News The Rolling Stones: The darkest moments in Mick Jagger’s life
The Rolling Stones have always lived a life that looks glamorous, one filled with sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. They were practising what they preached better than any other band on the planet, truly embodying the spirit of the 1960s, which meant sleeping their way around the world, playing record-setting sell-out gigs, and making friends or enemies along the way.
If you ever want a musician to turn to when desperate for a good story, with this kind of lifestyle, no one is better than Mick Jagger. His flamboyancy and willingness to say whatever he wanted and do whatever he wanted landed him in some particular scrapes in his life, some of which were quite fun, others quite dark.
Like all rock stars, we are only ever susceptible to the glamour. We saw him on tour, wearing fancy clothing and getting out of beautiful cars with beautiful people by his side, but there was a lot more to his life than that. Mick Jagger also went through dark periods, whether that was his own doing or because of somebody around him. Whether it is his insecurities getting exposed, morals questions or talent being ridiculed, he has been on the receiving end of the blunt stick of public image more than once, and it’s about time we looked into it.
These are some of the darkest moments that The Rolling Stones frontman was ever susceptible to.
Upstaged by monkeys
If you know anything about Mick Jagger, you’ll know that his live show is one of the most crucial aspects of his entire career. Even now, when he tours, he puts everything into the show and doesn’t leave anything behind. As such, when a group of monkeys upstaged The Rolling Stones, it wasn’t a high point for the band or the lead singer.
When they did a gig in San Antonio, Texas, their support act was a group of trained monkeys. The monkeys wowed the crowd so that when The Rolling Stones went on stage, they were almost immediately booed off. With that, the monkeys were brought back on, and Jaggers’s set was cut short.
4,000 women, one tiny todger
It was estimated that Jagger had slept with around 4,000 women in his life, unsurprising given so much of his brand revolved around sex and being a womaniser. He was the other man in several affairs, including one with Donald Trump’s ex-girlfriend, but his fellow bandmate Keith Richards once tried to tarnish his image as a love rat by saying he had a small penis.
In his book, Life, Richards wrote, “Marianne Faithfull had no fun with his tiny todger. I know he’s got an enormous pair of balls – but it doesn’t quite fill the gap.” Jagger was livid when he read the insult and made Richards publicly apologise for the comment. Small dick energy, indeed.
Sweet iron lady
There probably isn’t anything less rock and roll than talking up Margaret Thatcher, but that’s precisely what Jagger did when she passed, saying he thought the controversial politician was a breath of fresh air and he didn’t understand why people were so against her. Because so many of their fans were from humble working-class backgrounds that were undoubtedly affected by Thatcher’s actions, these comments don’t paint Jagger in the best light.
“In the ‘80s or early ‘90s, I met her a couple of times,” he said, “I don’t want to talk about what we talked about, especially now that everybody else is blabbing about her… But… I was slightly surprised by all the people who were still so anti-her and had all this residual resentment.”
Starting a civil rights movement
The Rolling Stones were always upfront about their sexual endeavours; however, in describing them, they were often incredibly offensive. Usually, this offence manifested as tuts from higher-ups and radios banning songs, but in one instance, the band went too far when a racist comment almost started a civil rights movement.
In their song ‘Some Girls’, Jagger sings, “Black girls just want to get fucked all night.” The band tried to defend their lyric, saying it reflected some people’s attitude rather than acting as a reflection of their own attitude; however, whether or not this was the case remains to be seen. Either way, it was a poor choice by Jagger and Co. that could have spelt the band’s downfall if said at a different time.
He vowed to make a racist and sexist album
In the aftermath of the controversy for ‘Some Girls’, the persistent questioning of the band’s intentions clearly got to Jagger, as during one interview, he let loose, vowing to make an album with the intention of offending.
In an interview, he said, “The next one is going to be more racist and more sexist. It’s going to be a whole bunch better.” Again, like a lot surrounding this song, The Rolling Stones hide behind the façade of “the joke,” but it doesn’t excuse the fact that they wrote a lousy lyric and didn’t seem able to take the backlash.
