The Rolling Stones have symbolized like few others the debauchery and excesses of rock: endless nights, alcohol and drugs, especially between Keith Richards and the legendary Mick Jagger. Despite the latter’s flirtation with narcotics – who suffered a heroin overdose in 1976 – there is a completely opposite and much less known image. Jagger is obsessed with taking care of his body, voice and mind, training regularly and following a strict diet. Perhaps that “balance” helps explain why, at 82, he continues to record albums and perform on stage.
In a recent interview with host Conan O’Brien, Jagger reviews some of the habits and decisions that have marked his career. The conversation comes after the Rolling Stones released Foreign Tongues on July 10, a new work, the twenty-fifth album of their career, which succeeds Hackney Diamonds and which once again demonstrates the group’s will to continue composing new material instead of living solely off their great classics.
Fatherly discipline
Long before becoming one of rock’s greatest icons, discipline was already part of his life. His father, Basil Jagger, was a physical education teacher and instilled in him as a child the importance of staying active. “He taught me to move so as not to be flaccid, it is a discipline that has accompanied me all my life,” he says.
According to the writer Isidora Puiggené, author of Pacto Con El Diablo: The Healthy Habits of the Most Dynamic Rolling Stone in the World, Mick Jagger trains 2 to 3 hours a day, between 5 and 6 days a week, with a routine that includes calisthenics, yoga, resistance exercises and, his favorite activity, dancing. Its preparation is designed to withstand more than two hours of concert and resembles the training of a high-performance athlete.
Conan O’Brien himself admits during the interview that it is difficult for him to find another artist his age who maintains that level of physical endurance. Jagger, however, avoids presenting him as an exceptional talent and attributes it to a habit acquired more than half a century ago.
The real key to being active at 82 years old
But the exercise only tells part of the story. If there is one idea that runs through the entire conversation, it is that Jagger has never stopped behaving like an apprentice. While many artists turn to nostalgia as they reach maturity, he says he tries to write about the present and avoid becoming someone who permanently lives off his old hits. «I don’t want to always be repeating the same stories from fifty years ago. You have to live in the moment,» he says.
He also confesses that he continues studying the vocal technique from other musicians to improve aspects that he has not yet mastered. He recently listened to Al Green again to analyze how he switches from natural voice to falsetto within the same sentence. “I still have to learn how to do that,” he admits matter-of-factly.
The same concern has guided the recording of the latest Rolling Stones albums. Jagger explains that he avoided any musical references to the band’s great classics because he did not want to repeat past formulas. The goal was to create songs that sounded current, not versions of themselves.
Perhaps that is the true explanation for his longevity. The physical discipline inherited from his father has allowed him to preserve his body. But it is the curiosity to continue learning, even when he no longer has anything to prove, that has kept the creative energy of one of the most influential musicians in the history of rock intact.
Paul Ortiz
