"It is all right letting yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back."
"People have this obsession. They want you to be like you were in 1969. They want you to, because otherwise their youth goes with you. It's very selfish, but it's understandable."
"My mother has always been unhappy with what I do. She would rather I do something nicer, like be a bricklayer."
"I'd rather be dead than singing Satisfaction when I'm forty-five."
Swaggering, thick-lipped Brit Mick Jagger has been the lead singer and (along with guitarist Keith Richards) main songwriter for the consistently popular and influential rock band The Rolling Stones since 1962. His first feature film appearance, in 1969's Sympathy for the Devil, was in the company of the Stones. One year later, Jagger made his solo acting bow in Ned Kelly, in which he was ideally cast as "Australia's Jesse James." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Born Michael Philip Jagger on July 26, 1943, in Dartford, Kent, England; son of Joe (a physical education instructor) and Eva Jagger; married Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, May 12, 1971 (divorced, 1980); married Jerry Hall (a model), November 21, 1990 (annulled, July 9, 1999); children: (with Marsha Hunt) Karis (daughter, born 1970); (with de Macias) Jade (daughter, born 1971); (with Hall) Elizabeth Scarlett, James (born 1985), Georgia May Ayeesha (born January 1992), Gabriel Luke Beauregard (born 1997); (with Lucia Morad) Lucas Jagger; two grandchildren. Education: Attended London School of Economics.
Singer and songwriter. Lead singer of the Rolling Stones, 1962 –; group signed a $45 million, six-year recording contract with Virgin Records, 1991; concert films include Let's Spend the Night Together, 1983, and At the Max, 1991. Solo recording artist, 1985–. Actor appearing in motion pictures, including Performance, 1970, Ned Kelly, 1970, Freejack, 1992, The Man From Elysian Fields, 2001.
Awards: Inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame (as member of The Rolling Stones), 1989. Knighted, 2003.
Addresses:Record company—Virgin Records Ltd., 553-579 Harrow Rd., London W10 4RH, England, website: http://www.vmg.co.uk. Website—Mick Jagger Official Website: http://www.mickjagger.com.
Singer, songwriter, producer
In a career spanning more than four decades, Mick Jagger has been characterized in many ways—from rock and roll's most demonic performer to one of its keenest business minds. In addition to his years as front man for what has been called "The World's Greatest Rock Band," Jagger has also recorded several solo projects and also tackled an on-again-off-again acting career as well as started a film and television production company. His personal life has also been in the spotlight—a microscope, if you will.
The snarling, strutting lead singer of the Rolling Stones spent his early life in conventional, middle-class style, working hard in school and participating enthusiastically in sports. In 1962, he went to the London School of Economics to study for a career in business. There he met up with art student and guitarist Keith Richards, whom he had known when the two were 5-year-olds attending school in Dartford, England. They discovered a mutual love of rhythm and blues and were quickly caught up in the musical revolution then sweeping England. After moving into a flat in Chelsea with guitarist Brian Jones, they began planning their own rock and roll band while Jagger prudently continued his business courses.
Their first public appearance was a spur-of-the-moment, unpaid show at a tiny jazz club called the Marquee. They had no name for their group, but impulsively decided to call themselves "Brian Jones and Mick Jagger and the Rollin' Stones" after the title of a favorite Muddy Waters song. Jagger, Jones, and Richards later added drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman. By 1963, though, they had begun to find their audience, the lineup solidified, and their popularity grew rapidly; by 1964 two different polls had named them England's most popular group, outranking even the Beatles.
A Reputation for Rebellion "In the beginning it was frightening," Jagger recalled to a Newsweek reporter. "It was dangerous.... We'd only do half an hour and then [the audience would] scream for half an hour and some of them would faint." By 1965 the Rolling Stones had stopped playing clubs in favor of large concert venues, and Jagger had quit economics school to devote himself full time to life as a Stone. The band's first recordings drew heavily on the music of their favorite performers, including Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters, but Jagger and Richards soon began collaborative songwriting and developed their own sound. Their first international hit, "Satisfaction," stands today as their signature song. It was considered the perfect expression of the defiant, raunchy image they seemed to be deliberately cultivating, perhaps to differentiate themselves from the comparatively wholesome Beatles and their many imitators.
"I wasn't trying to be rebellious in those days," Jagger insisted, as quoted by Stephen Schiff in a 1992 VanityFair profile. "I was just being me. I wasn't trying to push the edge of anything. I'm being me and ordinary, the guy from suburbia who sings in this band, but someone older might have thought it was just the most awful racket, the most terrible thing, and where are we going if this is music?... But all those songs we sang were pretty tame, really. People didn't think they were, but I thought they were tame."
On the strength of such albums as December's Children, Aftermath, and Between the Buttons, Jagger and the Rolling Stones rose to the top, but their unsavory reputation led them into trouble with the law. In 1967 Jagger and two bandmates were arrested for drug offenses and given unusually harsh sentences. Jagger was handed three months for possession of four over-the-counter pep pills he had purchased in Italy. The punishment was eventually reduced, but their legal battles and internal conflicts seemed to leave the Stones demoralized. In 1967 they released Their Satanic Majesties Request, an album many critics dismissed as a flabby, pretentious attempt to copy the psychedelia of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Embarked on Solo Ventures For the first time, Jagger began to look for creative outlets outside the group, playing lead roles in the films Performance and Ned Kelly. Reviews of his dramatic portrayals were mixed, but several critics expressed a certain fascination with the surly sexuality he projected on the screen, a style that became central to the performer's unique persona. "Before Mick Jagger," noted Schiff, "sexual iconography had reached a point that was both apotheosis and dead end.... Perhaps the enormous re-evaluation of sex and sexuality that dominated the sixties and seventies—the long hair, the unisex fashions, the so-called sexual revolution—would have taken place without him, but Mick Jagger's charged androgyny now looks at the very least hugely influential, and probably catalytic."
