2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floo r got its start on the road, after producer Stuart Price served as Madonna ‘s musical director on two tours: 2001’s Drowned World Tour and 2004’s Re-Invention Tour . Fittingly enough, Price and Madonna renewed their collaboration with yet another outing, 2023–24’s Celebration Tour, before making this year’s sequel album, Confessions II . After Price helped Madonna shape the music for that tour, Madonna eventually reached out to him to go back in the studio, as he explains in his interview on our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast.

In the interview, Price digs deep into the making of one of the year’s best albums, from the mixtapes and house influences that shaped its sound to Madonna’s fearless incorporation of events in her personal life in the songwriting, and also touches on the pair’s live collaborations.…