{"id":720522,"date":"2026-07-31T07:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/720522\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T07:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:50:15","slug":"nick-rhodes-mick-jagger-kept-duran-duran-together-when-they-nearly-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/720522\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Rhodes: Mick Jagger kept Duran Duran together when they nearly split"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For almost 50 years Nick Rhodes has been the charismatic and groundbreaking dandy in Duran Duran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the blond hair and eye make-up of the 1980s New Romantic he wears to this day he stood out long before the style became fashionable. And not just because of his androgynous appearance.<\/p>\n

Rhodes not only pioneered the use of synthesisers to compose classic pop anthems, but also the art of creating spectacular videos to showcase them.<\/p>\n

Duran Duran have sold 100 million records <\/a>since forming in Birmingham half a century ago \u2013 and are still selling out concert halls today on their current tour of the UK and Europe.<\/p>\n

Rhodes, the only ever present member of the band, took time out from the tour to take part in a candid and wide-ranging Independent TV interview<\/a> with Geordie Greig<\/a>, editor in chief of The Independent.<\/p>\n

In it, Rhodes reveals that Duran Duran would have split up years ago if not for a timely intervention by another rock \u2018n roll great survivor, Mick Jagger.<\/p>\n

Watch The Talk Show: Geordie Greig\u2019s interview with Nick Rhodes in full below<\/p>\n

\"Video<\/p>\n

He talks about \u201changing out\u201d with \u201cdear friend\u201d and role model David Bowie<\/a>; the day he realised singer Simon Le Bon\u2019s star quality and why he does not take drugs (\u201cI can never slow down so the last thing I wanted was a pile of drugs!\u201d).<\/p>\n

He discloses why he still dyes his hair blond (\u201cpeople underestimate blonds\u201d); why he still wears eye liner (\u201cstick a bit on and it hides it all!\u201d) and why he never wears jeans (\u201cthey\u2019re just laziness\u201d.)<\/p>\n

And he reveals the secret that explains Duran Duran\u2019s famously visual songs (\u201csongs to me are like paintings\u201d). <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Independent’s editor-in-chief Geordie Greig with Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes (Independent TV)<\/p>\n

Most bizarre of all, Rhodes explains why one of his most prized possessions is a collection of cheese labels. <\/p>\n

In black trousers and silken jacket he glides across the hallway of the Cafe Royale, before heading to the penthouse Dome suite for his mid-tour interview. <\/p>\n

There were a couple of periods when Duran Duran risked splitting and going their separate ways, but Jagger\u2019s advice to Rhodes in the mid-Eighties was crucial. <\/p>\n

\u201cMick looked at me and said \u2018You know you really do need to stick together, that is your future.\u2019 He was right because it could all have fallen apart at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DuranDuran Duran pose at Heathrow Airport before departing for Australia, July 1983. L-R: Bassists John and Andy Taylor (unrelated), singer Simon Le Bon, drummer Roger Taylor and keyboardist Nick Rhodes (Getty)<\/p>\n

Not only making sure the band stayed together he also veered away from the most destructive ingredient in rock n roll: drugs, though not before seeing the havoc it can wreak. He says his hyperactive creative mind was an asset.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt (drugs) never appealed to me much. My mind moved too quickly anyway. I can never slow down so the last thing I wanted was a pile of drugs. I tried some and it didn\u2019t suit me. I am also somewhat of a control freak so the idea of taking something when you don\u2019t know what is going to happen is thoroughly unappealing. I have been around plenty of it and seen the effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band was thrown into a world where huge music stars went from being heroes (David Bowie posters were on his childhood bedroom wall) to becoming friends. \u201cBy the time I saw David Bowie I no longer wanted to be an astronaut or a magician, two early desires. I wanted to be a musician.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"NewNew Romantic: Nick Rhodes in 1983 (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Rhodes not only changed his surname from Bates, also his hair colour and his career trajectory. \u201cDavid was a dear friend, an intellectual – and funny as hell. I liked him very much because he wasn’t a let down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially his parents, both from Birmingham wanted him to be doctor or lawyer – not a rock n roll star – and reluctantly allowed him to take a year off from school at 16 to pursue his music dream. He recalls his mother telling him: \u201cAll right darling, you\u2019ve got a year.\u201d They ended up giving him two years \u2013 by which time he was on the road to stardom. <\/p>\n

