Ahmet Ertegün
Background information
Also known as	A. Nugetre
Born	(1923-07-31)July 31, 1923 Istanbul, Turkey
Died	December 14, 2006(2006-12-14) (aged 83) New York City, New York United States
Genres	Blues
Occupations	Record producer Record label executive Composer
Labels	Atlantic

Ahmet Ertegün (ˈɑːmɛt ˈɛɾtɘgɘn, Turkish pronunciation: [ahˈmet eɾteˈɟyn]; July 31 [O.S. July 18] 1923 – December 14, 2006) was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records, and for discovering or championing artists like Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Genesis, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and more. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum. Ertegun has been described as "one of the most significant figures in the modern recording industry."^[1] He also co-founded the New York Cosmos soccer team of the North American Soccer League.

Background[link]

The Ertegun family in 1942.

Born in Istanbul to a Turkish family, Ahmet and his family, including elder brother Nesuhi, moved to Washington, D.C. in 1935, with their father, Münir Ertegün, who served as the first Ambassador of the then-young Republic of Turkey to the United States of America.

Ahmet's older brother Nesuhi introduced him to jazz music, taking him to see the Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway orchestras in London at the age of nine.^[2] At the age of fourteen his mother bought him a record-cutting machine which he used to compose and add lyrics to instrumental records. The brothers also frequented Milt Gabler’s Commodore Record Store, assembled a large collection of over 15,000 jazz and blues 78s, and became acquainted with musicians such as Ellington, Lena Horne and Jelly Roll Morton. Ahmet and Nesuhi staged concerts by Lester Young, Sidney Bechet and other jazz giants, often at the Jewish Community Center, which was the only place that would allow a mixed audience and mixed band. They also traveled to New Orleans and to Harlem to listen to music and develop a keen awareness of developing musical tastes.

In 1944 Munir Ertegün died, and in 1946 President Truman ordered the battleship USS Missouri to return the deceased to Turkey as a demonstration of friendship between US and Turkey. This act also served as a show of support to counter the Soviet Union's potential political demands on Turkey.

Ahmet graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis in 1944. At the time of his father’s death he was taking graduate courses in Medieval philosophy at Georgetown University. Soon after, the family returned to Turkey. Ahmet and Nesuhi stayed in the United States. While Nesuhi moved to Los Angeles, Ahmet stayed in Washington and decided to get into the record business as a temporary measure to help him through college.

Early career[link]

Ahmet Ertegun (left) with his brother Nesuhi Ertegun (right).

In 1946, Ahmet Ertegun became friends with Herb Abramson, a dental student and A&R man for National Records, and they decided to start a new independent record label for gospel, jazz and R&B music. Financed by family dentist Dr. Vahdi Sabit, they formed Atlantic Records in September 1947 in New York City, and the first recording sessions took place that November.

In 1949, after 22 unsuccessful record releases including the first recordings by Professor Longhair, Atlantic had its first major hit with Stick McGhee's "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee". The company expanded through the 1950s, with Jerry Wexler and, later, Nesuhi Ertegun on board as partners, and with hit artists including Ruth Brown, Joe Turner, The Clovers, The Drifters, The Coasters, and Ray Charles.

Many independent record executives, like the Erteguns, were from immigrant backgrounds, including the Bihari brothers and the Chess brothers. The Ertegun brothers brought a jazz sensibility (and many jazz artists) into R&B, successfully combining blues and jazz styles from around the country. Atlantic helped challenge the primacy of the major labels of the time by discovering, developing and nurturing new talent. It became the premier rhythm and blues label in a few short years, and set new standards in producing high quality recordings. In 1957, Atlantic was among the first labels to record in stereo.

Ahmet himself wrote a number of classic blues songs, including "Chains of Love" and "Sweet Sixteen", under the pseudonym A. Nugetre (Ertegun backwards). The songs were given expression first by Big Joe Turner and continued in B.B. King's repertoire. He also wrote the Ray Charles hit "Mess Around", with lyrics that drew heavily on Pinetop Smith. Ahmet was part of the shouting choral group on Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll", along with Wexler and songwriter Jesse Stone.

Marriage[link]

In 1961, he married émigrée Romanian Ioana Maria Banu, known as Mica Ertegun, who became a prominent interior designer.

