Mick Jagger Born July 26, 1943

Biography

What's Mick Jagger really like? Who knows? He’s been a high profile musician and entertainer for 47 years, and so many versions and interpretations of so many aspects of his behaviour and personality have been invented, suggested and projected that - for public purposes only - it’s quite literally impossible to separate the man from the myth.

Unless you’re Mick Jagger, of course. He probably knows the truth. And probably Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood have a little more insight than most. But for the rest of us, we just have to guess. And we do.

You can see why it's happened. Mick Jagger has combined global superstardom, relationships with some of the world’s most beautiful women; a fantastic family life, including a contented 20-year marriage and seven children; with creative genius and fundamental musical integrity and billion dollar business success.

And he’s kept himself in great shape too.

How does that happen? Well, you have to be good, to start with, and the man's a born entertainer. You need to be lucky with your accomplices, too - but here again, Mick and Keith have known each other all of their lives. And you need to work hard - not a problem for the industrious Mick Jagger - and to want it enough. You need to be in the right place at the right time too.

That all lined up for Mick Jagger. It was there for a moment, and he seized it. He had it while it was going, and since then has taken the opportunity to carry on composing, playing, and singing the music he loves. He's been sharing the spoils of that moment with us ever since, on record and in person. And has been celebrated and rewarded for it too.

When you roll like that for fifty years, primus unter pares with the greatest and most popular creative artists and cultural icons, as well as the coolest, most beautiful and wealthiest people on the planet, you’re going to generate column inches, airtime and TV footage, regardless of any connection that coverage has with reality.

You become a cottage industry – a meal ticket for a small but influential and often richly rewarded swarm of people whose job is, effectively, to ‘cover’ you and tell stories about you, whether there’s a story to be told or not.

Thing is, The Rolling Stones is, was and ever shall be, all about the music, regardless of the financial, social and sexual side effects. None of the scandal and gossip would have come about if Mick Jagger were not one of the very greatest and most popular composers and musicians of the modern era.

There’s a universe of misinformation out there; but what’s for certain is that he’s co-written and performed more of the best loved and best-selling rock and roll songs than anyone else alive (apart from Keith Richards, of course).

And that, as legendary rock promoter Bill Graham memorably pointed out, in an aside during a rant against Mick on account of his canny exploitation of the massive demand for Stones tour tickets, “that **** is a fantastic entertainer.”

Take a closer look and listen more closely to Mick Jagger here, the man and the myth, including some new and exclusive commentary from the man himself.