(Credits: Far Out / Press)
Tue 24 March 2026 15:00, UK
Between the two of them, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have changed musical history with a long career, making hits that will long outlive them.
It’s tough to find a single artist around that wouldn’t acknowledge that, or doesn’t dream of fostering the kind of career they’ve had as a truly enduring act where inspiration never seemed to slip away from them.
But when you’re as powerful as that, where do you look for inspiration? When you’re almost instantly in the God tier from only a few years into your career, what peers do you turn to for influence? They had the old greats that moved them and spurred their music onwards, but in terms of the musical world around them, The Rolling Stones do have a legacy of being quicker to critique rather than praise.
There is a long list of artists that Jagger and Richards don’t, or at least didn’t, like, including Sex Pistols, Elton John, Prince, Grateful Dead, even The Who. They’ve never been shy about a bad word or a negative opinion, and it’s always been rare for Jagger to loudly revere one of his peers like he does the old blue legends, but one man was exempt from that: Dylan.
Jagger’s connection to Dylan starts way early. Back when the American was still only just breaking out, Jagger was clued in, telling The Guardian, “I was playing Bob Dylan records at my parents’ house when he was still an acoustic folk singer”. It doesn’t immediately seem like the type of stuff he’d be into, given Jagger’s blues influences and his lover for a heavier, louder style of rock and roll. But something about Dylan appealed as he added, “He was already very important and his lyrics were on point. The delivery isn’t just the words, it’s the accentuation and the moods and twists he puts on them”.
He stayed hooked onto the singer, buying each record and watching as Dylan evolved more and more. Then, in 1965, there was one song that truly struck him. “‘Desolation Row’s’ lyrics are just so interesting and diverse. It isn’t a real street so you create your own fantasy. I imagine an unforgiving place, somewhere you don’t want to spend much time, peopled with strange characters,” he said about the Highway 61 Revisited tune. From his first listen to now, his fascination with the song endures, along with his own imagination about it.
To him, that’s the sign of sheer greatness. Just like the Stones’ devotion to timelessness and their desire to write songs that are free from trending fads that will fade quick, they’ve always been a band all about endurance, wanting songs to live a long life. In his mind, ‘Desolation Row’ is a perfect example of that, as he said in 2021, decades upon decades on from its release, “You can listen to it all the time and still get something wonderful and new from it”.
Mostly though, he loves the song’s guitar line. “Musically, he prettifies it. I love the lovely half-Spanish guitar lines from the session guitarist, Charlie McCoy. It’s actually a really lovely song, which shouldn’t work with the imagery but does,” he said, liking the juxtaposition of lyricism and sound.
But overwhelmingly, Jagger just loves Dylan, and always has; the latter clearly appeals to the softer, more folk-influenced side that occasionally creeps out on a Stones record. The feeling is mostly mutual with Dylan loving him right back, although he did take one swipe, stating, “To see him jumping around like he does, I don’t give a shit in what age, from Altamont to RFK Stadium, you don’t have to do that, man”.
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