Later career[link]

In the 1960s, Atlantic, often in partnerships with local labels like Stax Records in Memphis, helped to develop the growth of soul music, with artists such as Ben E. King, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding, Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett. Ahmet heard Led Zeppelin's demo and knew they would be a smash hit after hearing the first few songs, and quickly signed them. After signing Crosby, Stills and Nash Ertegun convinced the trio to allow Neil Young to join them on one of their tours, thereby founding Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Ahmet helped introduce America to blue-eyed soul when he discovered The Rascals at a Westhampton nightclub in 1965 and signed them to Atlantic. They went on to chart 13 Top 40 singles in four years and were elected to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

Ahmet initially had no desire to sell Atlantic, but his partner Jerry Wexler was nervous about the label's future and after convincing Nesuhi of his position, Ahmet eventually conceded and they sold Atlantic to Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in 1967 for $17 million in stock, although Wexler later admitted that the deal paid them less than half of what the label was actually worth.^[3] Four years later, the brothers took some of the money and co-founded the New York Cosmos soccer team of the North American Soccer League. They were instrumental in bringing in soccer legends like Pelé, Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer to the club. They transformed the Cosmos into a "dream team". Their love for soccer was the reason that the Cosmos were born.

When Atlantic became part of the Kinney conglomerate in 1969, and later part of Time Warner, Atlantic Records continued with Ahmet Ertegun at the helm, and although he was less directly involved as a producer, he wielded considerable influence in the new conglomerate. He continued to produce some rock acts, such as Dr. John and The Honeydrippers. He also used his considerable personal skills in negotiations with major stars, such as when The Rolling Stones were shopping for a record company to distribute their independent Rolling Stones Records label. Ahmet personally conducted the negotiations with Mick Jagger, successfully completing the deal between The Stones and Atlantic, when other labels had actually offered the band more money.

In 1987, Ahmet was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, of which he himself was a founder. In the late 1980s with the support of Bonnie Raitt and others, he provided $1.5 million to help establish The Rhythm and Blues Foundation to award money to underpaid blues artists. The Foundation's establishment arose from a lengthy battle by Ruth Brown and other Atlantic artists to obtain unpaid past royalties from the company; other record companies later also contributed. Among early recipients of payments were John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Ruth Brown and the Staple Singers.

Ahmet Ertegun received an honorary doctorate in music from the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1991, and was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in 1993. At the tenth annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Dinner in 1995, it was announced that the museum's main exhibition hall would be named after Ertegun.

The United States Library of Congress honored Ahmet as a Living Legend in 2000. With brother Nesuhi, he was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2005, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presented Ahmet with the first "President's Merit Award Salute To Industry Icons". He was also a recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

Ahmet approved the recording and release of "Music of the Whirling Dervishes" featuring ayin singer Kâni Karaca and ney player Akagündüz Kutbay on his Atlantic label.

2006 injury and death[link]

At the age of 83 on October 29, 2006, Ahmet Ertegun attended a Rolling Stones benefit concert at the Beacon Theatre for the Clinton Foundation, which was attended by former US President, Bill Clinton. Prior to the show Ahmet was backstage in a VIP social area that was known on the Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang Tour as the "Rattlesnake Inn" when he tripped and fell, striking his head on the concrete floor. He was immediately rushed to the hospital after the fall^[4] (the Rolling Stones' performance that evening was captured by Martin Scorsese in the documentary film entitled Shine a Light). Although Ahmet was initially in stable condition, he soon took a turn for the worse. This announcement was made by Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page, during the band’s induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame.^[5] Ahmet slipped into a coma and died weeks later on December 14, 2006, with his family by his side, at New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center.^[6][7]

Ahmet Ertegun was buried December 18 in the Garden of Sufi Tekke, Özbekler Tekkesi in Sultantepe, Istanbul, in Üsküdar, İstanbul, next to his brother, his father, and his Sheikh great-grandfather Şeyh İbrahim Edhem Efendi, who was once the head of the tekke in his native Turkey. At the garden were hundreds of mourners, including his wife Mica, members of the Ertegün family, Turkish dignitaries and various entertainers.

Memorial events[link]

A memorial service for Ahmet Ertegun was held in New York on April 17, 2007. A large part of the evening was given over to musical performances. Wynton Marsalis opened the tribute with the jazz standard "Didn’t He Ramble", Eric Clapton and Dr. John performed "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee", and other performers included Solomon Burke, Ben E. King, Sam Moore, Stevie Nicks, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Phil Collins.^[8]

Another informal salute to him took place in Los Angeles on July 31, 2007, the anniversary of his birth. The tribute took place at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Several of his friends shared anecdotes about their experiences with Ahmet and the assembled gathering then saw a special screening of the American Masters documentary Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built.^[9] Among those who paid tribute to Ertegun in person were: Solomon Burke, Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller, Keith Emerson, Peter Asher, Spencer Davis, the film's producer (and longtime friend) Phil Carson, Taylor Hackford and event producer Martin Lewis.^[10] Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, came to America after a 20 year hiatus to attend the ceremonies.^{[citation needed]}

The Martin Scorsese film "Shine a Light" about The Rolling Stones concert held at the Beacon Theatre in New York contains a dedication to Ahmet Ertegun and Andrea Corr's solo album Ten Feet High is dedicated "To the memory of Ahmet Ertegun".