The Rolling Stones remained together, reestablishing their standing in 1968 with Beggar's Banquet. Let It Bleed, another classic, followed in 1969, the same year the band toured the United States after a three-year absence. They were met in city after city by frantic, hysterical audiences. A free concert was planned near San Francisco, California, as a way of thanking U.S. fans for their support. The ill-organized event turned nightmarish when a gang of Hell's Angels—hired by the Stones to provide security—attacked the crowd violently, beating one spectator to death. To the further detriment of the band's reputation, the murder was inadvertently captured on film and released to the general public as part of the documentary Gimme Shelter.
The Stones stayed away from North America until 1972, but upon their return, they were met with as much enthusiasm as ever. Jack Batten praised Jagger in the Toronto Globe and Mail as "the single most exciting performer at work at this moment. He is charismatic, dynamic, glorious, riveting." Gradually, the media began to cast the Stones as superstars rather than outlaws. Each album they released was a sure bestseller, if not always a critical success. Though they continued to rock as hard as ever, the rise of the punk rock movement made the Stones's once outrageous behavior seem comparatively tame. Jagger recalled in Rolling Stone that the band lost "the whole idea of pushing the envelope open a little bit. We became a hard-rock band, and we became very content with it.... We lost a little bit of sensitivity and adventure."
That loss of adventure brought a sense of boredom and restlessness. Dissension among the Stones
became quite intense, and Jagger and Richards began to snipe openly at each other in the rock press. Both eventually turned to solo projects. Jagger released the LP She's the Boss in 1985 and Primitive Cool in 1987; the albums had disappointing sales and Anthony DeCurtis noted in Rolling Stone that the songs "ranged from bad to ordinary."
Despite Dissention, Stones Rocked On The Rolling Stones joined up again to record Dirty Work in 1986, but Jagger refused to tour to support the album, a decision that infuriated Richards. Many fans predicted a Rolling Stones breakup, yet in May of 1988 Richards and Jagger set aside their differences to discuss the possibility of a new album and tour. Later that year they went to Barbados to begin writing new songs for Steel Wheels. Released in 1989, it was praised as "the best Rolling Stones album in at least a decade" by David Fricke in Rolling Stone. Both the album and the band's subsequent tour were widely touted as proof that the Stones were still a vital musical force. DeCurtis declared: "All the ambivalence, recriminations, attempted rapprochements and psychological one-upmanship evident on Steel Wheels testify that the Stones are right in the element that has historically spawned their best music—a murky, dangerously charged environment.... Against all odds, and at this late date, the Stones have once again generated an album that will have the world dancing to deeply troubling, unresolved emotions."
Starred in Freejack In February of 1992, after nearly 30 productive years in the music business, Jagger was at work on a third solo album and on the verge of signing a new three-record contract with Atlantic Records. "Doing a solo album, it's more relaxed than doing the Rolling Stones," Jagger admitted in to Schiff in Vanity Fair. "With a solo album, no one's going to get on my case. It's just free and easy." The singer also returned to his acting career, starring in a science fiction film set in the year 2009, called Freejack. Though he has proven himself as a prolific solo performer, Jagger acknowledges the profound influence of his many years with the Rolling Stones. He told Schiff, "You know, I'm still me.... It's still going to sound like me. I'm the singer of the Rolling Stones. I can't completely change."
According to All Music Guide, none of his solo releases have yet "achieved the commercial success of the Stones' less popular releases." But Mick persevered with his own projects when the Stones were not recording or touring.
Wandering Spirit, released in 1993, was produced by Rick Rubin, well known for his production work with Johnny Cash among other artists. To date that album, according to All Music Guide, remains the best received among his solo projects. It also entered the charts at a strong number 11 spot and earned a gold album.
Maclean's Brian D. Johnson described the album as, "a rich, eclectic cabaret of Jagger's talents, the album skips through rock, funk, country and blues. It even includes a sea shanty." Jagger told Johnson he likes the opportunity to do solo work, "It's quite a lot of work. In the end, you either get all the credit or all the blame. ... I think it's good to take on different personas, especially with an album that has a lot of different styles."
Voodoo Lounge, released in 1994, proved that 22 albums later, critics and fans were still no closer to being of like mind as to the merits of The Rolling Stone. Nicholas Jennings, writing in Maclean's opined that the album "will neither silence the band's detractors nor totally excite its fans. A mixed bag of musical black magic and transparent sleights-of-hand, the recording breaks no new ground. But the album does prove that when it comes to raw, sexually charged numbers, the Stones can still rock with the best of them."
Oddly, reviewer Jas Obrecht called Voodoo Lounge "the best Stones LP of the past two decades" and said it "ranks with Exile On Main Street and Beggars Banquet. ... Tremendous," he concluded. The album, which sold over four million copies, won a Grammy as Best Rock Album of the Year.
The follow up project, Stripped was embraced by reviewers more readily. Andrew Abrahams of People said that with it, "The Glimmer Twins have finally stopped trying to prove they're still the leaders of the greatest rock-and-roll band in the world and are merely embracing their gnarled, deeply entrenched R&B roots." The album consisted primarily of revised version of songs released earlier in the group's lengthy career such as "Love in Vain." They followed this in 1997 with Bridges to Babylon, which included a lengthy international tour.
Complicated Family Affairs Jagger has had a lifetime of affairs, starting in the 1960s with Marianne Faithfull, which ended when she had a miscarriage and drug overdose. With Marsha Hunt, an American actress, he had a daughter Karis. He first became involved with Jerry Hall in 1977. Although Jagger married both Bianca and Jerry, he continued to have affairs (it was said that Hall broke up his relationship with Bianca). He also had well publicized affairs with Italian model Carla Bruni in 1992 and Jana Rajlich, another model, in 1996—both while married to Hall.
