Rolling Stones Quotes -Mick Jagger on Elvis Presley (1974): “I Never Really Liked Him…”

By Marcelo Sonaglioni on February 2, 2025 • ( 6 Comments )

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Mick Jagger on Elvis Presley (1974)

“I never really liked him. Presley hasn’t got anyone to tell him what to do and really that’s what he needs more than anything else. His trouble is that it was always a question of making money. So Elvis is still fantastically successful… Why? Because he makes money and he made his comeback because of Tom Jones or whatever. Anyway, that’s what I’ve been told.”

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Mick Jagger and Elvis Presley, huh? Talk about a collision of two colossal egos. Elvis was the King of Rock‘n’ oll, the man who shook up the world with his hips and voice, making teenage girls faint and parents clutch their pearls. Mick, on the other hand, was the cocky, mouthy kid who watched all this and thought, say, “I can do that, but I’ll throw in a bit more swagger and attitude, thank you very much.”

In fact Jagger grew up idolizing Elvis—who wouldn’t? The guy was the definition of rock star before the term even existed. You can hear bits of Elvis in Mick’s early vocal style—those bluesy wails and all that slithery, sexual tension—but Jagger wasn’t about to just copy the King. Nope. He took that influence, added a heap of British cheek, and turned it into something even more dangerous.

By the early ’70s, Elvis was basically a walking cautionary tale—overweight, drowning in his own past glory, and stuck doing cheesy Vegas shows. Meanwhile, Mick Jagger and the Stones were living the dream, on top of the world and cranking out some of their best work. While Elvis was busy trying to hold on to his crown, Jagger was out there shaking things up, all swagger and no slowing down. It’s like one was in cruise control, while the other was hitting the gas full throttle.

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