In honor of the barriers the Ertegun brothers broke during their time in segregated Washington, the current Turkish Ambassador to the U.S., Namik Tan, hosts a series of jazz concerts at the historical residence on Sheridan Circle in Washington, D.C. The “Ertegun Jazz Series,” in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center, revives the brothers’ legacy of bridging cultures and bringing people together with one common objective: celebrating music. In that same spirit, Ambassador Tan is opening the doors of his home to residents of D.C. from various backgrounds – Members of Congress, Administration officials, academia, the media, business leaders and others.

Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert[link]

Led Zeppelin reunited for a one-off show in a tribute to Ahmet Ertegun at the O2 Arena in London on December 10, 2007.

The band headlined a bill that also included Paolo Nutini, Mick Jones of Foreigner, and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings who supported their acts, and additionally shared the stage with them. The show was held to raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which pays for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey. The show had been scheduled to take place in November but had been postponed by two weeks because of Jimmy Page fracturing a finger.

Popular culture[link]

Ahmet Ertegun has been represented several times in popular culture. In Ray, the biopic of Ray Charles, Ahmet Ertegun is portrayed by Curtis Armstrong. In Beyond the Sea, the biopic about Bobby Darin, Ahmet is played by Tayfun Bademsoy. Ahmet Zappa was named after Ertegun, who played an important role in Frank Zappa's early career.

See also[link]

• Nesuhi Ertegun
• Atlantic Records

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ahmet Ertegün

• 2005 interview with Ahmet Ertegun
• Tributes to Ertegun in Rolling Stone magazine
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame citation
• History of Atlantic Records
• Ahmet Ertegun Tribute site
• Jerry Leiber song for Ahmet Ertegun

Mick Jagger
Jagger live at the San Siro in Milan, Italy, on 10 June 2003
Background information
Birth name	Michael Philip Jagger
Born	(1943-07-26) 26 July 1943 (age 68) Dartford, Kent, England
Genres	Rock, blues, blues rock, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, funk, psychedelic rock, soul
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, record and film producer, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass, harmonica, keyboards, percussion
Years active	1961–present
Labels	Virgin, Rolling Stones, ABKCO, Universal
Associated acts	The Rolling Stones, SuperHeavy
Website	MickJagger.com

Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger, (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor, best known as the lead vocalist and a founder member of The Rolling Stones.

Jagger's career has spanned over fifty years. Allmusic has described Jagger as "one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll".^[1] His distinctive voice and performance, along with Keith Richards' guitar style, have been the trademark of The Rolling Stones throughout the career of the band. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with The Rolling Stones.

Jagger gained much press notoriety for admitted drug use and romantic involvements, and was often portrayed as a counterculture figure. In the late 1960s Jagger began acting in films (starting with Performance and Ned Kelly), to mixed reception. In 1985, Jagger released his first solo album, She's the Boss, and was knighted in 2003. In early 2009, he joined the eclectic supergroup SuperHeavy.

Early life[link]

Jagger was born into a middle class family at Livingstone Hospital, in Dartford, Kent, England.^[2] His father, Basil Fanshawe ("Joe") Jagger (13 April 1913 – 11 November 2006), and his grandfather David Ernest Jagger were both teachers. His mother, Eva Ensley Mary (née Scutts; 6 April 1913 – 18 May 2000), born in New South Wales, Australia,^[3][4] was a hairdresser^[5] and an active member of the Conservative Party. Jagger is the elder of two sons (his brother Chris Jagger was born on 19 December 1947)^[6] and was raised to follow in his father's career path.

