{"id":14536,"date":"2025-04-12T19:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T19:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/14536\/"},"modified":"2025-04-12T19:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T19:28:08","slug":"the-musical-hero-mick-jagger-wished-hed-never-met","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/14536\/","title":{"rendered":"The musical hero Mick Jagger wished he’d never met"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mick<\/p>\n

(Credits: Bent Rej)<\/p>\n

Fri 11 April 2025 17:30, UK <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t meet your heroes\u2014that\u2019s how the saying goes. The reality, however, is very different. <\/p>\n

Since the dawn of time or the dawn of modern culture, people have clamoured to meet their idols. People queue for hours outside venues, do anything possible to sneak backstage, and literally stalk people, all for a chance to meet their heroes. Or, in the case of those lucky few who break into the same celebrity world, perhaps they\u2019re invited to a party or escorted into a dressing room for the sole purpose of meeting them or because their idol requests a rendezvous. To some, that\u2019s an honour, but to Mick Jagger<\/a>, it was a letdown.<\/p>\n

Music history is littered with stories on both sides of the debate about whether you should meet someone you revere. The Beatles loved meeting Bob Dylan in the moment\u2014but probably less so when he later started a feud with them<\/a>. Liam Gallagher might have also said it was a true honour to meet Paul McCartney\u2026if he hadn\u2019t minorly embarrassed himself in front of him, of course.<\/p>\n

However, there are also stories of artists meeting their heroes and going on to have a long, rich friendship, finding less of an idol and more of a kin they can relate to. Joni Mitchell found that with Charles Mingus<\/a>, Lana Del Rey found a close friendship with Joan Baez, and several musicians now have had the experience of meeting and being somewhat taken under the wing of Elton John as he continues to nurture new talent. But for Jagger, the experience left him feeling oddly hollow. <\/p>\n

Loving Chuck Berry was the glue that first bound Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. \u201cYou know I was keen on Chuck Berry, and I thought I was the only fan for miles,\u201d Richards wrote to his aunt when he met Jagger, baffled that there was someone with similar taste<\/a> in his area. That music became the foundation for the band, their songwriting and a true blueprint for the kind of artists they wanted to be. So naturally, finally meeting Berry was a huge deal. <\/p>\n

But the thing is, they met him many, many times after that. Berry even opened for The Stones on their 1969 US tour in a strange moment when the fans became the master, heading the bill. Over time, their relationship would become incredibly complex, as humorously recounted by Richards, \u201cChuck Berry once gave me a black eye, which I later called his greatest hit.\u201d For a man who had once been a God to them, Berry became increasingly humanised in the strangest and most extreme ways, as suddenly their hero was punching them and joking with them backstage. <\/p>\n

That was the issue. \u201cI met him loads of times and always got on well. But I think Keith always thought of him as more of a hero than I did, and therefore, was more disappointed with him when he was rather rude and overbearing,\u201d Jagger said, admitting that Richards felt it worse. But those interactions completely burst the bubble that once surrounded the musician, with Jagger stating, \u201cHe was an oddly cheap character in some ways, very quirky. He never had a good band. He was always rude to everyone. He became too much of a parody of himself. He never even tried to write anything after a certain time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It made Jagger more steadfast in the camp that a person should never meet their heroes. \u201cI never met Elvis either because John Lennon once told me he was a real disappointment. So I said I\u2019d take his advice because I\u2019d already had it with Chuck Berry, and I didn\u2019t want it to happen again with Elvis,\u201d he concluded. His advice? \u201cI think your heroes always disappoint you in the end. It\u2019s best never to meet them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

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