Mick Jagger

Sir Michael Philip Jagger, born on 26 July 1943 in Dartford, Kent, is an English musician, songwriter, and film producer best known as the lead singer and a founder member of the Rolling Stones. Across more than six decades, he became one of rock music’s most popular and influential front men, known for a distinctive voice, energetic live performances, and the stage presence that helped define the band’s image. With Keith Richards, he co-wrote most of the Rolling Stones’ songs, forming one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in rock music history.

Jagger grew up in a middle-class family. His father, Basil Fanshawe “Joe” Jagger, was a gymnast and physical education teacher who helped popularise basketball in Britain, and his mother, Eva Ensley Mary, was a hairdresser who was politically active in the Conservative Party. Though he was encouraged toward his father’s path, Jagger loved singing as a child. He sang in the church choir, listened to singers on the BBC and Radio Luxembourg, and watched performers on television and in films. Those early habits, along with a later fascination with rhythm and blues, helped shape the musician he became.

He first met Keith Richards as a classmate at Wentworth Primary School in Dartford, then reconnected with him on 17 October 1961 at Dartford railway station. The Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records Jagger was carrying revealed their shared interest in rhythm and blues. Jagger had already begun playing music in the mid-1950s with his friend Dick Taylor, performing songs by Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin’ Wolf, and Bo Diddley. After leaving school in 1961, he studied finance and accounting at the London School of Economics, and seriously considered journalism or politics, before leaving in 1963 to commit himself to the Rolling Stones.

The band first appeared under the name the Rollin’ Stones at the Marquee Club in London on 12 July 1962, taking the name from a Muddy Waters song. In their early years, they played American rhythm and blues material, including songs by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Their first two UK No. 1 hits were covers, Bobby Womack’s “It’s All Over Now” and Willie Dixon’s “Little Red Rooster.” Encouraged by manager Andrew Loog Oldham, Jagger and Richards began writing their own songs, though their partnership took time to develop. Jagger’s voice, Richards’s guitar style, and the band’s forceful performances became the Rolling Stones’ trademark.

Jagger also worked outside the band. In 1970, he starred in the films Performance and Ned Kelly, both received with mixed reactions. From the 1980s onward, he released solo work, including four albums and the 1985 duet with David Bowie, “Dancing in the Street,” which reached No. 1 in the UK and Australia and made the top ten in other countries. In the 2000s, he co-founded Jagged Films and produced feature films beginning with the 2001 historical drama Enigma. From 2009 to 2011, he was also a member of the supergroup SuperHeavy.

Jagger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Rolling Stones in 1989 and into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2003, he was knighted for services to popular music. As a Stone and as a solo artist, he reached No. 1 on the UK and US singles charts with 13 singles, the top 10 with 32, and the top 40 with 70. His words still carry because they come from a life lived in public, in appetite, strain, success, and performance. “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need” remains plain-spoken, memorable, and true to the hard-earned realism at the center of his songs.