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The Rolling Stones and Live Aid 1985: The Night Mick Jagger and Keith Richards Stayed Apart
Live Aid was supposed to be the biggest rock event on the planet, and The Rolling Stones were there—sort of. Mick Jagger took center stage with a wildly energetic solo set, capped by his unforgettable duet with Tina Turner, while Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood waited until the grand finale to join Bob Dylan. The catch? Mick and Keith hadn’t shared a stage in three years, and 1985 wasn’t about to change that. Dylan’s closing performance quickly descended into glorious chaos, with broken strings, missed cues, and enough confusion to keep rock historians busy for decades. Somehow, the imperfections became part of the magic. Instead of a proper Stones reunion, fans got something even more revealing: a snapshot of a band pulling in different directions while still leaving an unmistakable mark on one of music’s most historic days.
July 13, 1985: Both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards appear onstage for the first time in three years at the Live Aid benefit concert at Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium—but notably not together. Mick takes the stage as a solo artist, delivering an energetic set that culminates in a memorable duet with Tina Turner. Later, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood join Bob Dylan for the show’s closing performance, creating one of Live Aid’s most talked-about moments. Their loose, unpredictable collaboration may have been chaotic, but it perfectly captured the spontaneous spirit of one of rock’s most historic events.
Mick’s set (with Hall and Oates band, plus guests Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin): 1. Lonely At The Top/ 2. Just Another Night/ 3. Miss You/ 4. State Of Shock/It’s Only Rock’n Roll (with Tina Turner)
Mick and Keith about doing Live Aid (1985): Mick: “I did it to raise a lot of money. That was the main thing, to draw attention to the hunger in the world. Down the line, people can appreciate what can be done by an event of this magnitude. It was really a relatively nice, well-meaning event.”
Keith: “Well, it’s not the first time I’ve played with Dylan… First time before a paying audience. Course we didn’t get paid (laughs). Would have been better if we’d gotten paid… Technically it was a very dizzy thing to do. Three acoustic guitars at the end of God knows how many hours of high-tech band stuff. We couldn’t hear a goddamn thing except the band behind us tuning up to do We Are the World. But it was a real privilege to play with Bob. I’ll work with that asshole anytime.“
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