SATISFACTION GUARANTEE

According to insiders, the Rolling Stones are set to announce a North American summer stadium tour next week.

The 16-stop, AEG-presented trek, which these sources say will kick off at San Diego’s Petco Park on Memorial Day weekend, is said to carry a guarantee of $3m-$5m per night.

Other venues on the tour, they add, will include Ohio Stadium in Columbus (5/30), AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX (6/6), Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville (6/10), Orlando's Citrus Bowl (6/13), Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA (6/30), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (7/4) and Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo, NY (7/11).

Presale for tickets is said to begin on 4/8, with general sales starting on 4/13.

News reports in relevant markets have lately noted billboards with teasing bits of song lyrics and titles.

Their 2012-13 U.S. 50 & Counting tour raked in some $87.7 million (making it #1 on Pollstar's 2013 Top 100 Midyear Tours list) and sold more than a quarter-million tickets. The band has sold an estimated 250m+ records worldwide.

Between 1971-81, eight consecutive studio albums by the Stones reached #1 in the U.S.: Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St., Goats Head Soup and It's Only Rock 'n Roll. Black and Blue, Some Girls, Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You. Every new studio album they've put out since 1968 has gone at least platinum, with 1971's double-disc anthology Hot Rocks: 1964-71 going 12 times platinum and 1978's Some Girls going six times platinum.

Exile ranks #7 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of of All Time," while their other key albums figure prominently in that countdown.

The Stones' U.S. #1 singles are "Satisfaction," "Get Off My Cloud," "Paint It, Black," "Ruby Tuesday," "Honky Tonk Women," "Brown Sugar," "Angie" and "Miss You."

More than a half century into their careers, it need hardly be said, the Stones remain the only still-functioning band to be this important for this long. And their shows continue to attract multigenerational throngs of fans, including plenty of the sorts of young honeys they've been singing about since JFK was president.

Keith Richards is said to be smoking an extra pack of Marlboro Reds per day to get in shape for the tour.

Invaluable research assistance for this story was provided by Paul Grein.