Jagger called an end to the questions, saying things had gotten ``a bit silly.''

Imagine -- the Rolling Stones ending a news conference because things had gotten silly.

STEELERS & STONES AT SUPERBOWL THIS SUNDAY! LET'S GO STEELERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just returned this afternoon from a trip to South Beach in Miami, which was back to back with my trip to Chicago to see the Stones last week. Stones Planet has my quickie review linked HERE Special thanks once again to BB!

Omaha, Neb. � The Rolling Stones rolled into town Sunday for its first concert here in 40 years � and its nearest stop to Iowa since an October 1994 stadium spectacle in front of 40,000 fans in Ames.

It might as well have been considered a warm-up for this Sunday's Super Bowl, which the Stones will anchor for halftime.

�A lot of things have happened since 1966,� Jagger, 62, told the sold-out crowd of 16,000 fans at the Qwest Center, the city's downtown arena that opened in September 2003. �A lot of you were born.�

Not really. The crowd skewed to the baby boomer demo that was likelier to afford the $450 leather jackets at the merchandise booths (not to mention the tickets that ranged from $62 to $352, not including fees).

Jagger also noted that the band had lived through eight U.S. presidents, "some of them bad, some of them better.� That would have to suffice for even a whiff of topical commentary on Sunday. Sixties anthems "Gimme Shelter" and "Sympathy for the Devil" were trotted out, but the band's fresh anti-George W. Bush rant "Sweet Neo Con" was kept out of the arena.

Not to mention that the band kicked into �Sympathy . . .� with a light and jazzy groove that completely de-fanged the song until Richards� guitar solo and Jagger's wails sort of rescued it.

The Stones, especially Jagger, focused mainly on their carefully cultivated roles as lecherous rock royalty. (Jagger has been knighted, remember.)

Whenever he wanted to lead the audience in handclaps, Jagger simply stuffed his microphone down his pants. Take that as a metaphor for how Jagger remains in falsetto voice and fighting trim, most of his Bantam rooster moves intact. Without him as the prototypical dynamo frontman of rock �n� roll, some of Richards and Woods' more casual moments of guitar interplay Sunday might have seemed more sloppy than intimate.

Richards, tilting and smiling as always, ashed his cigarette on the stage floor as he took his turn to lead the band through "This Place Is Empty" (a new ballad) and "Happy" (the "Exile on Main Street" staple you knew he'd sing).

Richards and Woods traded guitar licks throughout the night and proved themselves essential foils to Jagger's aerobics instructor/flyweight boxer routine. Watts' crisp drumbeats remained the backbone with support from bassist Daryl Jones. Keyboardist Chuck Leavell still runs a tight ship as musical director.

Extra musicians slipped on and off stage as needed Sunday, including a four-piece horn section � �Bitch� blared! � featuring longtime Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys.

But the standout hired hand Sunday was backup singer Linda Fischer, who initially impressed during �Gimme Shelter,� the highlight of the night. Of course she had to endure Jagger slobbering on her and sidling up to her as part of the duet, but then Grandpa still gets to call the shots.

The Stones completely (and justifiably) ignored their �90s output Sunday, but the four songs sampled off "A Bigger Bang" did hold up when sprinkled among the hits.

And if the Stones must rehash their "Hot Rocks" playlist yet again, at least they relied on minimal gimmicks � just old-fashioned streamers at the end of the night. No pyrotechnics. No 1970s-vintage naughty inflatables.

The Stones did ride a moving stage across the arena floor to give fans in back a closer, wrinkly view during four songs.

I�d bet $1 million � less than one night's paycheck for the Stones � that the Omaha encore of �You Can�t Always Get What You Want� (lovable sing-along with another standout turn by Fischer) and �(I Can�t Get No) Satisfaction� (the sadly predictable nightcap) will figure prominently into Super Bowl halftime.

It's the Stones fan dying to hear rarer songs that can't always get what he wants on this tour. But there was no shortage of country twang and cowbell in Omaha � even long before "Honky Tonk Women.�

Opening act Brooks & Dunn might not rate the Mick and Keith of country music, but the Nashville duo convinced more than a few Stones fans on Sunday to sing along. At first Ronnie Dunn, the better singer of the two, and Kix Brooks (harmonica) focused on uptempo songs. But actually it was the gentle, fiddle-framed ballad "Neon Moon" that seemed to win over the arena in earnest.

�Pretty good for a Rolling Stones crowd,� Dunn said. �Maybe we�re crossin� over, huh?�

Maybe. I know I was content to hear Brooks & Dunn's �Boot Scootin� Boogie� instead of the Stones� �Harlem Shuffle.�

When it comes to the Stones, there could have been worse things than the hits doled out with sinewy precision.

I started off the new Stones year with two great shows at Chicago's United Center. The second night I was in the front row on Keith's side, what could be better? Now it's time to start the Keith News 2006 page, and I promise to get the page updated as soon as I return from my trip to Miami's South Beach!