Mick Jagger Knows He May Have Played His Last Rolling Stones Show

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**David Marchese** (0:41)
From The New York Times, this is The Interview. I'm David Marchese.
Mick Jagger truly needs no introduction. He's the legendary frontman of the Rolling Stones, who are releasing a new album called Foreign Tongues. I've been a fan of the Stones since 1994, when I saw them on their Voodoo Lounge Tour. It was my first ever rock concert, and it left a huge impression. Since then, I've listened to just about every song the band has released, from undeniable classics like My Favorite You Can't Always Get What You Want to more obscure tracks like Sway. And I've always wondered, what's Mick Jagger really like? Here's my conversation with Mick Jagger.
Mick.

**Mick Jagger** (1:31)
Hi, David.

**David Marchese** (1:32)
Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. That's all right. I have a bunch of questions about the new album.

**Mick Jagger** (1:38)
Okay.

**David Marchese** (1:39)
But I'd like to start with a question that comes from a place of pure personal curiosity.

**Mick Jagger** (1:43)
Okay.

**David Marchese** (1:44)
So one of my all-time favorite of your songs is Sway from Sticky Fingers. And I always wondered about the first line of that song, okay, with the lyrics, which are, did you ever wake up to find a day that broke up your mind, destroyed your notion of circular time? I have not.
Have you?

**Mick Jagger** (2:07)
No. It's a question.

**David Marchese** (2:11)
Do you remember where that line came from?

**Mick Jagger** (2:12)
No. I just made it up at this moment.
We were waiting for Keith to turn up to the session. He was late. And then Mick Taylor and I were there, and Charlie and Bill. And we just, I said, oh, let me try this. And I was just making it up as I go along. So that's why it's a bit random.

**David Marchese** (2:29)
Yeah. But it makes sense that waiting for Keith Richards would destroy your notion of circular time. I thought maybe it was a more philosophical question.

**Mick Jagger** (2:38)
Maybe I went back afterwards and spruced it up a bit.

**David Marchese** (2:42)
Well, thank you for solving that mystery. I appreciate it.
So, the new album.

**Mick Jagger** (2:47)
Yeah.

**David Marchese** (2:48)
So it's coming just maybe two and a half years after Hackney Diamonds.

**Mick Jagger** (2:52)
We recorded it last year now, and we did it this time last year, more or less.

**David Marchese** (2:59)
But the time span between Hackney Diamonds and the previous album of original material was 18 years.

**Mick Jagger** (3:05)
Yeah, 18 years. This is quick.

**David Marchese** (3:08)
Why did it come together so quickly?

**Mick Jagger** (3:09)
Well, I think we realized that we had a different method of making records, really. We've been just being very lackadaisical, and we weren't really getting down to it. So when we got Andy Watt on board, we decided that, I said, there's a deadline. We used to always have deadlines, because we had to go on tour with the record. The tour starts in March of the record hour.
I said, the Hackney Diamonds, I said, the deadline is Valentine's Day. You're all going to remember that. There's no excuses. You thought it was March. It's Valentine's Day, and we almost made it. Over four weeks, we recorded probably, I don't know, 14, 15 songs. I mean, a lot of stuff is the way I do things, some of the songs that I write. I mean, I demo a lot of them first. So I go in with a friend of mine, he plays with the band, Matt Clifford.
We demo a lot of the songs that I write.
I demo them, and I can see they could go here, they could go there, they could be this group, they could be that group. And then, so a lot of my version of what I think the song sounds like is already in my head. Everything else, you layer on top of that, and you might, yeah, you might say that bass is great on it, I don't want to change anything. Or I just want to change just the chorus, or I just want to change this. Or I want to keep the rhythm guitar, or I don't want to keep the rhythm guitar. I'll do it again. You know, it's complex.