In the book According to the Rolling Stones, Jagger states "I was always a singer. I always sang as a child. I was one of those kids who just liked to sing. Some kids sing in choirs; others like to show off in front of the mirror. I was in the church choir and I also loved listening to singers on the radio – the BBC or Radio Luxembourg – or watching them on TV and in the movies."^[7]

From September 1950, Keith Richards and Jagger (known as "Mike" to his friends) were classmates at Wentworth Primary School in Dartford, Kent. In 1954, Jagger passed the eleven-plus, and went to Dartford Grammar School, where there is now the Mick Jagger Centre, as part of the school. Having lost contact with each other when they went to different schools, Richards and Jagger resumed their friendship in July 1960 after a chance encounter and discovered that they had both developed a love for rhythm and blues music, which began for Jagger with Little Richard.^[8]

Jagger left school in 1961. He obtained seven O-levels and three A-levels. Jagger and Richards moved into a flat in Edith Grove in Chelsea with a guitarist they had encountered named Brian Jones. While Richards and Jones were making plans to start their own rhythm and blues group, Jagger continued his business courses at the London School of Economics,^[9] and had seriously considered becoming either a journalist or a politician. Jagger had compared the latter to a pop star.^[10][11]

Career[link]

Early years: 1960s[link]

21-year-old Mick Jagger before a Rolling Stones concert at Georgia Southern College, 4 May 1965

In their earliest days, the members played for no money in the interval of Alexis Korner's gigs at a basement club opposite Ealing Broadway tube station (subsequently called "Ferry's" club). At the time, the group had very little equipment and needed to borrow Alexis' gear to play. This was before Andrew Loog Oldham became their manager.

The group's first appearance under the name The Rollin' Stones (after one of their favourite Muddy Waters tunes) was at the Marquee Club, a jazz club, on 12 July 1962. They would later change their name to “The Rolling Stones” as it seemed more formal. Victor Bockris states that the band members included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Ian Stewart on piano, Dick Taylor on bass and Tony Chapman on drums. However, Richards states in Life, "The drummer that night was Mick Avory—not Tony Chapman, as history has mysteriously handed it down..."^[12] Some time later, the band went on their first tour in the United Kingdom; this was known as the “training ground” tour because it was a new experience for all of them.^[13] The line-up did not at that time include drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman. By 1963, they were finding their stride as well as popularity. By 1964, two unscientific opinion polls rated them as England's most popular group, outranking even The Beatles.^[9]

By the autumn of 1963, Jagger had left the London School of Economics in favour of his promising musical career with the Rolling Stones. The group continued to mine the works of American rhythm and blues artists such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, but with the strong encouragement of Andrew Loog Oldham, Jagger and Richards soon began to write their own songs. This core songwriting partnership would flourish in time; one of their early compositions, "As Tears Go By", was a song written for Marianne Faithfull, a young singer being promoted by Loog Oldham at the time.^[14] For the Rolling Stones, the duo would write "The Last Time", the group's third number-one single in the UK (their first two UK number-one hits had been cover versions). Another of the fruits of this collaboration was their first international hit, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". It also established The Rolling Stones’ image as defiant troublemakers in contrast to The Beatles' "lovable moptop" image.^[9]

Jagger rehearsing, 1960s

Jagger told Stephen Schiff in a 1992 Vanity Fair profile: "I wasn't trying to be rebellious in those days; I was just being me. I wasn't trying to push the edge of anything. I'm being me and ordinary, the guy from suburbia who sings in this band, but someone older might have thought it was just the most awful racket, the most terrible thing, and where are we going if this is music?... But all those songs we sang were pretty tame, really. People didn't think they were, but I thought they were tame."^[15]

The group released several successful albums including December's Children (And Everybody's), Aftermath, and Between the Buttons, but their reputations were catching up to them. In 1967, Jagger and Richards were arrested on drug charges and were given unusually harsh sentences: Jagger was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for possession of four over-the-counter pep pills he had purchased in Italy. On appeal, Richards' sentence was overturned and Jagger's was amended to a conditional discharge (he ended up spending one night inside Brixton Prison)^[16] after an article appeared in The Times, written by its traditionally conservative editor William (now Lord) Rees-Mogg,^[17] but the Rolling Stones continued to face legal battles for the next decade. Around the same time, internal struggles about the direction of the group had begun to surface.

1970s[link]

Mick Jagger on stage in 1972, New York City

After Jones' death and their move in 1971 to the south of France as tax exiles,^[18] Jagger and the rest of the band changed their look and style as the 1970s progressed. For the Rolling Stones' highly publicised 1972 American tour, Jagger wore glam-rock clothing and glittery makeup on stage. Later in the decade, they ventured into genres like disco and punk with the album Some Girls (1978). Their interest in the blues, however, had been made manifest in the 1972 album Exile on Main St. His emotional singing on the gospel-influenced Let It Loose, one of the album's tracks, has been described by music critic Russell Hall as having been Jagger's finest ever vocal achievement.^[19]

After the band's acrimonious split with their second manager, Allen Klein, in 1971, Jagger took control of their business affairs and has managed them ever since in collaboration with his friend and colleague, Rupert Löwenstein. Mick Taylor, Brian Jones's replacement, left the band in December 1974 and was replaced by Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood in 1975, who also operated as a mediator within the group, and between Jagger and Richards in particular.

