Mick Jagger Says There’s Nothing Good About Getting Old

Mick Jagger reflected on getting old, and said there’s nothing good about the natural process.

The Rolling Stones singer – who’ll pass his 83th birthday later in July – recently shared his thoughts on aging with The New York Times. But reflections on his matured songwriting skills suggested his thoughts on the matter might be more varied.

Asked what was good about getting older, physically or metaphysically, Jagger replied: “There’s nothing good about it.”

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To the follow-up question, “Nothing? Wisdom?” he said: “I forgot all my wisdom. I might have had a couple of pearls drop, but I’ve already forgotten what they are!

“So, no, it’s not particularly pleasant. You can’t do things as quickly as you want to. Physically you’ve got to be more careful. You know, when you’re playing football, they put you in goal a lot. I’m not very good at it!”

Jagger went on to consider what he’d learned about his larger-than-life rock star role over the years. “You’ve heard all these stories about method actors,“ he said. “They take it to the absolute extreme, so they’re like the character all the time, and then after the movie’s over, they’re still in character. It takes a long time to slough off the character.

“So which character do you go back to? Is he always going to carry some of that character in his ‘true’ character, whatever that is? This is the show business dichotomy and it’s something you learn to live with, and you always hope that you’re a so-called normal person underneath.”

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He confirmed that being one of the world’s greatest rock stars came with perks, but argued: “[I]t’s not about the perks. It’s about being these several characters. You’re the character that plays the theater, you’re the character who does the interview, you’re the character in the stadium, you’re the character in the recording studio, you’re the character writing the song.”

Mick Jagger Learned to Blend Songs About Relationships and Politics

On the subject of songwriting, Jagger appeared to accept the concept that being older was a positive thing. “I wouldn’t have written any of these songs when I was 30, honestly,” he said of his more recent compositions.

“I’ve also gotten into this habit of doing songs that are about personal relationships, and then I throw a verse about politics in there. That’s a trick I’ve learned from other songwriters, because nobody wants to hear a whole song about politics or social comment.

“A blues song like ‘Rough and Twisted,’ you talk about women and everything, but then you throw in stuff that’s obviously political: ‘The only club was called conspiracy / What they wanted was tyranny.’ So you find yourself using these tricks.”