The Jagger-Hall relationship confused even the press. Maclean's, for example, reported in October 1996 that
the couple were divorcing; months later in December 1996, they reported Hall had "forgiven Jagger's infidelities."
Hall and Jagger finally split when it became public that Lucia Morad, a Brazilian lingerie model, was pregnant with Jagger's child. She filed for divorce in 1999. Attorneys for Jagger questioned the legality of the Indonesian wedding. Hall agreed to an annulment July 9, 1999.
In a 2003 interview with Irish Independent, Hall said, "I really tried for 25 years. I had the patience of a saint but he's an incurable womanizer and not very discreet. He needs help. I still love him and we're best friends, but I no longer have the heartache if he's unfaithful, thank God."
"When not working, Jagger doted on his children, helping them with their schoolwork and teaching them to play ping-pong and pool," according to a 1999 People feature on the couple. Hall reported that Jagger "gets down on the floor and plays silly games. ... I don't think he wants anyone to know about all the softy lullabies he sings to the babies. It might mess up his image." He also reportedly has a close relationship with his parents. He built a home for them connecting to his own in 1995. He rang his mother once a week while on the road until her death in May 2000. Jagger sang at her funeral service.
Mick continued his solo pursuits in his time away from the Rolling Stones. Goddess in the Doorway, released in 2001 by Virgin, was his fourth solo album. The project was reportedly the result of Jagger writing and recording for pleasure at home following the Bridges to Babylon tour.
"I thought, 'I've already done these songs, and I don't need to go in a studio and do them again with other people,'" Jagger told Billboard 's Nigel Williamson. "But it didn't start as a solo record. It started as a songwriting thing because I hadn't written anything since Bridges to Babylon." Jim Keltner, a veteran drummer who had previously recorded with the Stones' Charlie Watts, Pete Townshend of The Who, and Aerosmith's Joe Perry. As well, Lenny Kravitz, Wyclef Jean, and U2's Bono contributed to the effort. Daughters Elizabeth and Georgia May also contribute vocals on one track.
Williamson said Goddess is clearly, "a recording that aims to buck the popular belief among many Stones fans that Jagger and Keith Richards need each other to produce their best work. ... Many of the songs have a stronger pop sensibility than is usually associated with the Jagger/Richards writing team."
Timed to buoy the album sales was a television documentary Being Mick Jagger. The film, which aired in the United Kingdom and United States in late November 2001, included snippets from the making of Goddess in the Doorway as well as showed Jagger in his daily life.
Jagger continued to keep busy with a wide variety of projects, even making a cameo voice over appearance in an episode of the animated television series The Simpsons. In "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" he plays himself teaching stage performance at a rock 'n' roll fantasy camp.
Much has been made of Jagger's milestone birthdays since turning 40, none more so than his 60th birthday in 2003. This was spent on the road with the Rolling Stones during their Forty Licks tour. In Prague, the guests included Vaclav Havel, the dissident writer who eventually became the Czech president.
Knighted by the Queen Queen Elizabeth announced that same year that Jagger would be knighted for his "services to popular music," making him Sir Mick. As United Press International noted, the honor is odd, for unlike other rock icons who have been given the honor, he has no "known record of charitable work or public services." This included missing the Queen's Golden Jubilee pop concert at Buckingham Palace that marked her 50 years on the throne.
Charlie Watts, engaging in a bit of hyperbole in According to the Rolling Stones, said "Anybody else would be lynched: 18 wives and 20 children and he's knighted, fantastic!" The ceremony took place in December 2003 with his father and Karis and Elizabeth in attendance.
Jagger reteamed with Dave Stewart to create the soundtrack for a remake of the 1966 film "Alfie." Described by Billboard as "the story of a carefree womanizer for whom sexual conquest brings pleasure and pain," reviewer Christopher Walsh added that, "Jagger deftly captures the duality of the protagonist's persona. He said some of the track "recall recent Rolling Stones offerings, midtempo tunes in which lust and virility are imbued with wistfulness and regret."
"And while this meeting of British pop savants ... won't make you forget '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' or 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),' wrote Chuck Arnold in People, "it produces some vivid blues-rock. The country-tinged first single 'Old Habits Die Hard' and soulful ballads like 'Let's Make It Up' showcase Jagger's distinctive drawl." Vocalists including Joss Stone and Sheryl Crow were featured on the soundtrack as well.
It's fairly obvious that, as Jagger—now a grandfather—approaches what might otherwise be the retirement years, that he is far from relinquishing the spotlight.
Whether as a solo musical performer, with the Rolling Stones, in front of or behind a film camera, it's very clear he will never be satisfied to simply fade away.
Select discography Solo singles (With David Bowie) "Dancing in the Streets," 1985.
Solo albums She's the Boss, Columbia, 1985.
Primitive Cool, Columbia, 1987.
Wandering Spirit, Atlantic, 1993.
Goddess in the Doorway, Virgin, 2001.
(As composer, producer and performer)Alfie – Music From the Motion Picture (soundtrack), Virgin, 2004.
With the Rolling Stones England's Newest Hit Makers–The Rolling Stones, London, 1964.
12 x 5, London, 1964.
The Rolling Stones Now!, London, 1965.
Out of Our Heads, London, 1965.
December's Children (and Everybody's), London, 1965.
Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass), London, 1966.
Aftermath, London, 1966.
Got Live If You Want It!, London, 1966.
Between the Buttons, London, 1967.
Flowers, London, 1967.
Their Satanic Majesties Request, London, 1967.
Beggar's Banquet, London, 1968.
Through the Past Darkly (Big Hits, Vol. 2), London, 1969.
Let It Bleed, London, 1969.
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, London, 1970.
Sticky Fingers, Rolling Stone, 1971.
Stone Age, Decca, 1971.