1980s[link]

This section requires expansion.

While continuing to tour and release albums with the Rolling Stones, Jagger began a solo career. In 1985, he released his first solo album She's the Boss produced by Nile Rodgers and Bill Laswell, featuring Herbie Hancock, Jeff Beck, Jan Hammer, Pete Townshend, and the Compass Point All Stars. It sold fairly well, and the single "Just Another Night" was a Top Ten hit. During this period, he collaborated with The Jacksons on the song "State of Shock", sharing lead vocals with Michael Jackson. For his own personal contributions in the 1985 Live Aid multi-venue charity concert, he performed at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium; he did a duet with Tina Turner of "It's Only Rock and Roll", and the performance was highlighted by Jagger tearing away a part of Turner's dress. He also did a cover of "Dancing in the Street" with David Bowie, who himself appeared at Wembley Stadium. The video was shown simultaneously on the screens of both Wembley and JFK Stadiums. The song reached number one in the UK the same year.

In 1987, he released his second solo album, Primitive Cool. While it failed to match the commercial success of his debut, it was critically well received.

In 1988, he produced the songs "Glamour Boys" and "Which Way to America" on Living Colour's album Vivid. 15–28 March, he had a solo concert tour in Japan (Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka). The 22 March show was the Japanese artist Tokyo Dome's first performance.

1990s[link]

Wandering Spirit was the third solo album by Jagger and was released in 1993. It would be his only solo album release of the 1990s. Jagger aimed to re-introduce himself as a solo artist in a musical climate vastly changed from that of his first two albums, She's the Boss and Primitive Cool.

Following the successful comeback of the Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels (1989), which saw the end of Jagger and Richards' well-publicised feud, Jagger began routining^[vague] new material for what would become Wandering Spirit. In January 1992, after acquiring Rick Rubin as co-producer, Jagger recorded the album in Los Angeles over seven months until September 1992, recording simultaneously as Richards was making Main Offender.

Jagger would keep the celebrity guests to a minimum on Wandering Spirit, only having Lenny Kravitz as a vocalist on his cover of Bill Withers' "Use Me" and bassist Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers on three tracks.

Following the end of the Rolling Stones' Sony Music contract and their signing to Virgin Records, Jagger signed with Atlantic Records (which had signed the Stones in the 1970s) to distribute what would be his only album with the label.

Released in February 1993, Wandering Spirit was commercially successful, reaching #12 in the UK and #11 in the US, going gold there. The track "Sweet Thing" was the lead single, although it was the third single, "Don't Tear Me Up", which found moderate success, topping Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart for one week. Critical reaction was very strong, noting Jagger's abandonment of slick synthesisers in favour of an incisive and lean guitar sound.^{[citation needed]}

Contemporary reviewers tend to consider Wandering Spirits a high point of Jagger's later career.

2000s[link]

In 2001, Jagger released Goddess in the Doorway spawning the hit single "Visions of Paradise". In the same year, he also joined Keith Richards in the The Concert for New York City, a charity concert in response to the September 11 attacks, to sing "Salt of the Earth" and "Miss You".

He celebrated The Rolling Stones' 40th anniversary by touring with them on the year-long Licks Tour in support of their career retrospective Forty Licks double album.^[20]

In 2007, The Rolling Stones made US$437 million on their A Bigger Bang Tour, which got them into the current edition of Guinness World Records for the most lucrative music tour.^[21] Jagger has refused to say when the band will retire, stating in 2007: "I'm sure the Rolling Stones will do more things and more records and more tours. We've got no plans to stop any of that really."^[22]

In October 2009, Jagger and U2 performed "Gimme Shelter" (with Fergie and will.i.am) and "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" at the 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert.^[23]

2010s[link]

On 20 May 2011, Jagger announced the formation of a new supergroup, SuperHeavy, which includes Dave Stewart, Joss Stone, Damian Marley, and A.R. Rahman.^[24]

Jagger has featured on will.i.am's 2011 single "T.H.E (The Hardest Ever)". It was officially released to iTunes on 4 February 2012.^[25]

