The Rolling Stones have spoken about the making of their forthcoming album, Foreign Tongues, and paid tribute to their late drummer Charlie Watts, who features posthumously on the record. Watts, who died in 2021 aged 80, appears on the new track Hit Me In The Head, using drumming captured at one of his final studio sessions with the band he had joined in 1963. In an Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood reflected on his enduring presence, with Richards saying he was "sure Charlie Watts was beaming down on us".

The band credited producer Andrew Watt with encouraging them to play and record together live in one room at London's Metropolis studios, freeing them from rigid digital structures. Jagger clarified that the drum track for Hit Me In The Head was actually recorded earlier with producer Don Was at Henson Studios in Los Angeles, during pre-production for 2023's Hackney Diamonds. Wood revealed the band still have "a few beats" of Watts's, taped in Paris, held back for possible future use, while Jagger praised Watts's jazz-influenced "swing" and subtlety, contrasting his style with that of current drummer Steve Jordan.