MICK JAGGER Biography - Musicians

 
 

Biography » musicians » mick jagger

MICK JAGGER

Name: Mick Jagger                                                                       
Birth name: Michael Philip Jagger                                                       
Born: 26 July 1943 Dartford, Kent, England                                             
                                                                                       
Sir Michael Phillip "Mick" Jagger (born July 26, 1943) is a Golden Globe-winning       
English rock musician, actor, songwriter, record and film producer and                 
businessman. He is best known as the frontman of the rock band The Rolling             
Stones.                                                                                 
                                                                                       
Jagger was born into a middle-class family at the Livingstone Hospital, East           
Hill, Dartford, Kent, England. His father, Basil Fanshawe ("Joe") Jagger (6             
April 1913 - 11 November 2006), and his paternal grandfather, David Ernest             
Jagger, were both teachers; his mother, Eva Ensley Mary Scutts (13 April 1913           
– 18 May 2000), an Australian immigrant to England, was an active member of the       
Conservative Party. Jagger was the elder of two sons and was raised to follow in       
his father's career path. According to Jagger in the book According to the             
Rolling Stones, "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 Luxemburg - or watching them on TV           
and in the movies." Academically successful, he attended                               
Dartford Grammar School where he passed 3 A-levels, before entering the London         
School of Economics on a scholarship. He studied for a degree in accounting and         
finance, but attended for less than a year and did not graduate, leaving to             
pursue a musical career.                                                               
                                                                                       
As a student, Jagger frequented a London club called "the Firehouse". At the age       
of 19, Jagger began performing as a singer. Like Keith Richards and other               
members of The Rolling Stones, Jagger had no formal musical training and did not       
know how to read music.                                                                 
                                                                                       
While Jagger knew Keith Richards as a schoolmate, the songwriters reunited when         
Richards saw Jagger with a blues record under his arm and asked him where he had       
purchased it. The two, combined with Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, Ian Stewart, and         
Charlie Watts, formed the Rolling Stones, basing their name on the Muddy Waters         
tune "Rollin' Stone." Stewart was dropped from the band for not fitting the             
image desired by manager Andrew Loog Oldham, but still toured with the band as a       
pianist until his death in 1985. It was Oldham who insisted that Jagger call           
himself "Mick" rather than "Mike", a name he continued to use among friends; for       
example, John Lennon calls him Michael in the 1968 film The Rolling Stones Rock         
and Roll Circus.                                                                       
                                                                                       
With Richards, Jagger would soon form the core songwriting partnership of the           
Rolling Stones. Their first composition, "As Tears Go By", was a song written           
for Marianne Faithfull, a young singer being promoted by Loog Oldham at the time.       
For the Stones, the duo would write "The Last Time", the band's third number one       
hit in the UK. The Rolling Stones relied heavily on covered material for their         
early chart success.                                                                   
                                                                                       
After the band's acrimonious split with their second manager, Allen B. Klein,           
Jagger took control of their business affairs and has managed them ever since in       
collaboration with his friend and colleague, Prince Rupert Lawenstein. Decades         
after the band's creation, The Rolling Stones continue to perform and to court         
controversy. The release of their 2005 album A Bigger Bang included the song "Sweet     
Neo Con" in which Jagger's lyrics openly attack the presidency of George W. Bush.       
The Stones went on to make their first visit to Puerto Rico, playing to a sell-out     
audience of 20,000 at the new Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum. Tickets to the             
concert were being sold for up to $1,000, more than twice the top published             
price of $460. On 8 April 2006, the Stones performed in Shanghai, their first           
ever show in mainland China.                                                           
                                                                                       
On September 26, 2007, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones made $437 million on         
their A Bigger Bang Tour to list them in the latest edition of Guinness World           
Record. Jagger has refused to say when the band will finally 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."