On 21 February 2012, Mick Jagger, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Jeff Beck along with a blues ensemble performed at the White House concert series before President Barack Obama. When Jagger held out a mic to him, Obama sang twice the line "Come on, baby don't you want to go" of the blues cover 'Sweet Home Chicago', the blues anthem of Obama's home town.^[26]

Jagger hosted the season finale of "Saturday Night Live" on 19 and 20 May 2012, doing several comic skits and playing some of the Rolling Stones' hits with Foo Fighters, Jeff Beck, with Arcade Fire playing backup.^[27]

Friendship with Keith Richards[link]

Jagger and Richards sharing vocals at a concert in San Francisco during the Rolling Stones 1972 US tour

Jagger's relationship with band mate Richards is frequently described as "love/hate" by the media.^[28][29][30]

Richards himself said in a 1998 interview: "I think of our differences as a family squabble. If I shout and scream at him, it's because no one else has the guts to do it or else they're paid not to do it. At the same time I'd hope Mick realises that I'm a friend who is just trying to bring him into line and do what needs to be done."^[31] Richards, along with Johnny Depp, tried unsuccessfully to persuade Jagger to appear in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, alongside Depp and Richards.^[32]

Richards' autobiography, Life, was released 26 October 2010.^[33] On 15 October 2010, the Associated Press published an article stating that Richards refers to Mick Jagger as "unbearable" in the book and notes that their relationship has been strained "for decades."^[34]

Acting and film production[link]

Jagger has also had an intermittent acting career, most notably in Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg's Performance (1968) and as Australian bushranger Ned Kelly (1970).^[35] He composed an improvised soundtrack for Kenneth Anger's film Invocation Of My Demon Brother on the Moog synthesiser in 1969. He auditioned for the role of Dr. Frank N. Furter in the 1975 film adaptation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a now iconic role that was eventually played by the original performer from its run on London's West End, Tim Curry. Appeared as himself in The Rutles film All You Need Is Cash in 1978. In the late 1970s, Jagger was cast as Wilbur, a main character in Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. However, a delay and the illness of main actor Jason Robards (later replaced by Klaus Kinski) in the film's notoriously difficult production resulted in his being unable to continue due to schedule conflicts with a band tour; some of the footage of his work is shown in the documentary Burden of Dreams. He developed a reputation for playing the heavy later in his acting career in films including Freejack (1992), Bent (1997), and The Man From Elysian Fields (2002).

In 1995, Jagger founded Jagged Films with Victoria Pearman "[to] start my own projects instead of just going in other people's and being involved peripherally or doing music."^{[citation needed]} Its first release was the World War II drama Enigma in 2001. That same year, it produced a documentary on Jagger entitled Being Mick. The program, which first aired on television 22 November, coincided with the release of his fourth solo album, Goddess in the Doorway.^[36]

In 2008, the company began work on The Women, an adaptation of the George Cukor film of the same name. It was directed by Diane English.^[37][38] Reviving the 1939 film met with countless delays, but Jagger's company was credited with obtaining $24 million of much-needed financing to finally begin casting. English told Entertainment Weekly: "This was much easier in 1939, when all the ladies were under contract, and they had to take the roles they were told to."

The Rolling Stones have been the subjects of numerous documentaries, including Gimme Shelter, which was made as the band was gaining fame in the United States. Martin Scorsese worked with Jagger on Shine a Light, a documentary film featuring the Rolling Stones with footage from the A Bigger Bang Tour during two nights of performances at New York's Beacon Theatre. It screened in Berlin in February 2008.^[39] Variety's Todd McCarthy said the film "takes full advantage of heavy camera coverage and top-notch sound to create an invigorating musical trip down memory lane, as well as to provoke gentle musings on the wages of ageing and the passage of time."^[40] He predicted the film would fare better once released to video than in its limited theatrical runs.

Jagger was a producer of, and guest-starred in the first episode of the short-lived comedy The Knights of Prosperity, which aired in 2007 on ABC.^[41]

Personal life[link]

Bianca De Macias, Jagger's first wife

Model Jerry Hall, Jagger's second wife

Jagger is known for his many high-profile relationships. He has been married twice and has had numerous romantic connections.

