Mick Jagger Bio
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician, songwriter, and film producer best known as the lead singer and a co-founder of the Rolling Stones. Renowned for his distinctive voice and energetic stage presence, Jagger has co-written the majority of the band’s songs with guitarist Keith Richards, forming one of rock music’s most successful songwriting partnerships. His career has spanned more than six decades, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential front men in rock history. Outside the Rolling Stones, Jagger has released solo albums, acted in films, and co-founded the production company Jagged Films. He was knighted in 2003 for services to popular music.
Jagger has recorded four solo studio albums, acted in a string of films from the late 1960s onward, and produced feature projects through Jagged Films. He has eight children with five women and has had several high-profile relationships. He remains a prominent cultural figure, frequently cited as a template for rock front men who followed him.
Early Life and Background
Michael Philip Jagger was born into a middle-class family in Dartford, Kent, on 26 July 1943. His father, Basil Fanshawe “Joe” Jagger, was a gymnast and physical education teacher who helped popularise basketball in Britain. His mother, Eva Ensley Mary (née Scutts), was an Australian-born hairdresser of English descent who was politically active in the Conservative Party. Jagger’s younger brother, Chris, born in 1947, is also a musician, and the two have performed together.
Jagger grew up in Dartford and sang in his church choir as a child, recalling that he always liked to sing and was inspired by singers he heard on BBC Radio, Radio Luxembourg, and on television. In September 1950, he first met Keith Richards as a classmate at Wentworth Primary School in Dartford, but the two lost contact when they went to different schools. Jagger later passed the eleven-plus examination and attended Dartford Grammar School, which now houses the Mick Jagger Centre performing arts venue.
In the mid-1950s, Jagger began his music career by forming a garage band with his friend Dick Taylor, playing songs by Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin’ Wolf, and Bo Diddley. He met Richards again on 17 October 1961 on Platform Two of Dartford railway station, where the Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records Jagger was carrying revealed a shared love of rhythm and blues. The pair soon began a musical partnership that would help define modern rock.
Path to Music
Jagger left school in 1961 after passing seven O-levels and two A-levels and moved into a flat at Edith Grove in Chelsea with Keith Richards and guitarist Brian Jones. While Richards and Jones planned to start their own rhythm and blues group, Jagger continued his education as an undergraduate student at the London School of Economics on a government grant, studying finance and accounting. He seriously considered becoming a journalist or a politician, comparing the latter to being a pop star.
Brian Jones, working at the Ealing Club under the name Elmo Lewis, joined Blues Incorporated, the loose ensemble led by Alexis Korner, and brought Richards and Jagger into the group. Jagger eventually became the band’s lead singer. The three began meeting on their own to practise, establishing the foundation for what would become the Rolling Stones. Encouraged by manager Andrew Loog Oldham, Jagger and Richards soon began writing their own songs, and their early composition “As Tears Go By” was recorded by Marianne Faithfull.
Jagger left the London School of Economics in the autumn of 1963 to pursue a musical career with the Rolling Stones, beginning a five-month residency at the Eel Pie Island Hotel that the BBC later credited with shaping the band. He has managed the group’s business affairs since 1971, with Prince Rupert Loewenstein serving as business adviser and financial manager from 1968 until 2007.
Mick Jagger Career
Early Career (1960-1969)
The Rolling Stones were founded in 1962, with the group playing for no money at a basement club opposite London’s Ealing Broadway tube station that was subsequently named Ferry’s Club. Their first appearance, under the name the Rollin’ Stones after one of their favourite Muddy Waters songs, was at the Marquee Club on 12 July 1962. Initial members included Jagger, Richards, Brian Jones, Ian Stewart on piano, Dick Taylor on bass, and Tony Chapman on drums.
Jagger and Richards soon began writing their own songs, with the duo writing “The Last Time,” the group’s third UK No. 1 single, and then their first international hit, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” which established the Rolling Stones’ image as defiant troublemakers. The group’s early albums, including Out of Our Heads, Aftermath, and Between the Buttons, were commercially successful. Jagger was arrested on drug charges in 1967 and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, a sentence later amended to a conditional discharge after he spent one night in London’s Brixton Prison.
Breakthrough (1969-1980)
On 3 July 1969, founding member Brian Jones drowned in the swimming pool at his home, Cotchford Farm, in Hartfield, East Sussex. Two days later, the Rolling Stones played a previously scheduled concert at Hyde Park attended by 250,000 people, dedicating it as a tribute to Jones. The concert introduced new guitarist Mick Taylor, who had replaced Jones. The Stones performed at the Altamont Free Concert on 6 December 1969, an event that ended in the stabbing death of concertgoer Meredith Hunter.
During the 1970s, Jagger and the band moved to Southern France as tax exiles in 1971, and Jagger assumed control of the band’s business affairs after their acrimonious split with manager Allen Klein. Nicolas Roeg’s film Performance, featuring Jagger in the role of Turner, a reclusive rock star, was released in 1970, and Jagger also starred as Australian bushranger Ned Kelly in 1970. The 1972 album Exile on Main St. showcased Jagger’s emotional singing, and the 1973 album Goats Head Soup, recorded in Kingston, Jamaica, included the global hit “Angie.” Following Mick Taylor’s departure in December 1974, Ronnie Wood was selected as the new guitarist and joined the band in 1975.
