When it comes to concerts, no other band has been able to touch the Stones. If they’re on the road, they’re the biggest thing out there. That’s how it’s played out in the past, anyway.

The Stones hold the record for the highest grossing concert tours for 1989, 1994, 1997, and 1999. The total gross for the North American legs of those tours totaled $373.2 million.

Their last humongous outing – the Bridges To Babylon tour – proved at least for these guys, age doesn’t matter.

When the Stones stood under the Brooklyn Bridge August 18, 1997, to announce the tour, it was anybody’s guess as to whether or not the aging superstars could still pull off yet another blockbuster road production. They did.

During the course of 33 concerts over 11 weeks, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood and Charlie Watts treated 1,512,554 fans to a classic Stones extravaganza and became the top grossing tour of 1997. Bridges to Babylon reaped a total of $89,249,847 on its North American swing of mostly stadiums. The group averaged 58,175 tickets and an average concert gross of just over $3.4 million per city.

Well before the tour kicked off at Chicago’s Soldier Field September 23, 1997, the band had promised a full-blown production that would live up to fans’ expectations. The last Stones tour was 1994’s monstrous Voodoo Lounge which became the top grossing concert tour of North America ($121.2 million on 60 shows) of all time and created a visual spectacle that few acts could ever hope to top.

They invited the cream of contemporary rock acts, from Pearl Jam to Smashing Pumpkins, to open for them and that strategy served the band well.

The material may have been mostly classic Stones, but the band was obviously way ahead of the game in terms of production values and business sense.

Now in their fourth decade, it will be interesting to see how the band stays relevant and contemporary. The Stones will undoubtedly take the opportunity to show their peers how to rise above the nostalgia shtick. The group has never presented itself as anything but the hippest band on the planet.

We do have one small request of the Stones. Out of respect to their, um, seniority status among rockers, can everyone please stop referring to Mick and Keith as The Boys?