Gimme Shelter, Decca, 1971.
Milestones, Decca, 1971.
Hot Rocks: 1964-71, London, 1972.
More Hot Rocks (Big Hits and Fazed Cookies), London, 1972.
Exile on Main Street, Rolling Stone, 1972.
Goat's Head Soup, Rolling Stone, 1973.
No Stone Unturned, Decca, 1973.
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, Rolling Stone, 1974.
Rolled Gold, Decca, 1975.
Metamorphosis, Abkco, 1975.
Made in the Shade, Rolling Stone, 1975.
Black and Blue, Rolling Stone, 1976.
Love You Live, Rolling Stone, 1977.
Some Girls, Rolling Stone, 1978.
Emotional Rescue, Rolling Stone, 1980.
Sucking in the Seventies, Rolling Stone, 1981.
Tattoo You, Rolling Stone, 1981.
Still Life, Rolling Stone, 1982.
Undercover, Rolling Stone, 1983.
Dirty Work, Columbia, 1986.
Steel Wheels, Columbia, 1989.
Flashpoint, Virgin, 1991.
Voodoo Lounge, Virgin, 1994.
Stripped (live), Virgin, 1995.
Bridges to Babylon, Virgin, 1997.
No Security (live), Virgin, 1998.
Live Licks, EMI, 2004.
Sources Periodicals Billboard, November 24, 2001; November 6, 2004. Economist, October 25, 1997, p. 32. Entertainment Weekly, January 31, 1992; June 18, 1993; July 22, 1994; December 19, 1997; November 8, 2002. Esquire, June 1968. Forbes, June 3, 1996. Globe and Mail (Toronto, ON), August 4, 1967. Guitar Player, October 1989; October 1994. Irish Independent, November 18, 2003. Maclean's, February 15, 1993; August 8, 1994; October 28, 1996; December 16, 1996. New York Sunday News, July 23, 1972. New York Times, November 22, 1991; January 18, 1992. New York Times Magazine, July 16, 1972. Newsday, July 23, 1972. Newsweek, January 4, 1971. People, March 25, 1985; June 3, 1985; April 28, 1986; November 2, 1987; June 13, 1988; December 18, 1989; August 17, 1992; November 27, 1995; February 1, 1999; July 26, 1999; June 12, 2000; December 15, 2003; November 1, 2004. PR Newswire, November 7, 2000. Rolling Stone, December 19, 1985; December 4, 1986; May 7, 1987; November 5, 1987; November 19, 1987; December 17, 1987; September 7, 1989; September 21, 1989; November 16, 1989; December 14, 1989; March 8, 1990; August 23, 1990; May 16, 1991; January 9, 1992. San Jose Mercury News, October 3, 2002. Time, July 17, 1972; October 25, 1982; March 7, 1983; December 5, 1983; September 4, 1989; December 10, 1990. Time International, (Europe Edition), December 22, 2003. United Press International, June 17, 2002; July 28, 2003; December 4, 2003; December 17, 2004. Vanity Fair, February 1992. Vogue, May 1985; May 1991. Wall Street Journal, October 28, 1991. Washington Post, July 5, 1972.
As the lead singer for the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger is one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll. Jagger fronted the Rolling Stones for over 20 years before he began a solo career in 1985. At the time of the release of his debut solo album, She's the Boss, it appeared that the Stones may have been approaching the end of their career, but it soon transpired that Jagger's solo career would run concurrently with that of the band's. Over the next decade, he released a string of solo albums, none of which achieved the commercial success of the Stones' less popular releases.
Born Michael Phillip Jagger on July 26, 1943, in Dartford, England, he initially met future musical collaborator and Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards while the pair were five years old at primary school, although they would lose contact with each other shortly thereafter. In the intervening years, Jagger discovered a love for music, especially early rock & roll (forming a high school band, Little Boy Blue & the Blue Boys), as well as developing an interest in business, attending the London School of Economics.
In his late teens, Jagger happened to bump into Richards once again (while the two were waiting on a train platform), and when Richards noticed Jagger had several blues records under his arm, they became friends again and started up the Rolling Stones shortly thereafter. The band (which also included second guitarist Brian Jones, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts), merged the rock & roll of Chuck Berry with the raw blues of Muddy Waters, creating a style that would be infinitely copied by others in its wake. By the late '60s, the Rolling Stones were rivaling the Beatles as the world's most popular rock band (with their second guitarist slot rotating from time to time), issuing such classic singles as "Paint It Black," "Time Is on My Side," "Get Off of My Cloud," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and others. In 1968, they began a string of albums that would go down as some of rock's most quintessential and enduring albums ever recorded -- 1968's Beggar's Banquet, 1969's Let It Bleed, 1970's Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, 1971's Sticky Fingers, and 1972's Exile on Main Street.
During this time, Jagger also tried his hand at acting in movies, landing roles in such flicks as Performance and Ned Kelly (both from 1970). Jagger also became a renowned playboy and jet setter among other celebrities. As a result (as well as the Stones' escalating drug abuse), the quality of the Stones' music began to suffer -- while they remained one of the world's top concert draws and beloved bands, they issued albums of varying quality from the mid-'70s through the early '80s. Around this time, Jagger and Keith Richards conflicted over the musical direction of the band. Jagger wanted to move the band in a more pop and dance-oriented direction while Richards wanted to stay true to the band's rock & roll and blues roots. By 1984, Jagger had begun recording a solo album where he pursued a more mainstream, dance-inflected pop direction. The resulting album, She's the Boss, was released in 1985. Jagger filmed a number of state-of-the-art videos for the album, which all received heavy airplay from MTV, helping propel the record's first single, "Just Another Night," to number 12 and the album to platinum status. "Lucky in Love," the second single from the album scraped the bottom of the Top 40. In the summer of 1985, Jagger and David Bowie recorded a cover of Martha & the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street" for the Live Aid organization. The single peaked at number seven on the U.S. pop charts; all the proceeds from its sale were donated to Live Aid.
