Rolling Stones At 50: Mining Interviews for E-Books

Jumping into the fray of Stones mania that began this summer when the group celebrated its golden anniversary, NBC Publishing (Nasdaq: CMCSA‎) on Tuesday released a video-enhanced e-book featuring exclusive archival interviews with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

The e-book, “Mick and Keith: Never Stop,” features interviews produced by NBC’s “Today” show and conducted by music journalist and former “Today” music correspondent Rona Elliot. In the interviews -- filmed while the band was on break from the “Steel Wheels Tour” in the summer of 1989 -- Jagger and Richards reflect on the band’s history and its enduring legacy.

The book also features images from the noted roc 'n’ roll photographers Henry Diltz, Bob Gruen and Ebet Roberts, along with an original cartoon by the New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss. The Grammy-winning producer Steve Jordan introduces the book with a video introduction.

“This book gives fans a real insight to how Mick and Keith think about the same things. The thing in the book that really sums it all up is Rona asking the one question to the both of them and then them answering completely differently,” Jordan said in a statement.

A promo reel for the book is available on YouTube.

NBC Publishing was launched in January by NBCUniversal, which has been looking to mine its extensive archive of news and entertainment footage to take advantage of the growing enhanced e-book market. The rise of Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad and other tablet computers has sparked a demand for video-enhanced e-books, positioning television companies to get in on the ground floor of a new publishing frontier.

In addition to footage from the “Today” show, NBC Publishing has said it will incorporate footage from NBC Nightly News, Dateline and Peacock Productions into 30 e-book titles this year, according to Publishers Weekly.  

Elliot, who worked on “Today” in the 1980s and 1990s, has been working on making her archival interviews available to music fans. For the Stones interviews, she spoke with Jagger at New York’s Waldorf Astoria and with Richards on the island of Antigua in the West Indies. Over the years, she has also interviewed such rock icons as Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, Marvin Gaye and Ray Charles. There is no word on whether those interviews will be incorporated into future e-books.   

“Mick and Keith: Never Stop” is available beginning Tuesday through Apple’s iBookstore.