Rolling Stones to record new music 'very shortly,' Keith Richards says

— -- When The Rolling Stones released their latest album, "Blue & Lonesome," this past December, some of the band members revealed they had been working on original music when they decided to make the blues-covers record.

Now, in a new video Q & A, guitarist Keith Richards says The Stones are moving forward with an album of new original songs.

"We are very, very shortly cutting some new stuff and considering where to take it next," Richards reports in the new clip, which has been posted on his official YouTube channel.

The 73-year-old Rock & Roll Hall-of-Famer also admits that the positive critical response to the blues album "caught us a little bit by surprise."

He suggests that the album's success may inspire The Stones to record "the inevitable volume two," although he maintains that's a project the band won't jump into "straight away."

Richards adds, however, "It wouldn't take a twist of the arm to do some more of that. It's such fun to record, and there's plenty more where that came from."

"I just think, actually, The Stones will use it as a boost to their energy and to their feelings of viability in this day and age," Richards maintains, "and see what we can come up with next."

The Rolling Stones' last full album of new songs was 2005's "A Bigger Bang." The band kicks off a fall European trek dubbed the No Filter Tour on Sept. 9 in Hamburg, Germany.