In 1970, Mick Jagger purchased Stargroves at East Woodhay in Hampshire as his country estate. It was often used as a recording venue. In the same year, he began a relationship with Nicaraguan-born Bianca De Macias, whom he married on 12 May 1971, in a Catholic ceremony in Saint-Tropez, France. The couple separated in 1977 and in May 1978, she filed for divorce on the grounds of his adultery.^[42][43][44] Bianca later said "My marriage ended on my wedding day."^[45] In late 1977, he began seeing model Jerry Hall,^[46] while still married to Bianca. After a lengthy cohabitation and several children together, the couple married on 21 November 1990, in a Hindu beach ceremony in Indonesia and moved together to Downe House in Richmond, Surrey. Jagger later contested the validity of the ceremony, and the marriage was annulled in August 1999. Jagger has also been romantically linked to other women: Chrissie Shrimpton, Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, Marsha Hunt, Pamela Des Barres, Uschi Obermaier, Bebe Buell, Carly Simon, Margaret Trudeau, Mackenzie Phillips, Janice Dickinson, Carla Bruni, Sophie Dahl and Angelina Jolie,^[47] among others.^{[48][49][50][51][52][53]}

Jagger has seven children by four women:^[54]

• By Marsha Hunt, he has daughter Karis Jagger Hunt (born 4 November 1970).
• By Bianca Jagger, he has daughter Jade Sheena Jezebel Jagger (born 21 October 1971).^[54][55]
• By Jerry Hall he has daughter Elizabeth Scarlett Jagger (born 2 March 1984), son James Leroy Augustin Jagger (born 28 August 1985), daughter Georgia May Ayeesha Jagger (born 12 January 1992) and son Gabriel Luke Beauregard Jagger (born 9 December 1997)^[9][54]
• By Luciana Gimenez, he has son Lucas Maurice Morad Jagger (born 18 May 1999).^[54]

He also has four grandchildren.^[9][56]

His father, Joe, died of pneumonia on 11 November 2006, at the age of 93.^[57] Although the Rolling Stones were on the A Bigger Bang Tour, Jagger flew to Britain on Friday to see his father before returning to Las Vegas the same day, where he was to perform on Saturday night. The show went ahead as scheduled.^[58]

In 2008, it was revealed that members of the Hells Angels had plotted to murder Jagger in 1975. They were angered by Jagger's public blaming of the Hells Angels, who had been hired to provide security at the Altamont Free Concert in December 1969, for much of the crowd violence at the event. The conspirators reportedly used a boat to approach a residence where Jagger was staying on Long Island, New York; the plot failed when the boat was nearly sunk by a storm.^[59]

Jagger is an avid cricket fan.^[60] He founded Jagged Internetworks so he could get coverage of English Cricket.^[60]

His personal fortune was estimated in 2010, at £190 million (~$298 million US).^[61]

He said in September 2010 that he has a daily meditation and Buddhist practice.^[62][63]

Knighthood[link]

On 12 December 2003, Jagger was made a Knight Bachelor for services to music, as Sir Michael Jagger by The Prince of Wales.^[64][65] Mick Jagger's knighthood received mixed reactions. Some fans were disappointed when he accepted the honour as it seemed to contradict his anti-establishment stance.^[66]

As United Press International noted, the honour is odd, for unlike other knighted rock musicians, he has no "known record of charitable work or public services," although he is a patron of the British Museum.^[67] Jagger was absent from the Queen's Golden Jubilee pop concert at Buckingham Palace that marked her 50 years on the throne.^[68]

Charlie Watts was quoted in the book According to the Rolling Stones as saying, "Anybody else would be lynched: 18 wives and 20 children and he's knighted, fantastic!"^[69] The ceremony took place in December 2003. Jagger’s father and daughters Karis and Elizabeth were in attendance.^[9]

Jagger's knighthood also caused some friction between him and bandmate Keith Richards, who was irritated when Jagger accepted the "paltry honour".^[70] Richards said that he did not want to take the stage with someone wearing a "coronet and sporting the old ermine. It's not what the Stones is about, is it?"^[65] Jagger retorted: "I think he would probably like to get the same honour himself. It's like being given an ice cream—one gets one and they all want one."^[65]

Mick Jagger in popular culture[link]

Mick Jagger's waistcoat displayed at the Hard Rock Cafe in Paris

From the time that the Rolling Stones developed their anti-establishment image in the mid-1960s, Mick Jagger, with guitarist Keith Richards, has been an enduring icon of the counterculture. This was enhanced by his controversial drug-related arrests, sexually charged onstage antics, provocative song lyrics, and his role of the bisexual Turner in the 1970 film Performance. One of his biographers, Christopher Andersen, describes him as "one of the dominant cultural figures of our time", adding that Jagger was "the story of a generation".^[71]

Jagger, who at the time described himself as an anarchist^[72] and espoused the leftist slogans of the era, took part in a demonstration against the Vietnam War outside the US Embassy in London in 1968. This event inspired him to write "Street Fighting Man" that same year.^[73]

