Rock Star
b. July 26, 1943
“I wasn’t trying to be rebellious … I was just being me.”
Mick Jagger is the lead singer of the Rolling Stones, a British rock band whose popularity has spanned more than 50 years. As one of the most influential and charismatic front men in history, Jagger has received many awards and accolades. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and was knighted in 2003. Rolling Stone magazine names him among the top 20 on its List of 100 Greatest Singers.
Immersed in the counterculture of the 1960s, Jagger and his bandmates became famous after releasing a string of successful albums and making TV and live concert appearances around the world. They collaborated with fellow superstars throughout the ’70s and ’80s, rubbing elbows with the famous and infamous, including Andy Warhol, the gay pop artist who created a portrait series of Jagger.
During the 1970s, Jagger adopted a gender-nonconforming stage persona, experimenting with makeup and glam-rock fashion. He became a fixture at New York’s famed Studio 54, often seen with gay icons like writer Truman Capote, fashion designer Halston and dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Jagger is credited with opening up “definitions of gendered masculinity.”
In 1985 Jagger performed at Live Aid in Philadelphia, where he covered “Dancing in the Street” with David Bowie, another gender-nonconforming rock star with whom he has been romantically linked.
Jagger also launched a successful solo career and acted in several movies, most notably the 1970 British crime drama “Performance,” in which he plays a bisexual.
Jagger and the Rolling Stones have been the subject of many documentaries, including “Gimme Shelter,” filmed during the band’s 1969 U.S. tour, during which several people died; “Sympathy for the Devil” by Jean-Luc-Goddard; and “Shine a Light” by Martin Scorsese.
Jagger has been married twice and is the father of seven children. He has been involved with other women and men over the years.
Bibliography
Jagger, Mick; Richards, Keith; Watts, Charlie; Wood, Ronnie. According to the Rolling Stones, Chronicle Books, 2003.
Norman, Phillip. Mick Jagger, Ecco, 2012.
Richards, Keith. Life. Little, Brown and Company, 2010.
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