Songfacts®:

• "In The Stars" finds The Rolling Stones returning to one of their oldest themes: the uneasy suspicion that human beings are not nearly as in control of their lives as they would like to believe. Framed as a love song but surrounded by images of corruption, bad luck and social decay, the track argues that amid all the chaos, a committed relationship can still be relied upon.
• The phrase "it's in the stars" is not presented as dreamy mysticism or horoscope-shop optimism. Mick Jagger describes "a heavy hand. Tangling with my plans," suggesting destiny as something oppressive and unavoidable rather than comforting. Love survives because the world is such an extraordinary mess that certainty becomes precious.
• The song continues a fascination with fate and cosmic imagery that has surfaced repeatedly throughout the Stones' catalog.
  
  The clearest parallel is "Hand Of Fate" from Black and Blue. That 1976 track follows a fugitive whose destiny closes around him with terrifying inevitability as he admits, "The hand of fate is on me now." Both songs use gambling imagery and the sense that life operates according to rules humans neither understand nor negotiate with successfully. The difference is tone: "Hand of Fate" treats destiny as punishment, while "In The Stars" treats it as the one stable thing left standing.
  
  There's also an echo of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" from Let It Bleed, another song built around accepting forces larger than personal desire. But where that classic settles into weary resignation, "In The Stars" pushes toward defiance, insisting that even if the world remains fundamentally crooked, this connection is immovable.
  
  The celestial imagery recalls "2,000 Light Years From Home" from Their Satanic Majesties Request, which uses deep space as a metaphor for isolation and longing. There, the cosmos felt cold and alien. In "In The Stars," the universe is still indifferent, but at least it appears to have filled out one form correctly.
  
  "Shine A Light" from Exile on Main St shares the same search for order amid disorder. Both songs imagine higher forces operating above ordinary human confusion, though "In The Stars" swaps gospel redemption for hard-earned fatalism.
• Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote "In The Stars" and recorded it for The Stones' 25th album, Foreign Tongues. It was produced by Andrew Watt, who helmed their previous album, Hackney Diamonds, and whom Keith Richards has described as their "referee" for his ability to bridge modern and classic rock sensibilities. Watt also contributed background vocals, electric guitar, and percussion to the track.
• "In The Stars" features Benmont Tench playing the organ. Best known as a founding member of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, he's one of rock's most celebrated organists and has appeared as a session musician on hundreds of recordings.
• The song was released as the lead single from Foreign Tongues on May 5, 2026, alongside the album's opening track, "Rough and Twisted." The tracks for Foreign Tongues were recorded in less than a month at Metropolis Studios in West London during spring 2025.
• The music video uses AI to bring The Rolling Stones back to the 1970s. The production credits even include body doubles for all three band members, as well as an "AI data wrangler" and deepfake specialists.
  
  This wasn't the first time an artist was digitally de-aged for a video: Billy Joel did it in 2024 for "Turn The Lights Back On." Both videos were made by the same company: Deep Voodoo, founded by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
• François Rousselet, a veteran music video director with a long roster of high-profile work, directed the video. He previously collaborated with The Stones on the visuals for their version of Little Walter's "Ride 'Em On Down" from their 2016 Blue & Lonesome album and their 2023 song "Angry."