MICHAEL PHILIP JAGGER
VOCALS
Born: 26 July, 1944, in Dartford,
Kent.
His father, Joe, was a physical education instructor and lecturer.
His mother, Eva-, stayed home to
bring up Michael and his younger brother, Christopher (Chris)
Mick went to Maypole Primary then to Wentworth County Primary School where he
first met Keith Richards when he
was six years old. Mick: 'We lived
on the same block for a while when we were kids.
Another guy who lived on the block was the though painter Peter Blake it was a pretty rough block . Keith and l went to the same school at one point and we walked home together. Then I met him
later on and we really remembered each other.'
Mick attended Dartford Grammar School he formed a skiffle group when he was 15 but be quickly moved en to study the blues and
R&B, ordering American blues and R&B records from the States, many
of which were unknown in Britain.
He studied at the London School
of Economics and was waiting for
the train to go up to London from Dartford when he met his childhood friend Keith Richards and renewed a friendship which led to the formation of The Rolling Stones.
They began to play together with an art college friend of Keith's called Dick Taylor, calling themselves Boy Blue and
The Blue Boys.
He and Keith felt isolated in their love of R&B until
they attended a performance by Alexis Korner's Blues incorporated
at the Ealing Club and met Brian Jones who was sitting in with the band, playing slide guitar like Elmore
James.
Mick, Keith and Brian quickly became a team and Mick and Keith moved into
Brian's flat in Edith Grove, Fulham, in order to practise their music together.
Mick was still receiving his college grant and dragged himself to the L.S.E. often enough to avoid
being expelled
.
The band , merged the rock & roll of Chuck Berry with the raw blues of Muddy Waters, creating a style that would be infinitely copied by others in its wake. By the late '60s, the Rolling Stones were rivalling the Beatles as the world's most popular rock band, issuing such classic singles as "Paint It Black," "Time Is on My Side," "Get Off of My Cloud," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and others. In 1968, they began a string of albums that would go down as some of rock's most quintessential and enduring albums ever recorded -- 1968's Beggar's Banquet, 1969's Let It Bleed, 1970's Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, 1971's Sticky Fingers, and 1972's Exile on Main Street.
During this time, Jagger also tried his hand at acting in movies, landing roles
in such flicks as Performance and Ned Kelly (both from 1970). Jagger also became
a renowned playboy and jet setter among other celebrities. As a result (as well
as the Stones' escalating drug abuse), the quality of the Stones' music began to
suffer -- while they remained one of the world's top concert draws and beloved
bands, they issued albums of varying quality from the mid-'70s through the early
'80s. Around this time, Jagger and Keith Richards conflicted over the musical
direction of the band. Jagger wanted to move the band in a more pop and
dance-oriented direction while Richards wanted to stay true to the band's rock &
roll and blues roots. By 1984, Jagger had begun recording a solo album where he
pursued a more mainstream, dance-inflected pop direction. The resulting album,
She's the Boss, was released in 1985. Jagger filmed a number of state-of-the-art
videos for the album, which all received heavy airplay from MTV, helping propel
the record's first single, "Just Another Night," to number 12 and the album to
platinum status. "Lucky in Love," the second single from the album scraped the
bottom of the Top 40. In the summer of 1985, Jagger and David Bowie recorded a
cover of Martha & the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street" for the Live Aid
organization. The single peaked at number seven on the U.S. pop charts; all the
proceeds from its sale were donated to Live Aid.
Around the same time the Rolling Stones released their 1986 album, Dirty Work, Jagger released the theme song from the movie Ruthless People as a single and
told Richards that the Stones would not tour to support Dirty Work. For the next
few years, Jagger and Richards barely spoke to each other and sniped at the
other in the press. During this time, Jagger tried to make his solo career as
successful as the Rolling Stones, pouring all of his energy into his second solo
album, 1987's Primitive Cool. Although the album received stronger reviews than
She's the Boss, only one of the singles -- "Let's Work" -- scraped the bottom of
the Top 40 and the record didn't go gold.
Following the commercial failure of Primitive Cool, Jagger returned to the fold
of the Rolling Stones in 1989, recording, releasing, and touring the Steel
Wheels album. Steel Wheels was a massively successful venture and after the tour
was completed, the Stones entered a slow period, where each of the members
pursued solo projects. Jagger recorded his third solo album with Rick Rubin, who
had previously worked with the Beastie Boys and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The
resulting solo album, Wandering Spirit, was released in 1993 and received the
strongest reviews of any of Jagger's solo efforts. The album entered the U.S.
charts at number 11 and went gold the year it was released. A year after the
release of Wandering Spirit, the Stones reunited and released Voodoo Lounge,
supporting the album with another extensive international tour. During the '90s, Jagger also resumed his movie acting career, with roles in Freejack (1992), Bent
(1997), and The Man From Elysian Fields (2001).
In 2001 saw the release of Jagger's first
solo album in nearly ten years, titled Goddess in the Doorway, which included
guest appearances from such rock big names as Pete Townshend, Bono, Lenny Kravitz, Missy "Misdemeanour" Elliot, Joe Perry,
Wycliffe Jean, and Rob Thomas.
In addition to his work with the Rolling Stones and solo releases, Jagger has
guessed on albums by a wide variety of other artists -- the Jackson's, Peter Tosh,
Carly Simon, Dr. John, and Living Colour, among others (the latter he helped
discover and produced part of their hit debut album,
Children
3 Nov 70 Karis (Mick J. and Marsha Hunt)
21 Oct 71 Jade (Mick J. and Bianca)
2 Mar 84 Elizabeth (Mick J. and Jerry)
28 Aug 85 James (Mick J. and Jerry)
12 Jan 92 Georgia (Mick J. and Jerry)
9 Dec 97 Gabriel (Mick J. and Jerry)
18 May 99: A son, Lucas, (Mick J. & Luciana Morad.)
