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There are few icons in music as revered as the Rolling Stones. But given the band’s celebrity status, it’s easy to forget that part of the secret to their longevity, and their ability to create decades worth of classic songs, is that the Stones themselves are just a group of music-loving fanboys at heart.

Singer Marc Cohn is one of the 21 artists who’ll pay tribute to the band at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday, when each will play a song from the classic Stones album “Hot Rocks, 1964-1971,” in an event to benefit a series of children’s charities.

Cohn recalls the incredible night when he got to sit at a party with Bruce Springsteen on one side of him and Mick Jagger on the other.

“Bruce asked Mick all these questions about how did you record this song, and what studio was that in,” says Cohn, who’ll sing “Wild Horses” with Jackson Browne at the benefit. “And then [blues singer] Taj Mahal, who’s also at the concert on Tuesday, came on the stereo, and Mick had all these great memories of listening to these old Taj Mahal records. No matter how famous or iconic you are, they’re just fans.”

Back when Ronnie Spector was the lead singer for the Ronettes, the Stones served as her opening act, with Jagger and bandmate Keith Richards sometimes sleeping on her shag-carpeted living room floor. Spector, who’ll sing “Time Is on My Side” at Carnegie, recently told NPR about the time she got to introduce the guys to James Brown backstage at the Apollo Theater.

“Mick Jagger was the biggest James Brown nut I ever met,” said Spector. “James came walking by, and I thought Mick was gonna have a heart attack! He went, ‘Aaaaaaahhh!’ And I said [to James], ‘This is Keith and Mick,’ and James said hi and just boogalooed on by, because they weren’t famous yet.”

While several acts at Tuesday’s event — such as Jagger’s ex, Marianne Faithfull, who’ll sing her Jagger/

Richards-penned hit, “As Tears Go By” — have close relationships with the group, for others it’ll be a chance to pay tribute to a band that had an anonymous impact on their musical lives.

“‘Mother’s Little Helper’ is the first song I learned to play on guitar,” says singer/songwriter Steve Earle, who’ll perform that song at Carnegie. “This period of the Rolling Stones is my favorite because they were directly in competition with The Beatles, and they knew it. So they were writing great songs because of it.”

This concert is the eighth annual tribute for charity produced by Michael Dorf, the founder and owner of City Winery. Past honorees have included R.E.M., Springsteen and The Who — and one of the magical aspects of these shows is the curiosity about whether the honoree will make a guest appearance.

“I did the Springsteen one, and I did ‘Nebraska’ with Springsteen standing about 30 feet away,” says Earle. “It was pretty nerve-wracking.”

Asked whether any of the Stones may show, Dorf says that so far, these tributes have been about 50/50 in that respect. R.E.M. fans lucked out, while the crowd at last year’s Neil Young show had no such luck. But he hints that there are potentially hopeful signs.

“There are some interesting contemporaries of the band’s here, like Ronnie Spector or Marianne Faithfull,” he says. “And having someone like Taj Mahal [who’ll perform “Honky Tonk Women”] has so much power and meaning for someone like Keith. So I think this would be compelling for the band to see.”

But whether or not any of the Stones make an appearance, the performers — who’ll also include Peaches doing “Heart of Stone,” the Black Crowes’ Rich Robinson singing “Play With Fire,” David Johansson performing “Get Off of My Cloud,” Art Garfunkel singing “Ruby Tuesday,” Rosanne Cash doing “Gimme Shelter” and more — are thrilled at the possibilities.

“These concerts at Carnegie Hall have become a thing unto themselves,” says Earle. “You’ll see a lot of special things happen as the night goes on.”