{"id":770006,"date":"2026-06-30T14:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/770006\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T14:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:01:13","slug":"mick-jagger-on-the-past-present-and-future-of-the-rolling-stones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/770006\/","title":{"rendered":"Mick Jagger on the past, present and future of The Rolling Stones"},"content":{"rendered":"

When NME is ushered, quietly, into the spacious west London hotel suite reserved for our 30-minute on-camera interview with Mick Jagger<\/a>, the legendary Rolling Stones<\/a> frontman is nowhere to be seen. He\u2019s next door, an aide tells us, getting changed. He didn\u2019t like his jacket.<\/p>\n

In what iconic outfit from the band\u2019s storied career might he emerge, we wonder \u2013 the floaty Hyde Park blouse<\/a> from Brian Jones\u2019 1969 tribute? Or one of his 1970s sequinned, velvet jumpsuits? Surely not the massive fluffy black cape, designed to look like a gorilla\u2019s fur, that he wore during renditions of \u2018Sympathy For The Devil\u2019 on the \u201850 & Counting\u2019 tour more than a decade ago?<\/p>\n

In the end, it\u2019s something simpler \u2013 a smart, spotty shirt and the kind of tailored leather blazer that has become a recent favourite of Hollywood\u2019s Gen-Z elite. Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, Austin Butler and Jacob Elordi have all appeared in one recently. Could the choice be a statement of Jagger\u2019s current creative ethos \u2013 to be modern and relevant, but remain cool-as-fuck?<\/p>\n

On the Stones\u2019 new album, they\u2019re exactly that. Recorded in London, LA, New York and The Bahamas over several years, 25th studio effort \u2018Foreign Tongues\u2019 is a souped-up greatest hits of the band\u2019s go-to sounds \u2013 R&B, rock, country, soul, funk, punk, disco \u2013 invigorated by Jagger\u2019s witty lyrics about modern life and love. It is nostalgic yet topical. Classic while looking forward. Familiar but fresh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started, The Stones was a blues band,\u201d he says. \u201cBrian [Jones] was a real purist, but I don\u2019t think that Keith and I were ever like that\u2026 We loved the blues, but we\u2019ve always liked every kind of pop music. I mean, our first self-written single was \u2018The Last Time\u2019 which was just a copy of a gospel song.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the latest in NME\u2019s In Conversation<\/a> video series, Mick shares his memories of a sprawling career, tells us off for sticking the boot in and recounts the time he had to remove an \u201cout of it\u201d Liam Gallagher<\/a> from a dinner party.<\/p>\n

\"MickMick Jagger. CREDIT: Mark Seliger<\/p>\n

Hi Mick, NME first interviewed you in 1964 \u2013 what do you remember about those early chats?<\/p>\n

Mick Jagger: \u201cWell, this is quite a long time ago. When I was first reading it as a kid, NME was famous for liking everything. You could get either a three or four-star review. You never only got one.\u201c<\/p>\n

What changed?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became famous for being really rude to everyone. No one was any good, except for very obscure people that no one had ever heard of and probably would never hear of again.\u201d<\/p>\n

And where did The Rolling Stones come in on that scale?<\/p>\n

\u201cI came through quite a lot of bad times\u2026 you weren\u2019t fashionable because you had to be new in the NME\u2018s eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were you careful about what you said during those interviews?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, you weren\u2019t very careful. You\u2019d say all kinds of things. People would say terrible things that they shouldn\u2019t have said.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one issue from February 1974, you said your first single, \u2018Come On\u2019, was \u201creally shit\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RollingThe Rolling Stones during the 1960s. CREDIT: King Collection\/Avalon\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

And in the same interview, you called The Beatles \u201cblas\u00e9 and bigheaded\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I do speak the truth! [laughs] They did a lot of great things, and they blazed a lot of trails. No other band had been famous in America. It was a closed shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about new album \u2018Foreign Tongues\u2019, with The Cure<\/a>\u2019s Robert Smith<\/a> on it\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, Andy Watt [producer] invited him to come and listen to some of the tracks because we\u2019d almost finished\u2026 I said, \u2018Let\u2019s get him to do something.\u2019 So he sings on \u2018Never Gonna Lose You\u2019 \u2013 and he does a few synths.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he played guitar on \u2018Divine Intervention\u2019 too?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s a sort of an indie lick.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did Keith Richards<\/a> react to him muscling in on his territory?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t there [on that day]! Keith was well away in Greenwich or Connecticut somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Paul McCartney<\/a> plays bass on \u2018Covered In You\u2019?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, he did that on the same session as he did \u2018Bite My Head Off\u2019 for \u2018Hackney Diamonds<\/a>\u2019. The new tune is more of a funk bass part.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very easy. Obviously, I\u2019ve known Paul for ages. He\u2019s not a stranger, but he\u2019s never played bass with us before. It\u2019s a different thing, you know. I said to Andy [Watt], \u2018Is he gonna be into this because it\u2019s a punk tune and I want overdriven bass. It\u2019s gonna be simple, no mucking about.\u2019 And Paul did exactly what was needed in, like, 10 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve also got Bruno Mars<\/a> on cowbell for \u2018Never Wanna Lose You\u2019?<\/p>\n

