A staple of his DJ sets for over 25 years, Fatboy Slim‘s mash-up of his smash hit ‘Rockafeller Skank’ with The Rolling Stones‘ classic ‘Satisfaction’ has finally been approved by the band. Check it out below, as Norman Cook tells about the long journey to release, and his thoughts on the future of dance music.
Dance fans have spent decades trading bootlegs and considering the mash-up to be one of the great lost unreleased songs of the genre. Now, Fatboy Slim’s clash of his smash 1998 ‘You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby’ single and The Stones’ iconic 1965 single ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ finally sees the light of day, after both artists battling for its official release.
Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim, said that he’d had his requests for approval and release rejected over and over again over the years. “There was one point when they asked me to remix ‘Sympathy For The Devil’,” he told NME. “I said, ‘While we’re chatting about this, maybe we could put that ‘Satisfaction’ mash-up I did as the B-side?’ and they were like, ‘No’.
“After 20 year of ‘no’ we had given up, then suddenly they came to us. Part of me thought the ship had sailed a long time ago, but there still seems to be a demand for it. It’s been in and out of my DJ sets, but if you really want to nail it with one last tune then it’s a good way to end.
“The good thing is that because this version never officially came out, it became my secret weapon,” Cook told NME about having the song in his DJ set arsenal for all these years. “For me, that’s what kept it fresh: I only heard it once a week when I played.”
Cook said that he first put the mash-up together about six months after ‘The Rockafeller Skank’ first came out. As his first big single he “played it at every single show as the cornerstone of my set” and became “bored witless with it” – so decided to throw in some spice via The Stones’ legendary riff.
“I did it very cheaply with a sampler in mono and pressed up an acetate for me to play in my DJ sets,” he said. “I just wanted a version that I wasn’t bored with that would titillate people in my DJ sets. I never meant for it to be anything more than that, then I played it a couple of times on the radio, it got bootlegged, people were into it.
“That’s when we first went to The Rolling Stones and asked ‘Please may we release this?’ It was also the first of many times they said no.”
Now – six years after The Stones returned the rights to The Verve’s ‘Bittersweet Symphony‘ – the club classic is now available in the wider world. Check out the rest of our interview with Cook below, where he tells us about giving the mash-up a facelift and fancy AI video, his dreams of a Christmas Number One, the current state of the dance scene, and if he’s still “lost his passion” for creating new music.
NME: Hello Fatboy Slim. What can you tell us about putting this new version of ‘Satisfaction Skank’ together for release?
Fatboy Slim: “The original version was done really cheaply and the whole thing just came out of one hole in my sampler. Now, we got the original stems off The Stones so I could make everything a little bit cleaner and using AI we got better separation and clarity. I’ve tidied it up, but it’s still the same thing. It’s shooting fish in a barrel to take a record that’s been around for 25 years and another that’s still a classic from 50 years ago and ask, ‘I wonder: will people like this?’ Certain riffs, motifs and memes just never go out of fashion.”
How do you get on with The Stones? Are they good sports?
“Mick [Jagger] was always a fan of it. It was more of a business decision holding it back. I haven’t spoken to them in this round of negotiations; my manager does all that and I don’t get involved in the ins and outs. Although I seem to be meeting Mick and Keith [Richards] a lot in the AI world for the video – which is quite weird and I kind of feel like I know them now.”
Is AI the only way we’ll ever see you on stage with The Rolling Stones?
“Never say never – they’re alive and I’m alive, and none of us are ever going to retire.”
What do you make of your chances for Christmas Number One?
“It’s a fabulous idea, but we need a USP for it: either to make it a charity single maybe, or for one of us to die the week before Christmas? It’s been so long since I was in the record release game, I don’t even know what it takes to get a Number One. Something to do with TikTok? But I’ll talk to Mick and I’m sure we’ll be available for Christmas Top Of The Pops… if that still exists. OK: If it’s Christmas Number One, I’ll put a lot of pressure on Mick and Keith to do some kind of performance.”
Are there any other dream mash-ups you’d like to tackle, or any in your arsenal you’re still hoping to release?
“No, because generally I prefer them as secret weapons. If you’ve got something that nobody else does but everyone likes and recognises, then that’s a little bit of gold dust. In the old days, we used to stick little white labels over records so nobody knew what they were.
“I’m at that age now where I’d prefer the kudos of being able to drop tunes in my shows that nobody else has, rather than the kudos of getting to Number 77 in the charts with yet another mash-up.”
You said last year that you’d lost your passion for making new music. Do you still feel the same? Does finally getting this out there rekindle that feeling?
“It’s the basic passion. All the time when I was growing up and when I started out, I wanted to make music and play it to other people. Somewhere as I got older, that passion died. Luckily I still have the passion for other people’s music and for DJing, but it’s so difficult to make good music. Unless you are absolutely committed to it and dedicate every waking moment to figuring it out, then it’s just like going through the motions. I don’t have that passion, and if I did make a new record then it would be a very average record.
“I prefer not to waste mine or other people’s time with that. I feel like I’ve made enough records and there’s a body of work there that’s good enough. Mashing-up tracks, DJing, I still have 100 per cent passion for that and now there’s only room for one passion in my life. There aren’t enough hours in the day. I’ve done 115 shows this year, so I don’t have time to work on that difficult seventh album.”
Who are the new artists that excite you?
“Most of the new artists I like make obscure tech house records, so I don’t really follow the charts. Fred Again.. just floors me. I look at Fred and go, ‘I just give up, I can’t even compete with what you’re doing’. Maybe I’m too old to do it.”
How do you feel about phones on the dancefloor? Are new generations forgetting how to dance?
“I have to watch it. I play at certain places where they do ban phones; a lot of the clubs in Berlin and Ibiza are doing that and the atmosphere is better. I’ve seen the passion that we used to have for dance music replaced by the passion to be seen at a VIP table with an expensive bottle of vodka.
“The original reason to be in the club used to be to get out of this world in some way and escape reality; have a good dance to the music you’re really into. Now the main impetus seems to be to get content for your Instagram, mainly of you spending a huge amount of money of some expensive drinks and feeling like you’re a VIP. I’ve had to watch that, but there are still enough people down the front having fun for me to make a living.”
So all is not lost?
“You see as many people losing it with their friends around them as you do with people with their phones. I don’t think it’s killing anything, but it’s not the best way forward. I’d just ask people to use some kind of self control. Remember why we all love this in the first place.”
You’ve got the Acid Ballroom tour coming up: is there a lofty concept behind that or is it just all the bangers?
“It’s all bangers from my point of view. The Acid Ballroom is the second room where we have ballroom dancers dancing to acid house. The idea of how to make that room interesting is where the real fun goes on.”
Next summer sees you play huge gigs at Forest Live, Brighton Beach, and loads of festivals. Do you have anything else in the pipeline?
“That’s about it, really. More of the same. I’m possibly expanding the mental health DJing sessions that I do. They’re just a therapy tool for people, and I feel them really rewarding. Hopefully we can expand them outside Brighton. There will be no more books, but I’ll find some other side projects that aren’t DJing.”
Would you ever write a more straight up autobiographical book?
“I’ve got two children, and when I was writing my last book [It Ain’t Over… Til The Fatboy Sings] I had two parents. I don’t particularly want any of them to hear the full story!”
‘Satisfaction Skank’ is out now, with Fatboy Slim on tour throughout 2026. Visit here for tickets and more information.
Meanwhile, The Rolling Stones’ new album is “done” according to Ronnie Wood, with plans also said to be afoot for a 2026 European tour.