Around the same time the Rolling Stones released their 1986 album, Dirty Work, Jagger released the theme song from the movie Ruthless People as a single and told Richards that the Stones would not tour to support Dirty Work. For the next few years, Jagger and Richards barely spoke to each other and sniped at the other in the press. During this time, Jagger tried to make his solo career as successful as the Rolling Stones, pouring all of his energy into his second solo album, 1987's Primitive Cool. Although the album received stronger reviews than She's the Boss, only one of the singles -- "Let's Work" -- scraped the bottom of the Top 40 and the record didn't go gold.
Following the commercial failure of Primitive Cool, Jagger returned to the fold of the Rolling Stones in 1989, recording, releasing, and touring the Steel Wheels album. Steel Wheels was a massively successful venture and after the tour was completed, the Stones entered a slow period, where each of the members pursued solo projects. Jagger recorded his third solo album with Rick Rubin, who had previously worked with the Beastie Boys and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The resulting solo album, Wandering Spirit, was released in 1993 and received the strongest reviews of any of Jagger's solo efforts. The album entered the U.S. charts at number 11 and went gold the year it was released. A year after the release of Wandering Spirit, the Stones reunited and released Voodoo Lounge, supporting the album with another extensive international tour. During the '90s, Jagger also resumed his movie acting career, with roles in Freejack (1992), Bent (1997), and The Man From Elysian Fields (2001).
In 1997, the Stones regrouped for another new album, Bridges to Babylon, and a subsequent tour of stadiums worldwide. 2001 saw the release of Jagger's first solo album in nearly ten years, titled Goddess in the Doorway, which included guest appearances from such rock big names as Pete Townshend, Bono, Lenny Kravitz, Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot, Joe Perry, Wyclef Jean, and Rob Thomas.
In addition to his work with the Rolling Stones and solo releases, Jagger has guested on albums by a wide variety of other artists -- the Jacksons, Peter Tosh, Carly Simon, Dr. John, and Living Colour, among others (the latter he helped discover and produced part of their hit debut album, Vivid). ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato, Rovi
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger, (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor, best known as the lead vocalist and a founder member of The Rolling Stones.
Jagger's career has spanned over fifty years. Allmusic has described Jagger as "one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll".[1] His distinctive voice and performance, along with Keith Richards' guitar style, have been the trademark of The Rolling Stones throughout the career of the band. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with The Rolling Stones.
Jagger gained much press notoriety for admitted drug use and romantic involvements, and was often portrayed as a counterculture figure. In the late 1960s Jagger began acting in films (starting with Performance and Ned Kelly), to mixed reception. In 1985, Jagger released his first solo album, She's the Boss, and was knighted in 2003. In early 2009, he joined the eclectic supergroupSuperHeavy.
Jagger was born into a middle class family at Livingstone Hospital, in Dartford, Kent, England.[2] His father, Basil Fanshawe ("Joe") Jagger (13 April 1913 – 11 November 2006), and his grandfather David Ernest Jagger were both teachers. His mother, Eva Ensley Mary (née Scutts; 6 April 1913 – 18 May 2000), born in New South Wales, Australia,[3][4] was a hairdresser[5] and an active member of the Conservative Party. Jagger is the elder of two sons (his brother Chris Jagger was born on 19 December 1947)[6] and was raised to follow in his father's career path.
In the book According to the Rolling Stones, Jagger states "I was always a singer. I always sang as a child. I was one of those kids who just liked to sing. Some kids sing in choirs; others like to show off in front of the mirror. I was in the church choir and I also loved listening to singers on the radio – the BBC or Radio Luxembourg – or watching them on TV and in the movies."[7]
From September 1950, Keith Richards and Jagger (known as "Mike" to his friends) were classmates at Wentworth Primary School in Dartford, Kent. In 1954, Jagger passed the eleven-plus, and went to Dartford Grammar School, where there is now the Mick Jagger Centre, as part of the school. Having lost contact with each other when they went to different schools, Richards and Jagger resumed their friendship in July 1960 after a chance encounter and discovered that they had both developed a love for rhythm and blues music, which began for Jagger with Little Richard.[8]
Jagger left school in 1961. He obtained seven O-levels and three A-levels. Jagger and Richards moved into a flat in Edith Grove in Chelsea with a guitarist they had encountered named Brian Jones. While Richards and Jones were making plans to start their own rhythm and blues group, Jagger continued his business courses at the London School of Economics,[9] and had seriously considered becoming either a journalist or a politician. Jagger had compared the latter to a pop star.[10][11]
21-year-old Mick Jagger before a Rolling Stones concert at Georgia Southern College, 4 May 1965
In their earliest days, the members played for no money in the interval of Alexis Korner's gigs at a basement club opposite Ealing Broadway tube station (subsequently called "Ferry's" club). At the time, the group had very little equipment and needed to borrow Alexis' gear to play. This was before Andrew Loog Oldham became their manager.