It was a journey which he always foresaw for himself with a restless confidence: he was desperate to see the world, never be bored, spurred by aesthetics, imagination and music. <\/p>\n

When Rhodes met Warhol in the US, Duran Duran were still just another obscure British band trying to emulate The Beatles and \u201cbreak\u201d America. Warhol adored the unisexual look of the awestruck Midlands youngsters, chronicling his infatuation in his diaries.<\/p>\n

Rhodes says: \u201cWe were young kids from Birmingham in New York – and the next minute we were in \u2018Andy\u2019s Factory\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Princess Diana was another celebrity Duran Duran admirer. She owned their LPs and copies signed by her in a schoolgirl scrawl sold at auction ended up being given to her two boys, William and Harry. \u201cWe met her several times,\u201d says Rhodes. \u201cShe was a great fan to have. I used to see her around in Chelsea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guided by his love of aesthetics, Rhodes strove to pursue good taste and fine detail both in his songs and his style, traits reflected by influences such as Bryan Ferry and Bowie.<\/p>\n

He still goes to great trouble over his style. For instance, he never, ever, wears blue jeans: \u201cTo me jeans are just laziness. I don\u2019t like the cut.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NoNo blue jeans:L Nick Rhodes and Alexandra Stama at The Serpentine Gallery Summer Party, 2023 (Getty)<\/p>\n

Nor has being well into his sixties stopped him wearing his trademark black eye-liner. He enjoys the 10 minutes it takes him to do it each day: \u201cI like the routine of it. I can look in the mirror and go \u201che looks a bit tired.\u201d\u2019 He jokes: \u201cStick a bit of eye liner on and you can hide it all!\u201d<\/p>\n

Former art student Rhodes\u2019 artistic talent extends well beyond music, fashion and film to photography and pop art, which is why he has published a book of abstract art, called Interference, which was the subject of an exhibition in London – and his photographs have been published in magazines such as Tatler.<\/p>\n

Rhodes, now 64, was married for eight years to Julie Anne Friedman, whom, appropriately for a band whose most famous music video, \u201cRio\u201d, was filmed on a yacht, he met at a yacht party. The couple had a daughter, now in her 30s. Rhodes has had a series of relationships with women since then but has not remarried.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, Rhodes guiding star and relentless pursuit of art and beauty gives way to old fashioned English eccentricity.<\/p>\n

Such as one of his proudest possessions, a large collection of cheese labels. He inherited it from his dad. Rhodes laughs: \u201cHe\u2019d even done them by the weight of the cheese snd the colours – there was something about it that was rather fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rhodes has surfed the rock world for half a century as one the first, and in the eyes of some the greatest, practitioner of the synthesiser.<\/p>\n

\"DuranDuran Duran’s singer Simon Le Bon and Rhodes perform during the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, 2022 (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

He says: \u201cI treat it as I might treat an orchestra. I can play any instruments (on it)\u2026 like a flute or a big bass drum or a violin. I can make textures and I build up an arrangement within the songs\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

It is part of the special alchemy of Duran Duran that Rhodes embodies their musical and fashion style, sitting silent and partly concealed behind his synth keyboard during gigs, while dynamic lead singer and \u201cfrontman\u201d Simon Le Bon is its more visible official face.<\/p>\n

Rhodes recalls the moment he first heard Le Bon sing: \u201cWe’d been through several vocalists. But when he walked in and sung a note, I thought, \u2018That’s it. He\u2019s the one.\u2019\u201d It was obvious Le Bon was like Jagger, Bowie and Freddie Mercury, says Rhodes, \u201cunique and distinctive \u2013 Simon had that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rhodes is the official keeper of the vast wardrobe of exotic clothes the band have worn over the years. He would love to see it feature in a V&A exhibition along the lines of the museum\u2019s successful show featuring the man who inspired him, Bowie.<\/p>\n

Rhodes \u2013 and Duran Duran \u2013 deserve it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,238332,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-720522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-t358654-air-transport-laughing-smiling-group-black-white-guita","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}