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The Rolling Stones in the press: “Mick Jagger As He Really Is”
MICK JAGGER: SAME OLD REBEL What’s Mick Jagger really like? Pretty much the same as ever — stubborn, unpredictable, and allergic to early mornings. Fame didn’t polish him up one bit. Picture him back at school: the restless kid biting his lip, counting the minutes till four o’clock, itching to break free. Decades later, he’s still that same mischievous energy in motion — only now, the classroom’s been swapped for a world stage.
What is Mick Jagger really like? Has success as a Rolling Stone changed him? How did he behave as a boy? Questions asked by loads of fans.
NO, Mick hasn’t changed much. He still won’t get up in the morning. And is still unpredictable. But then, he always has been. When fans think of him at school, I suppose they see a long-haired, grown-up schoolboy sitting at his desk, biting his lip, waiting for four o’clock to roll around.
Mick was a bit like that. He wasn’t madly fond of school. But until he was 18 he stayed at Dartford Grammar School, Kent, which is not very far from our home. (Ref. mick jagger according)
Compulsory
Mick’s pet hates were compulsory games, bad school dinners and school uniform. Regularly—often twice a week—he would get caught without his school cap, and would have to do some lines as a punishment. And those dinners! They were a joke with the boys.
When the cook left after about thirty years there, Mick and his chums thought she had still a lot to learn—so they presented her with a cookery book. He was really pretty good at games, though not rough ones like rugby. Basketball, and badminton were more in Mick’s line. He also liked cricket, and played for the First XI on several occasions—but only on weekdays, if he could help it.
Mick didn’t like sport interfering with his weekends! Even in those days, he was madon music. He was about fifteen when the skiffle craze started in England and formed a couple of groups of his own.
We still have one of Mick’s exercise books at home, in which he wrote an essay on how to form a skiffle group. ‘Before any group is started up,’ he wrote, ‘there should be someone who can sing really well, and a couple of guitarists who can play good, strong chords.’ (Ref. mick jagger according)
I reckon that’s true of the Stones now, though when Mick wrote that he had no idea that he would ever become a musician. In fact, later he went on to study at the London School of Economics.
He bought his first guitar when we were all on holiday in Spain. It wasn’t a very good one, and now lies—a bit battered—in a corner of my bedroom, with one string and Mick’s old pyjama cord around its neck. Still, he got a fairly good sound out of it. It was only when Keith and Dick Taylor, who is now with the Pretty Things and who used to be with the Stones, came around practising that Mick thought more about playing the harmonica and singing.
Actually he was never called Mick then. We all called him Mike. He hated the name Mick, and I only used it when I was annoying him. But after he left school, the name sort of stuck. Back at school, he’s considered something of a local hero by every one except the headmaster, who keeps making references to “certain long-haired groups,” without mentioning any names.
During the last Founders’ Day celebrations, when all the famous past pupils’ names were read out, there were cries of “What about Mick Jagger, then?” from the back of the hall. All his signatures and writing in his old textbooks have been cut out as souvenirs, and someone even sawed out the name Mick had carved on his old school desk!
When Mick was still at home, he used to take vacation jobs to earn some extra cash. Once he worked as a porter in a local mental hospital. While he was still at London University, however, Mick left home and moved into a flat in Edith Grove, Chelsea, with Brian and Keith. That was a real hole, but a homely sort of hole. Then they moved to Mapesbury Road in North London.
I missed the last train home to Dartford after a concert one night and Mick told me to take a taxi to Mapesbury Road and charge it to him. When I got there, Mick hadn’t come back and I had no money to pay the driver. I borrowed 2s. 6d. from an angry Italian in the flat above Mick’s and paid the rest in postage stamps. Then I sat on Mick’s doorstep and waited. About an hour later, Mick arrived with Jerome, Bo Diddley’s maracas player.
Mick doesn’t get much spare time, but when he does he likes peace and quiet. He doesn’t go out much, and when he does it’s usually to see a film. He likes talking to fans, but he doesn’t like being mobbed. He’s very polite and always answers letters. He plays chess with Stu at five in the morning. Fans invade the flat. Keith climbs out of the kitchen window to avoid being mobbed.
In his spare time Mick goes to Paris to see the art collections, walks around the city, goes to his girl friend’s home in Buckinghamshire, or just relaxes at home. His life is hectic—tours, recording sessions, concerts. He likes peace and quiet. He reads a lot—mostly non-fiction. He’s read all the James Bond books. (Ref. mick jagger according)
Dog-tired
Mick reads until three in the morning—or later. He’s dog-tired and hard to wake up. When he was at home, his mother used a wet flannel. Now he’s not contacted before 11.30.
When he does wake up, he has French rolls and coffee for breakfast. But there’s often no milk in the flat, so he goes out in his pyjamas to get a fresh carton from the slot machine. His life is disorganised. He says it’s always been like that. Success hasn’t changed him at all.
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