The group's first appearance under the name The Rollin' Stones (after one of their favourite Muddy Waters tunes) was at the Marquee Club, a jazz club, on 12 July 1962. They would later change their name to “The Rolling Stones” as it seemed more formal. Victor Bockris states that the band members included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Ian Stewart on piano, Dick Taylor on bass and Tony Chapman on drums. However, Richards states in Life, "The drummer that night was Mick Avory—not Tony Chapman, as history has mysteriously handed it down..."[12] Some time later, the band went on their first tour in the United Kingdom; this was known as the “training ground” tour because it was a new experience for all of them.[13] The line-up did not at that time include drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman. By 1963, they were finding their stride as well as popularity. By 1964, two unscientific opinion polls rated them as England's most popular group, outranking even The Beatles.[9]
By the autumn of 1963, Jagger had left the London School of Economics in favour of his promising musical career with the Rolling Stones. The group continued to mine the works of American rhythm and blues artists such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, but with the strong encouragement of Andrew Loog Oldham, Jagger and Richards soon began to write their own songs. This core songwriting partnership would flourish in time; one of their early compositions, "As Tears Go By", was a song written for Marianne Faithfull, a young singer being promoted by Loog Oldham at the time.[14] For the Rolling Stones, the duo would write "The Last Time", the group's third number-one single in the UK (their first two UK number-one hits had been cover versions). Another of the fruits of this collaboration was their first international hit, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". It also established The Rolling Stones’ image as defiant troublemakers in contrast to The Beatles' "lovable moptop" image.[9]
Jagger rehearsing, 1960s
Jagger told Stephen Schiff in a 1992 Vanity Fair profile: "I wasn't trying to be rebellious in those days; I was just being me. I wasn't trying to push the edge of anything. I'm being me and ordinary, the guy from suburbia who sings in this band, but someone older might have thought it was just the most awful racket, the most terrible thing, and where are we going if this is music?... But all those songs we sang were pretty tame, really. People didn't think they were, but I thought they were tame."[15]
The group released several successful albums including December's Children (And Everybody's), Aftermath, and Between the Buttons, but their reputations were catching up to them. In 1967, Jagger and Richards were arrested on drug charges and were given unusually harsh sentences: Jagger was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for possession of four over-the-counter pep pills he had purchased in Italy. On appeal, Richards' sentence was overturned and Jagger's was amended to a conditional discharge (he ended up spending one night inside Brixton Prison)[16] after an article appeared in The Times, written by its traditionally conservative editor William (now Lord) Rees-Mogg,[17] but the Rolling Stones continued to face legal battles for the next decade. Around the same time, internal struggles about the direction of the group had begun to surface.
1970s
Mick Jagger on stage in 1972, New York City
After Jones' death and their move in 1971 to the south of France as tax exiles,[18] Jagger and the rest of the band changed their look and style as the 1970s progressed. For the Rolling Stones' highly publicised 1972 American tour, Jagger wore glam-rock clothing and glittery makeup on stage. Later in the decade, they ventured into genres like disco and punk with the album Some Girls (1978). Their interest in the blues, however, had been made manifest in the 1972 album Exile on Main St. His emotional singing on the gospel-influenced Let It Loose, one of the album's tracks, has been described by music critic Russell Hall as having been Jagger's finest ever vocal achievement.[19]
After the band's acrimonious split with their second manager, Allen Klein, in 1971, Jagger took control of their business affairs and has managed them ever since in collaboration with his friend and colleague, Rupert Löwenstein. Mick Taylor, Brian Jones's replacement, left the band in December 1974 and was replaced by Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood in 1975, who also operated as a mediator within the group, and between Jagger and Richards in particular.
While continuing to tour and release albums with the Rolling Stones, Jagger began a solo career. In 1985, he released his first solo album She's the Boss produced by Nile Rodgers and Bill Laswell, featuring Herbie Hancock, Jeff Beck, Jan Hammer, Pete Townshend, and the Compass Point All Stars. It sold fairly well, and the single "Just Another Night" was a Top Ten hit. During this period, he collaborated with The Jacksons on the song "State of Shock", sharing lead vocals with Michael Jackson. For his own personal contributions in the 1985 Live Aid multi-venue charity concert, he performed at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium; he did a duet with Tina Turner of "It's Only Rock and Roll", and the performance was highlighted by Jagger tearing away a part of Turner's dress. He also did a cover of "Dancing in the Street" with David Bowie, who himself appeared at Wembley Stadium. The video was shown simultaneously on the screens of both Wembley and JFK Stadiums. The song reached number one in the UK the same year.
In 1987, he released his second solo album, Primitive Cool. While it failed to match the commercial success of his debut, it was critically well received.
In 1988, he produced the songs "Glamour Boys" and "Which Way to America" on Living Colour's album Vivid. 15–28 March, he had a solo concert tour in Japan (Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka). The 22 March show was the Japanese artist Tokyo Dome's first performance.
1990s
Wandering Spirit was the third solo album by Jagger and was released in 1993. It would be his only solo album release of the 1990s. Jagger aimed to re-introduce himself as a solo artist in a musical climate vastly changed from that of his first two albums, She's the Boss and Primitive Cool.
Following the successful comeback of the Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels (1989), which saw the end of Jagger and Richards' well-publicised feud, Jagger began routining[vague] new material for what would become Wandering Spirit. In January 1992, after acquiring Rick Rubin as co-producer, Jagger recorded the album in Los Angeles over seven months until September 1992, recording simultaneously as Richards was making Main Offender.
Following the end of the Rolling Stones' Sony Music contract and their signing to Virgin Records, Jagger signed with Atlantic Records (which had signed the Stones in the 1970s) to distribute what would be his only album with the label.
Released in February 1993, Wandering Spirit was commercially successful, reaching #12 in the UK and #11 in the US, going gold there. The track "Sweet Thing" was the lead single, although it was the third single, "Don't Tear Me Up", which found moderate success, topping Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart for one week. Critical reaction was very strong, noting Jagger's abandonment of slick synthesisers in favour of an incisive and lean guitar sound.[citation needed]
Contemporary reviewers tend to consider Wandering Spirits a high point of Jagger's later career.
