Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger
Background information
Birth name	Michael Philip Jagger
Born	26 July 1943 (1943-07-26) (age 66) Dartford, Kent, England
Genre(s)	Rock, rock and roll, psychedelic rock, blues, reggae, blues-rock
Occupation(s)	Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Performer, Film Producer
Instrument(s)	Vocals, harmonica, guitar, piano, bass
Years active	1962 - present
Label(s)	Virgin, Rolling Stones, ABKCO Universal
Associated acts	The Rolling Stones
Website	MickJagger.com

Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English rock musician best known as the lead vocalist of the The Rolling Stones. As well as songwriter, he is an actor, and record and film producer. He has won a Golden Globe and two Grammy Awards.

Early life

Jagger was born into a middle-class family at the Livingstone Hospital, Dartford, Kent, England. His father, Basil Fanshawe ("Joe") Jagger, and his paternal grandfather, David Ernest Jagger, were both teachers; his mother, Eva Ensley Mary Scutts^[1] (13 April 1913 – 18 May 2000), an Australian immigrant to England, was an active member of the Conservative Party. Jagger was the eldest of two sons 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."^[2]

Academically successful, he attended Dartford Grammar School where he passed 3 A-levels, before entering the London School of Economics on a scholarship. As a student, Jagger frequented a London club called "The Firehouse". At the age of 19, Jagger began performing as a singer. Jagger had no formal musical training and did not know how to read music.

In the early 1950s Keith Richards and Mick Jagger (who as a youngster preferred the nickname Mike) were classmates at Wentworth Primary School in Dartford, Kent. Richards and Jagger were reunited in 1960 and found they shared a love for rhythm and blues music. They moved into a flat in Chelsea with guitarist Brian Jones. While Richards and Jones were making plans to start their own rock and roll band, Jagger continued his business courses at the London School of Economics. ^[3] He studied for a degree in accounting and finance, with a minor in physical education, but attended for less than a year and did not graduate, leaving to pursue a musical career.

The Rolling Stones

Main article: The Rolling Stones

Early years: 1960s

In their earliest days the members played for nothing 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 band had very little equipment and needed to borrow Alexis' gear to play. This was before Andrew Oldham became their manager. The band’s first appearance under the name The Rollin' Stones (after one of their favourite Muddy Waters tunes) was at a jazz club called the Marquee Club on 12 July 1962. The lineup 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 different opinion polls named them as England's most popular group outranking even the Beatles. ^[3]

By the autumn of 1963, Jagger had left the LSE in favour of his blossoming musical career with the Rolling Stones. The band continued to mine the works of American rhythm and blues artists such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, but 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.^[4] For the Rolling Stones, the duo would write "The Last Time", the band'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 who were definitely not The Beatles. ^[3]

"I wasn't trying to be rebellious in those days," Jagger told Stephen Schiff in a 1992 Vanity Fair 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." ^[5]

The band 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, but the Rolling Stones continued to face legal battles for the next decade. Around the same time internal struggles about the direction of the band had begun to surface.

Their Satanic Majesties Request was released in 1967. Critics soundly panned the album, which many of them derided as a poor attempt to copy The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.^[3]

1970s - 1990s

After the band's acrimonious split with their second manager, Allen B. 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.

2000 - present

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.^[6]

Decades after the band's creation, The Rolling Stones continue to perform and to court controversy. The release of their 2005 album A Bigger Bang included the song "Sweet Neo Con" in which Jagger's lyrics openly attack the presidency of George W. Bush.

On 26 September 2007, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones made $437 million on their A Bigger Bang tour, which got them into the latest edition of Guinness World Records for most successful music tour.^[7] Jagger has refused to say when the band will finally 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."^[8]

Relationship with Keith Richards

Jagger's relationship with bandmate Keith Richards is frequently described as "love/hate" by the media.^[9][10]

Richards himself, in a 1998 interview, has said: "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."^[11]

Acting and film production

Jagger has also had an acting career, most notably in Nicolas Roeg's Performance (1968) and as Australian bushranger Ned Kelly (1970). He composed an improvised soundtrack for Kenneth Anger's film Invocation Of My Demon Brother on the moog synthesizer in 1969. He also appeared in The Rutles spin-off film All You Need Is Cash in 1978. In the early 1980s, Jagger was cast as Wilbur, a main character in Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. However a delay and the illness of main actor Jason Robards 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, Mick 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".^[12] 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 Goddess in the Doorway.^[13]

In 2008, the company began work on The Women, an adaptation of the George Cukor film of the same name. It was directed by Diane English.^[14][15] Reviving the 1939 film has met with countless delays, but Jagger's company was credited with obtaining $24 million of much-needed financing to finally begin casting. "'This was much easier in 1939, when all the ladies were under contract," English told Entertainment Weekly, "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.^[16][17] 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 aging and the passage of time." And, he predicted the film would fare better once released to video than in its limited theatrical runs.^[18]

Jagger was a producer of and acted in the short-lived comedy The Knights of Prosperity.^[19] The premise was that a group of inept, blue-collar thieves want to get rich quick, so they plot to rob Mick Jagger. In fact, the sitcom's working title was Let's Rob Mick Jagger, which was later renamed. Jagger guest starred in the premiere episode, which aired in 2007 on ABC.

