How a Trip to Brazil and Hank Williams Inspired This Classic Rolling Stones Track From 1969

Brazilian vacations, 1940s country music, and an English rock ‘n’ roll band sound more like separate entries of a mad-lib than an actual cohesive storyline. But all three of these elements came together in perfect harmony when The Rolling Stones wrote their iconic 1969 track, “Honky Tonk Women”. The song came out in July of that year with “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” as the B-side.

The song started with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, who took a Christmas holiday together to Brazil in 1968. The musicians stayed on a remote ranch, which Richards compared to Arizona. “Somehow, we got into cowboy songs,” he explained, per Any Babiuk’s Rolling Stones Gear: All The Stones’ Instruments From Stage To Studio. “I wrote ‘Honky Tonk Women’ then. It was sort of a Hank Williams tune.”

Using an open-G tuning he learned from Ry Cooder, Richards built the country chord progression that would serve as the foundation for “Country Honk”, the Americana-fied version of the single “Honky Tonk Women”. “Honky Tonk Women” was a single only, while “Country Honk” earned a spot on the band’s eighth album, Let It Bleed.

Why Keith Richards Thought “Honky Tonk Women” Was Like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”

The Rolling Stones have an impressively prolific music catalog, a feat made somewhat “easier” by the fact that they’ve been a band for around six decades. And while the discography as a whole is a marvel in and of itself, there are some songs that stand out more than the others. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is certainly one of them. And according to guitarist Keith Richards, “Honky Tonk Women” falls into that same category as “Satisfaction” for the same reason.

In Rolling Stones Gear, Richards recalled taking the germ of his and Jagger’s “Country Honk” idea back to London and reworking it to sound funkier, groovier, and more in line with what Rolling Stones fans might expect from the English rock ‘n’ rollers. “It just knocked us out,” Richards said. “We thought, ‘Wow. That has to be a single.’ But I never thought it would work the way it did.”

“It was a bit like ‘Satisfaction’ in that it transcended all tastes. Some of our records are more for America, some are more suited for England, but ‘Honky Tonk Women’ was for everyone.”

The song’s chart performance would agree. “Honky Tonk Women” topped the charts in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark, and Australia. It also broke into the Top 5 throughout Europe, proving that not only can inspiration come from the strangest places, but also the combination of inspirations can be strange—and effective—too.

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