At 80 years old Mick Jagger has lived a thousand lives and does not intend to stop there.
“What a pain to grow old”already sang Mick Jagger in “Mother’s Little Helper” in 1966. The oldest of the British rock stars turns 80 on Wednesday but the leader of the Rolling Stones does not seem to show any signs of old age.
True to form, the overexcited showman intends to celebrate his birthday as it should be: by organizing a huge party in south-west London, according to the British tabloids. Bad boy, ultimate sex symbol, unequaled rock star: Mick Jagger made headlines for decades, between provocations, excesses and conquests. And continues to unleash the crowds with his diabolical swaying on stage.
With the Rolling Stones, he recently toured Europe in celebration of the band’s 60th anniversary. The tour ended last year, for the first time without drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021. While still in great shape, Mick Jagger underwent heart surgery in 2019. But his draconian diet of yoga, herbal juices, fruit and vitamins kept his slender figure and physical form intact.
A life 2000 light years away
With titles like “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, “Gimme Shelter”, “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Not Fade Away”, the Rolling Stones contributed to the cultural explosion of the 1960s in the United Kingdom.
Mick Jagger and the Stones then embody Swinging London, adored, chased by girls and closely watched by the police. For Jagger, a life 2000 light years from where he comes from, as he sings on “2000 Light Years from Home”.
Born on July 26, 1943, in Dartford, in an uneventful middle-class family, Michael Philip Jagger was not predestined for a career as a musician. A time student at the prestigious London School of Economics, which he joined in 1961, he quickly tired of finance courses – which however sharpened his business sense – and already preferred the rhythm’n blues of Chuck Berry.
In 1960, he began to play with his childhood friend Keith Richards, and two years later formed The Rollin’ Stones, which would become The Rolling Stones in 1963, with Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. In 1965, the band released Satisfactiona title that propelled the four artists to glory, catching up with the notoriety of the Beatles, of which they became, somewhat in spite of themselves, the rivals.
The former “public enemy number 1 of the establishment”
Their image as “bad boys” opposing that of “nice boys” of the Fab Four, according to cleverly orchestrated marketing. The group also knows fame for its escapades, both on and off stage, between drug use and unbridled sex life.
Queen Elizabeth II will carefully avoid ennobling Mick Jagger in person, in 2003, “for services rendered to music”, leaving Charles to dub the one who was “the public enemy number one of the establishment”.
But for a long time, Mick Jagger the millionaire (his fortune is estimated at some 310 million pounds in 2021, according to the Sunday Times) is no longer the “bad boy” of his debut. “Sir Mick” is often seen at Lord’s as a loyal supporter of the England cricket team. In a relationship since 2014 with American dancer Melanie Hamrick, the rocker became a father for the eighth time in 2016.