\u201c[Laughs] Bruno came by the studio in LA when I was finishing off vocals \u2013 and we played him a few tracks. But everyone has to work in our studio. So I was like, \u2018Go get a beer or a biscuit or whatever and play cowbell\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

You had a Grammy-winning megastar in the studio, and you asked him to play cowbell?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah! But he wants to do that. He\u2019s a percussionist as well, you know. He\u2019s like me. I like playing maracas on people\u2019s records.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Chad Smith of the Chili Peppers played drums on a cover of Chuck Berry\u2019s \u2018Beautiful Delilah\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cHe only plays like 10 bars. I thought I was gonna play the bass drum on that [because it\u2019s acoustic]. But Andy brought Chad in and put me out of a job. Chad knew it wasn\u2019t a big feature.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was the thinking around including a cover of \u2018You Know I\u2019m No Good\u2019 by Amy Winehouse?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s all part of the slight Britishness of it. Ten of the tracks [on the album] were recorded in London\u2026 We did pretty much her arrangement. The same key \u2013 and I did the horn part on harmonica which was fun cos it\u2019s always fun to play harmonica in a minor key.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been five years now since Charlie Watts died, but he plays on \u2018Hit Me In The Head\u2019?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he plays really well on it. We did that in Los Angeles in 2021, before he died.\u201d<\/p>\n

NME did his final filmed interview<\/a> before that \u2013 and he was telling us how you used to get annoyed with him for not having a mobile phone?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it was a pain! It really felt like he was living [in the past]\u2026 I mean, come on, this is when everyone had an iPhone. We\u2019re not going back to the \u201960s here!\u201d<\/p>\n

But he was like that, wasn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he was. I miss him a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI vaguely remember him coming to the house in Richmond\u2026 I think he was well out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he had just taken a pill?<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean it wasn\u2019t like a physical altercation. I think he just realised that it was time to go. I think it was a get-together, like a dinner party.\u201c<\/p>\n

\"RollingThe Rolling Stones live at Glastonbury 2013. CREDIT: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Glastonbury returns next year \u2013 would you headline again?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult gig to do\u2026 the stage is very odd. It\u2019s so disjointed, and you\u2019re so far away from everyone. We normally have a 50-feet walkway, and we only had 10 [at Glastonbury<\/a>]. I mean it is great when you look up the hill and you see everyone, it\u2019s fantastic. There\u2019s no doubt about it. Do I wanna do it again? Oh, I\u2019ll say yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

So that means we haven\u2019t seen the last of the Stones on stage?<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully not. I don\u2019t think there\u2019ll be shows this year, but I hope to do some next year for the Stones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why not this year?<\/p>\n

\u201cKeith couldn\u2019t commit, and he wasn\u2019t feeling so great about touring and everything. Which leads you on to the question of residencies\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Like a Las Vegas residency?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, no. I mean more like Harry Styles<\/a> doing [multiple shows] in Amsterdam and London. But then he\u2019s still touring though; he\u2019s not just staying in one place. But we are gonna get live dates in for next year, hopefully\u2026 I\u2019ll let you know when I know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is there another album in the tank, too?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it could be a trio [of records]\u2026 I\u2019ve already started writing songs anyway. They could be for other people though. When you write a song, you sometimes decide \u2018that\u2019s not for me, but it could be for the Chili Peppers<\/a>\u2019 or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are you writing much for other artists at the moment?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very open-minded to it. I\u2019ve got a lot of stuff, and not all of it\u2019s suitable for The Rolling Stones. It shouldn\u2019t stop me writing them, you know. If you get an idea, just write it.\u201d<\/p>\n

What newer bands do you recommend?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had my Sam Fender<\/a> moment lately. I thought \u2018People Watching<\/a>\u2019 was excellent, but I liked his earlier stuff too \u2013 \u2018Seventeen Going Under<\/a>\u2019, there\u2019s some good stuff on that album.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is it about Sam Fender\u2019s music that you like?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always the same when you hear songs for the first time. It\u2019s just the general vibe and then the grooves. It\u2019s rock music, you know, but his songs have good choruses \u2013 which is part of the game\u2026 I think a lot of the lyrics are really interesting too and reflective of his experience growing up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He feels perfect for an on-stage cameo at a Stones gig, maybe on \u2018Tumbling Dice\u2019?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he might be really good for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rolling Stones\u2019 new album \u2018Foreign Tongues\u2019 is out July 10 via Polydor Records<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When NME is ushered, quietly, into the spacious west London hotel suite reserved for our 30-minute on-camera interview…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-770006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}