We Went Backstage at the Rolling Stones Concert in Vegas. Here’s What We Saw

3 p.m.

The musicians have started to arrive.

Tim Ries, 64, who’s played saxophone with the Stones since 1999, strolls through the garage, near the tour’s massive bank of now-empty trucks. “So, what’s it like touring with the Rolling Stones?” I ask.

“They treat us like family,” he says, referring to how the three principals — Mick, Keith and Ronnie — interact with the other musicians. “If you have that good vibe offstage, that’s going to translate onstage,” adds Ries, who’s also a jazz musician. “And the audience … you’re going to feel that good, really cool energy.”

He notes that he misses Charlie Watts, who “was a dear friend” and a fellow jazz aficionado. (Watts, the drummer for the Stones since 1963, died of cancer at age 80 in 2021.) “In every city we’d go to jazz clubs,” when they toured together, and he even came to know Watts’ children and grandchildren.

Ries then pulls out his sax and starts jamming. It sounds incredible. And it’s just a warm-up. He packs it back up, smiles, then strolls off, headed to his dressing room to get his four saxophones (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone) and their reeds ready, before showing up for the sound check. (He’ll be joined onstage by Karl Denson on saxophone.)

5 p.m.

Photos and videos are not permitted during the hour-long sound check, when the band takes the stage. And there’s Mick, in jeans and a baseball cap, running through a few of the songs from the show’s set list with Keith, Ronnie and the band. They work through “Let’s Spend the Night Together” (tonight’s the first time they’ll be playing it on this tour), “You Got Me Rocking,” and “Like a Rolling Stone,” a Bob Dylan cover that the audience will go wild for.

Keyboardist Chuck Leavell

Christina Ianzito

6 p.m.

The sound check’s over, and I corner keyboardist Chuck Leavell, 72, before he heads back to his dressing room, which he shares with bassist Darryl Jones, 62, “my roomie.” Jones joined the band some 20 years ago, after Bill Wyman left the group. Leavell, a former member of the Allman Brothers Band, has been with the Stones since 1982, and serves as their musical director. (Fun fact: He’s also a big environmentalist and owns a tree farm outside of Macon, Georgia.) “When I started, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I could get maybe four or five years with [the Rolling Stones]. That would just be amazing. Forty-two years later, here we all are. It’s really remarkable.”

And no, Leavell, who sports a white beard and near-shoulder-length hair, is not anxious, a few hours before showtime. “It’s really more for me focusing on what is it going take to put on the best show possible, to keep those people happy, to keep the smiles on their faces.” Then he’s off to see his pal Jones and pick out what he wants to wear tonight.

(Left to right) Ronnie, Margaret and Thomas Sokol

Christina Ianzito

7 p.m.

Shooed away from the backstage area, I hang out by an entrance to watch fans as they walk into the now-buzzing arena. Some look positively giddy, including Margaret Sokol, 54, from Houston, who’s joined by her husband, Ronnie, 69, and their (comparatively unenthused-looking) 20-year-old son, Thomas — all three in matching black Rolling Stones T-shirts. “I wanted to see the Stones when I was 11 years old in New Orleans at the Superdome,” Sokol says, “but my parents absolutely put their foot down and refused to let me go.” With a grin, she adds, “I’m rebelling now!”

7:30 p.m.

A line has formed at AARP’s welcome booth in the entry area, where people can get their pictures taken with a giant replica of the Stones’ lips-and-tongue logo, and tablets where AARP members can enter to win upgraded seats for tonight’s show.

Susie Hannibal, 79, and her husband, Doyal, 77, retired General Motors employees from Grand Rapids, Michigan, are in line too. Susie, a superfan who even named one of her cats Mickey Jagger (“her little sister is Tina Turner”), is one of the three winners of pairs of tickets to this concert through AARP’s Rock Out With the Rolling Stones sweepstakes. “She’s been in a tizzy this whole time,” says Doyal, about his wife’s excitement since she won. They’ve just returned from a meet and greet with the band — another perk with the sweepstakes win. Susie gushes that she got a fist bump from Mick, and shook hands with Keith and Ronnie. She was too flustered to say much, she adds, but “I wanted to say, ‘I grew old with you!’ ”

7:45 p.m.

There’s a long, snaking line of fans waiting to buy Hackney Diamonds T-shirts and other merch.

8:30 p.m.

I find my seat, up on the 300 level. The Pretty Reckless are playing. They have talent, but ... they aren’t the Stones.

The Rolling Stones performing on stage at Allegiant Stadium.

Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun

9:20 p.m.

Yeeeeessss! Mick, Keith, Ronnie and all the rest take the stage with “Start Me Up” and are welcomed with a roar from the crowd. Mick is on fire. When I spoke to Ries earlier, he admiringly called Jagger “a freak of nature” for his youthful energy at 80. “But it’s not like a mystery,” Ries added. “He eats well, he exercises and he’s actually determined to continue performing at a high level.”

Those shaking hips don’t lie.

10:40 p.m.

The highlight of the night: “Gimme Shelter,” with Chanel Haynes, 45, belting out those unforgettable backup vocals. Haynes started performing with the band in 2022, and is jaw-droppingly, spine-shiveringly good.

11:30 p.m. approximately (it’s been a long day!)

I join the crowd spilling out into the street to head over Hacienda Bridge, which is now closed to car traffic to allow for the exodus of fans walking across I-15 toward the hotels along the Strip. It’s hard to believe in less than 24 hours, the arena will be empty of all traces of the Rolling Stones. Here’s hoping (fingers crossed) they keep rocking on.