The album was massively popular by any standards, going double platinum in the US and spawning several UK hit singles, although US single success proved elusive. (The traditional wisdom, then and now, is that Voodoo Lounge is the best Stones record since Some Girls - itself 'the last great Stones album' since.well, the one before that -) The situation was seized by The Rolling Stones as an opportunity, and the results are audibly inspired, authentic and widely admired. True, the four band members had been playing together for twenty years - three of them for over thirty - but the loss of the bass player could have spelled disaster and a new producer, especially for a successful group with known habits and references, is always a risk. The fact is that although Bill's departure did mean the end of a 30-year-era, Voodoo Lounge represented a new start, for a new band with a new producer. Voodoo Lounge was The Rolling Stones' answer to that question: an emphatic 'Yes, for as long as we want to'.
Then, in 1992, Bill Wyman announced his retirement from the band, and the question of whether The Rolling Stones could continue without him was inevitably raised once again. The undoubted commercial triumph of 1989's Steel Wheels, both the tour and the album (including European leg, Urban Jungle), had provided a convincing rebuttal to these rumours. Rumours abounded about Mick and Keith's working relationship. Personal side projects had appeared to take precedence over the work of any, or most of the band members. The 1980s had seen the band lose some cohesion and direction, in the opinion of many of their fans and doubts were beginning to be expressed about the viability of the band. Voodoo Lounge came at an awkward moment for The Rolling Stones. Instead, it won the Grammy for Best Rock Album.
The first Rolling Stones album without Bill Wyman on bass, and with Don Was producing could have disappointed.