He celebrated The Rolling Stones' 40th anniversary by touring with them on the year-long Licks Tour in support of their career retrospective Forty Licks double album.[20]
In 2007, The Rolling Stones made US$437 million on their A Bigger Bang Tour, which got them into the current edition of Guinness World Records for the most lucrative music tour.[21] Jagger has refused to say when the band will retire, stating in 2007: "I'm sure the Rolling Stones will do more things and more records and more tours. We've got no plans to stop any of that really."[22]
On 21 February 2012, Mick Jagger, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Jeff Beck along with a blues ensemble performed at the White House concert series before President Barack Obama. When Jagger held out a mic to him, Obama sang twice the line "Come on, baby don't you want to go" of the blues cover 'Sweet Home Chicago', the blues anthem of Obama's home town.[26]
Jagger hosted the season finale of "Saturday Night Live" on 19 and 20 May 2012, doing several comic skits and playing some of the Rolling Stones' hits with Foo Fighters, Jeff Beck, with Arcade Fire playing backup.[27]
Friendship with Keith Richards
Jagger and Richards sharing vocals at a concert in San Francisco during the Rolling Stones 1972 US tour
Jagger's relationship with band mate Richards is frequently described as "love/hate" by the media.[28][29][30]
Richards himself said in a 1998 interview: "I think of our differences as a family squabble. If I shout and scream at him, it's because no one else has the guts to do it or else they're paid not to do it. At the same time I'd hope Mick realises that I'm a friend who is just trying to bring him into line and do what needs to be done."[31] Richards, along with Johnny Depp, tried unsuccessfully to persuade Jagger to appear in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, alongside Depp and Richards.[32]
Richards' autobiography, Life, was released 26 October 2010.[33] On 15 October 2010, the Associated Press published an article stating that Richards refers to Mick Jagger as "unbearable" in the book and notes that their relationship has been strained "for decades."[34]
Acting and film production
Jagger has also had an intermittent acting career, most notably in Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg's Performance (1968) and as Australian bushrangerNed Kelly (1970).[35] He composed an improvised soundtrack for Kenneth Anger's film Invocation Of My Demon Brother on the Moog synthesiser in 1969. He auditioned for the role of Dr. Frank N. Furter in the 1975 film adaptation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a now iconic role that was eventually played by the original performer from its run on London's West End, Tim Curry. Appeared as himself in The Rutles film All You Need Is Cash in 1978. In the late 1970s, Jagger was cast as Wilbur, a main character in Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. However, a delay and the illness of main actor Jason Robards (later replaced by Klaus Kinski) in the film's notoriously difficult production resulted in his being unable to continue due to schedule conflicts with a band tour; some of the footage of his work is shown in the documentary Burden of Dreams. He developed a reputation for playing the heavy later in his acting career in films including Freejack (1992), Bent (1997), and The Man From Elysian Fields (2002).
In 1995, Jagger founded Jagged Films with Victoria Pearman "[to] start my own projects instead of just going in other people's and being involved peripherally or doing music."[citation needed] Its first release was the World War II drama Enigma in 2001. That same year, it produced a documentary on Jagger entitled Being Mick. The program, which first aired on television 22 November, coincided with the release of his fourth solo album, Goddess in the Doorway.[36]
In 2008, the company began work on The Women, an adaptation of the George Cukorfilm of the same name. It was directed by Diane English.[37][38] Reviving the 1939 film met with countless delays, but Jagger's company was credited with obtaining $24 million of much-needed financing to finally begin casting. English told Entertainment Weekly: "This was much easier in 1939, when all the ladies were under contract, and they had to take the roles they were told to."
The Rolling Stones have been the subjects of numerous documentaries, including Gimme Shelter, which was made as the band was gaining fame in the United States. Martin Scorsese worked with Jagger on Shine a Light, a documentary film featuring the Rolling Stones with footage from the A Bigger Bang Tour during two nights of performances at New York's Beacon Theatre. It screened in Berlin in February 2008.[39]Variety's Todd McCarthy said the film "takes full advantage of heavy camera coverage and top-notch sound to create an invigorating musical trip down memory lane, as well as to provoke gentle musings on the wages of ageing and the passage of time."[40] He predicted the film would fare better once released to video than in its limited theatrical runs.
Jagger was a producer of, and guest-starred in the first episode of the short-lived comedy The Knights of Prosperity, which aired in 2007 on ABC.[41]
By Jerry Hall he has daughter Elizabeth Scarlett Jagger (born 2 March 1984), son James Leroy Augustin Jagger (born 28 August 1985), daughter Georgia May Ayeesha Jagger (born 12 January 1992) and son Gabriel Luke Beauregard Jagger (born 9 December 1997)[9][54]
By Luciana Gimenez, he has son Lucas Maurice Morad Jagger (born 18 May 1999).[54]
His father, Joe, died of pneumonia on 11 November 2006, at the age of 93.[57] Although the Rolling Stones were on the A Bigger Bang Tour, Jagger flew to Britain on Friday to see his father before returning to Las Vegas the same day, where he was to perform on Saturday night. The show went ahead as scheduled.[58]
In 2008, it was revealed that members of the Hells Angels had plotted to murder Jagger in 1975. They were angered by Jagger's public blaming of the Hells Angels, who had been hired to provide security at the Altamont Free Concert in December 1969, for much of the crowd violence at the event. The conspirators reportedly used a boat to approach a residence where Jagger was staying on Long Island, New York; the plot failed when the boat was nearly sunk by a storm.[59]
Jagger is an avid cricket fan.[60] He founded Jagged Internetworks so he could get coverage of English Cricket.[60]
His personal fortune was estimated in 2010, at £190 million (~$298 million US).[61]
He said in September 2010 that he has a daily meditation and Buddhist practice.[62][63]
Knighthood
On 12 December 2003, Jagger was made a Knight Bachelor for services to music, as Sir Michael Jagger by The Prince of Wales.[64][65] Mick Jagger's knighthood received mixed reactions. Some fans were disappointed when he accepted the honour as it seemed to contradict his anti-establishment stance.[66]