Personal life

Jagger is renowned for his high-profile and multiple relationships. He was married twice. In 1970 he began dating Bianca Jagger whom he married on 12 May 1971 in a Roman Catholic ceremony in Saint Tropez, France. The couple separated in 1979 and then divorced in 1980, on the grounds of his adultery with Jerry Hall. After a lengthy cohabitation and several children together, Jagger and Hall married 21 November 1990 in a Hindu beach ceremony in Indonesia. Jagger later contested the validity of the ceremony, and the marriage was annulled in 1999. This was subsequent to Jagger's affair with and the pregnancy of Luciana Gimenez. He has also been romantically linked to Chrissie Shrimpton, Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Pamela Des Barres, Uschi Obermaier, Bebe Buell, Angela Bowie, Carly Simon, Mckenzie Philips, Janice Dickinson, Carla Bruni and Sophie Dahl, among others. He is currently dating former model L'Wren Scott.^[20] Rumours were rampant about whether Jagger intended to marry a third time when the American-born model was seen wearing a large ring on her hand.^[21][22][23]

Hall reportedly knew all too well about Jagger's rampant infidelity and continued their relationship despite it. "I'd come home and there'd be things from other girls lying around," she told The Daily Mail. "And then I'd started finding items next to the bed like earrings or a ring. It was obvious." She said that "she was 'codependent' on Mick -- he was addicted to affairs and she was addicted to loving him. Jerry also believes she was emotionally scarred by her childhood where her abusive father was the 'king of the house'."^[24]

Jagger has seven children with four different women.^[25] His first child is daughter Karis Hunt Jagger, by Marsha Hunt , born in 1970. His second child is daughter Jade Sheena Jezebel Jagger , by Bianca Jagger, born in 1971.^[25][26] He has four children by Jerry Hall: Elizabeth Scarlett Jagger born in 1984; James Leroy Augustin Jagger born in 1985; Georgia May Ayeesha Jagger born in 1992; and Gabriel Luke Beauregard Jagger born in 1997.^[3][25] His youngest child is son Lucas Maurice Morad Jagger, by Luciana Gimenez (aka Luciana Morad) born in 1999.^[25] He also has four grandchildren.^[3][27]

His father died on 11 November 2006 at the age of 93.^[28]

In 2008 it was revealed that members of the Hells Angels had once plotted to murder Jagger in 1975. They were angered by Jagger's public blame on the Hell's Angels who were reportedly hired to provide security at the infamous Altamont Free Concert in December, 1969 and were responsible for much of the crowd violence at the event. The plot was cancelled after the boat they were to use to access his Long Island home capsized in a storm.^[29]

Jagger is a huge cricket fan.^[30] He founded Jagged Internetworks so he could get coverage of English Cricket.^[30] Mick Jagger also introduced Paul Getty to cricket.

His personal fortune is an estimated £215m (which is equal to about US$425 million).^[31]

Knighthood

On 12 December 2003, Jagger was knighted for Services to Music, as Sir Michael Jagger by Charles, Prince of Wales.^[32][33] 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.^[34]

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." Jagger also was absent from the Queen's Golden Jubilee pop concert at Buckingham Palace that marked her 50 years on the throne.^[35]

Charlie Watts, engaging in a bit of hyperbole in According to the Rolling Stones ^[36], said, "Anybody else would be lynched: 18 wives and 20 children and he's knighted, fantastic!" The ceremony took place in December 2003. Jagger’s father and daughters Karis and Elizabeth were in attendance. ^[3]

Jagger's knighthood also caused considerable friction between him and bandmate Keith Richards, who was irritated when Jagger accepted the "fucking paltry honour." ^[37] 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?" ^[38] Mick 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. It's nothing new. Keith likes to make a fuss." ^[39]

Solo discography

Albums

Soundtrack

Singles

Filmography

Jagger has appeared in the following movies:

• Sympathy for the Devil (1968)
• Performance (1968)
• Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969)
• Gimme Shelter (1970)
• Ned Kelly (1970)
• Umano non umano (1972)
• Wings of Ash (1978) – pilot for a dramatisation of the life of Antonin Artaud
• Fitzcarraldo (1981)^[40]
• Running Out of Luck (1987)
• Freejack (1992)
• Bent (1997)
• Mein liebster Feind (aka My Best Fiend) (1999)
• Enigma (2001) – cameo only, plus co-producer
• The Man From Elysian Fields (2001)
• Being Mick (2001)
• Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003)
• Shine a Light (2008)

Jagger also appears as the character "Prince Mick" in the independent comic book Cerebus the Aardvark, along with Keith Richards ("Prince Keef").

References

External links

• Official site
• Mick Jagger at the Internet Movie Database
• The Rolling Stones – Mick Jagger
• Mick Jagger Joins a New ABC Sitcom
• 1983 Audio interview with Mick Jagger-discusses "Undercover" album Classic Rock Central
• An interview with Charlie Rose in 2002.
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