The 1978 album Some Girls, on which the band ventured into disco and punk, was a major commercial success, and the follow-up Emotional Rescue hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic in mid-1980. The 1981 album Tattoo You featured the lead single “Start Me Up,” which reached No. 2 in the US and was ranked No. 22 on Billboard’s Hot 100 year-end chart.
Solo Career and Continuation (1980-2000)
Jagger launched a solo career in 1985 with the album She’s the Boss, produced by Nile Rodgers and Bill Laswell, which featured Herbie Hancock, Jeff Beck, Jan Hammer, Pete Townshend, and the Compass Point All Stars. The single “Just Another Night” was a Top Ten hit. Jagger also collaborated with Michael Jackson on “State of Shock” and performed at Live Aid in Philadelphia, where he performed a duet of “Dancing in the Street” with David Bowie, whose performance was being broadcast from Wembley Stadium. The song reached No. 1 in the UK.
His second solo album, Primitive Cool, released in 1987, was critically well received but did not match the commercial success of his debut. Jagger’s relations with Keith Richards reached an all-time low during the recording of Dirty Work in 1986, leading Jagger to refuse to tour with the band. The 1989-1990 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour was the band’s first world tour in seven years, and Jagger’s third solo album, Wandering Spirit, released in February 1993, reached No. 12 in the UK and No. 11 in the US. The Rolling Stones’ 1994 album Voodoo Lounge won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album at the 1995 Grammy Awards, and the subsequent Voodoo Lounge Tour grossed $320 million, becoming the world’s highest-grossing tour ever at the time.
Notable Works and Milestones
Jagger’s signature contributions include the 1965 single “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” which established the Rolling Stones’ identity, and the 1981 single “Start Me Up,” one of the most recognizable rock songs of the era. He has reached No. 1 on the UK and US singles charts with 13 singles, the top 10 with 32 singles, and the top 40 with 70 singles as a member of the Rolling Stones and as a solo artist. In 2012, he co-wrote and performed “Strange Game” for the television series Slow Horses, earning an Emmy nomination. In 2020, the Rolling Stones became the first band to top the UK Albums Chart across six different decades when the reissued Goats Head Soup reached No. 1.
Mick Jagger Award Nominations
Jagger’s award nominations across more than six decades of recording and performing include recognition from the Golden Globe Awards, the Grammy Awards, and the Emmy Awards. His song “Old Habits Die Hard,” co-written with David A. Stewart for the 2004 film Alfie, earned a Golden Globe Award nomination and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. Jagger received an Emmy Award nomination for his work on “Strange Game,” co-written and performed for the television series Slow Horses in 2022. The Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge received a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album at the 1995 Grammy Awards, and the band received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards.
Mick Jagger Awards Won
Jagger has been honoured with major recognitions for his contributions to popular music and his cultural impact. In 1989, he was inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Rolling Stones, and in November 2004, the band were among the inaugural inductees into the UK Music Hall of Fame. Jagger was honoured with a knighthood for services to popular music in the Queen’s 2002 Birthday Honours, and he received the accolade from The Prince of Wales on 12 December 2003. His song “Old Habits Die Hard” won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
Mick Jagger Family
Jagger’s father, Basil Fanshawe “Joe” Jagger, was a gymnast and physical education teacher who helped popularise basketball in Britain, and his mother, Eva Ensley Mary (née Scutts), was an Australian-born hairdresser who was politically active in the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. Jagger has described his father as the “greatest influence” in his life. His younger brother, Chris Jagger, born on 19 December 1947, is also a musician, and the two have performed together, including two duets on the 2013 album Concertina Jack.
Jagger’s father died of pneumonia on 11 November 2006 at age 93. Although the Rolling Stones were on the A Bigger Bang tour, Jagger flew to Britain to see his father before returning the same day to Las Vegas, where he performed that night after being informed his father’s condition was improving. Jagger’s friends said the show going on was “what Joe would have wanted.” Jagger’s father and daughters Karis and Elizabeth were present when he received his knighthood in 2003.
Personal Life
Jagger has been married and divorced once and has had several other relationships, resulting in eight children with five women. He married Bianca Pérez-Mora Macias on 12 May 1971 in a Catholic ceremony in Saint-Tropez, France, and they separated in 1977 before she filed for divorce in May 1978 on the grounds of his adultery. Their daughter, Jade Sheena Jezebel Jagger, was born on 21 October 1971.
Jagger was in a relationship with American model Jerry Hall from late 1977, and the couple had four children: Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Scarlett Jagger, James Leroy Augustin Jagger, Georgia May Ayeesha Jagger, and Gabriel Luke Beauregard Jagger. Jagger was in a relationship with fashion designer L’Wren Scott from 2001 until her death in March 2014, and he set up the L’Wren Scott scholarship at London’s Central Saint Martins College in her memory. Since 2014, Jagger has been in a relationship with American ballet dancer Melanie Hamrick, who gave birth to their son Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger in 2016. Jagger has eight children with five women and, as of 2024, has seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.