As United Press International noted, the honour is odd, for unlike other knighted rock musicians, he has no "known record of charitable work or public services," although he is a patron of the British Museum.[67] Jagger was absent from the Queen's Golden Jubilee pop concert at Buckingham Palace that marked her 50 years on the throne.[68]
Charlie Watts was quoted in the book According to the Rolling Stones as saying, "Anybody else would be lynched: 18 wives and 20 children and he's knighted, fantastic!"[69] The ceremony took place in December 2003. Jagger’s father and daughters Karis and Elizabeth were in attendance.[9]
Jagger's knighthood also caused some friction between him and bandmate Keith Richards, who was irritated when Jagger accepted the "paltry honour".[70] Richards said that he did not want to take the stage with someone wearing a "coronet and sporting the old ermine. It's not what the Stones is about, is it?"[65] Jagger retorted: "I think he would probably like to get the same honour himself. It's like being given an ice cream—one gets one and they all want one."[65]
Mick Jagger in popular culture
Mick Jagger's waistcoat displayed at the Hard Rock Cafe in Paris
From the time that the Rolling Stones developed their anti-establishment image in the mid-1960s, Mick Jagger, with guitarist Keith Richards, has been an enduring icon of the counterculture. This was enhanced by his controversial drug-related arrests, sexually charged onstage antics, provocative song lyrics, and his role of the bisexual Turner in the 1970 film Performance. One of his biographers, Christopher Andersen, describes him as "one of the dominant cultural figures of our time", adding that Jagger was "the story of a generation".[71]
Jagger, who at the time described himself as an anarchist[72] and espoused the leftist slogans of the era, took part in a demonstration against the Vietnam War outside the US Embassy in London in 1968. This event inspired him to write "Street Fighting Man" that same year.[73]
A variety of celebrities attended a lavish party at New York's St. Regis Hotel to celebrate Jagger's 29th birthday and the end of the band's 1972 American tour. The party made the front pages of the leading New York newspapers.[74]
Pop artist Andy Warhol painted a series of silkscreen portraits of Jagger in 1975, one of which was owned by Farah Diba, wife of the Shah of Iran. It hung on a wall inside the royal palace in Teheran.[75] In 1967, Cecil Beaton photographed Jagger's naked buttocks, a photo that sold at Sotheby's auction house in 1986 for $4,000.[76]
Jagger was allegedly a contender for the anonymous subject of Carly Simon's 1973 hit song "You're So Vain", in which he sings backing vocals.[77] Although Don McLean does not use Jagger's name in his famous song "American Pie", he alludes to Jagger onstage at Altamont, calling him Satan.[78]
In 2010, a retrospective exhibition of portraits of Mick Jagger was presented at the festival Rencontres d'Arles, in France. The catalogue of the exhibition is the first photo album of Mick Jagger and shows his evolution over 50 years.[79]
In the words of British dramatist and novelist Philip Norman, "the only point concerning Mick Jagger's influence over 'young people' that doctors and psychologists agreed on was that it wasn't, under any circumstances, fundamentally harmless."[80] According to Norman, even Elvis Presley at his most scandalous had not exerted a "power so wholly and disturbingly physical": "Presley", he wrote in 1984, "while he made girls scream, did not have Jagger's ability to make men feel uncomfortable."[80] Norman also associates the early performances of Jagger with the Rolling Stones in the 1960s as a male ballet dancer, with "his conflicting and colliding sexuality: the swan's neck and smeared harlot eyes allied to an overstuffed and straining codpiece."[80]
Other authors also attribute similar connotations to Jagger. His performance style has been studied in the academic field as an analysis concerning gender, image and sexuality.[81] It has been written for example that his performance style "opened up definitions of gendered masculinity and so laid the foundations for self-invention and sexual plasticity which are now an integral part of contemporary youth culture".[82] His stage personas also contributed significantly to the British tradition popular music that always featured the character song and where the art of singing becomes a matter of acting—which creates a question concerning the singer's relationship to his own words.[83] His voice, often cited as "thin and unexceptional", has been described as a powerful expressive tool for communicating feelings to his audience and expressing an alternative vision of society.[84] In order to express "virility and unrestrained passion" he developed techniques previously used by African American preachers and gospel singers such as "the roar, the guttural belt style of singing, and the buzz, a more nasal and raspy sound".[84]Steven Van Zandt also wrote: "The acceptance of Jagger's voice on pop radio was a turning point in rock & roll. He broke open the door for everyone else. Suddenly, Eric Burdon and Van Morrison weren't so weird — even Bob Dylan."[85]
Allmusic has described Jagger as "one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll".[1] In fact, musicians such as David Bowie joined many rock bands with blues, folk and soul orientations in his first attempts as a musician in the mid-60, and he was to recall: "I used to dream of being their Mick Jagger".[86] Bowie also would say later: "he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image."[87]Lenny Kravitz, in the Rolling Stone magazine edition for their List of 100 Greatest Singers, in which Jagger was placed in 16º, wrote: "I sometimes talk to people who sing perfectly in a technical sense who don't understand Mick Jagger. [...] His sense of pitch and melody is really sophisticated. His vocals are stunning, flawless in their own kind of perfection."[88] This edition also cites Mick Jagger as a key influence on Jack White, Steven Tyler, and Iggy Pop.[88]
More recently, his cultural legacy is also associated with his ageing accompanied by some vitality. Bon Jovi frontman Jon Bon Jovi, also a veteran, has said: "We continue to make Number One records and fill stadiums. But will we still be doing 150 shows per tour? I just can't see it. I don't know how the hell Mick Jagger does it at 67. That would be the first question I'd ask him. He runs around the stage as much as I do yet he's got almost 20 years on me."[89] Since his early career, Jagger embodied what some authors describes as a "Dionysianarchetype" of "eternal youth" personified by many rock stars and the rock culture.[90] As wrote biographer Laura Jackson, "It is impossible to imagine current culture without the unique influence of Mick Jagger."[91]
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