A variety of celebrities attended a lavish party at New York's St. Regis Hotel to celebrate Jagger's 29th birthday and the end of the band's 1972 American tour. The party made the front pages of the leading New York newspapers.^[74]

Pop artist Andy Warhol painted a series of silkscreen portraits of Jagger in 1975, one of which was owned by Farah Diba, wife of the Shah of Iran. It hung on a wall inside the royal palace in Teheran.^[75] In 1967, Cecil Beaton photographed Jagger's naked buttocks, a photo that sold at Sotheby's auction house in 1986 for $4,000.^[76]

Jagger was allegedly a contender for the anonymous subject of Carly Simon's 1973 hit song "You're So Vain", in which he sings backing vocals.^[77] Although Don McLean does not use Jagger's name in his famous song "American Pie", he alludes to Jagger onstage at Altamont, calling him Satan.^[78]

In 2010, a retrospective exhibition of portraits of Mick Jagger was presented at the festival Rencontres d'Arles, in France. The catalogue of the exhibition is the first photo album of Mick Jagger and shows his evolution over 50 years.^[79]

The 2011 Maroon 5 song "Moves Like Jagger" was inspired by Jagger.

Legacy[link]

In the words of British dramatist and novelist Philip Norman, "the only point concerning Mick Jagger's influence over 'young people' that doctors and psychologists agreed on was that it wasn't, under any circumstances, fundamentally harmless."^[80] According to Norman, even Elvis Presley at his most scandalous had not exerted a "power so wholly and disturbingly physical": "Presley", he wrote in 1984, "while he made girls scream, did not have Jagger's ability to make men feel uncomfortable."^[80] Norman also associates the early performances of Jagger with the Rolling Stones in the 1960s as a male ballet dancer, with "his conflicting and colliding sexuality: the swan's neck and smeared harlot eyes allied to an overstuffed and straining codpiece."^[80]

Other authors also attribute similar connotations to Jagger. His performance style has been studied in the academic field as an analysis concerning gender, image and sexuality.^[81] It has been written for example that his performance style "opened up definitions of gendered masculinity and so laid the foundations for self-invention and sexual plasticity which are now an integral part of contemporary youth culture".^[82] His stage personas also contributed significantly to the British tradition popular music that always featured the character song and where the art of singing becomes a matter of acting—which creates a question concerning the singer's relationship to his own words.^[83] His voice, often cited as "thin and unexceptional", has been described as a powerful expressive tool for communicating feelings to his audience and expressing an alternative vision of society.^[84] In order to express "virility and unrestrained passion" he developed techniques previously used by African American preachers and gospel singers such as "the roar, the guttural belt style of singing, and the buzz, a more nasal and raspy sound".^[84] Steven Van Zandt also wrote: "The acceptance of Jagger's voice on pop radio was a turning point in rock & roll. He broke open the door for everyone else. Suddenly, Eric Burdon and Van Morrison weren't so weird — even Bob Dylan."^[85]

Allmusic has described Jagger as "one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll".^[1] In fact, musicians such as David Bowie joined many rock bands with blues, folk and soul orientations in his first attempts as a musician in the mid-60, and he was to recall: "I used to dream of being their Mick Jagger".^[86] Bowie also would say later: "he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image."^[87] Lenny Kravitz, in the Rolling Stone magazine edition for their List of 100 Greatest Singers, in which Jagger was placed in 16º, wrote: "I sometimes talk to people who sing perfectly in a technical sense who don't understand Mick Jagger. [...] His sense of pitch and melody is really sophisticated. His vocals are stunning, flawless in their own kind of perfection."^[88] This edition also cites Mick Jagger as a key influence on Jack White, Steven Tyler, and Iggy Pop.^[88]

More recently, his cultural legacy is also associated with his ageing accompanied by some vitality. Bon Jovi frontman Jon Bon Jovi, also a veteran, has said: "We continue to make Number One records and fill stadiums. But will we still be doing 150 shows per tour? I just can't see it. I don't know how the hell Mick Jagger does it at 67. That would be the first question I'd ask him. He runs around the stage as much as I do yet he's got almost 20 years on me."^[89] Since his early career, Jagger embodied what some authors describes as a "Dionysian archetype" of "eternal youth" personified by many rock stars and the rock culture.^[90] As wrote biographer Laura Jackson, "It is impossible to imagine current culture without the unique influence of Mick Jagger."^[91]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Soundtrack[link]

Singles[link]

Filmography[link]

Jagger has appeared in the following movies:

References[link]