(Credits: Press)
Sat 14 February 2026 15:30, UK
Mick Jagger was practically born to be onstage when he first started the Rolling Stones.
Most people may have gravitated towards the more wholesome act that The Beatles put on, but as soon as songs like ‘Satisfaction’ took off, the world got to see Jagger playing up his looks in the same way that his blues heroes did when they started cutting loose. The music seemed to pull out something buried inside him every time he performed, but he had a lot more ideas for the kind of band that he wanted to play with.
The Stones were always going to be married to the blues to some degree, but that didn’t mean that Jagger couldn’t find other outlets when he wanted to. He wanted the chance to stretch his muscles out every now and again, but while his solo career is decent for what it is, there’s always something missing when he doesn’t have a guitar hero like Keith Richards pumping out the riffs next to him.
And it’s not like Jagger could work with any other legend and get the same results. The thought of him and David Bowie on a track together might have sounded fantastic on paper, but seeing them hamming it up in the video for ‘Dancing in the Street’ remains one of the most unintentionally hilarious music videos to ever appear on MTV. Jagger wasn’t going to fit in with the glamorous types, and even with The Stones, his best moments always came back to the music.
Even though he might have his own problems with records like Exile on Main St, every band member is at the peak of their powers across the record. Jagger might not have understood what Richards was going for every single time he made one of his country-leaning tunes, but even when he was singing backup for the guitarist on the song ‘Happy’, you were hardly going to find another singer with better tone than he had whenever he opened his mouth.
But even during their prime, Jagger was still looking around at what other bands were doing when Derek and the Dominos debuted. Eric Clapton had already been through the musical ringer one too many times, but when Jagger first heard them jamming together, ‘Slowhand’ remembered almost getting the Stones frontman in on the action when they were cutting some of their tunes.
Then again, Clapton was the first one to say that Jagger didn’t really need to be in yet another legendary band, saying, “He asked me to play with the Stones last year, before he found Mick Taylor. But I was into the Blind Faith thing … so no. And since then we’ve seen a hell of a lot of one another, and that’s just out of friendship. But he’s never suggested anything. Maybe he doesn’t feel that he wants to be pushy. Or he’s too shy to say it, because he’s as shy as I am. I know that he likes the group and he’d probably like to use us on some sessions. But I think he’s got a good band himself.”
It’s not like Jagger walking away from The Stones would have been impossible, either. There were many times where the band went on hiatus for a little while only to regroup, but given where they were at the time, it would have been a crime for Jagger to ditch making songs like ‘Wild Horses’ or ‘Tumbling Dice’ in favour of working with Clapton to put together tunes like ‘Let it Rain’ in his solo career.
The Dominos were already imploding before they could really gain any traction, and even if they had lasted for a few more years, chances are Jagger made the right choice by sticking with The Stones. Clapton may be one of the few guitarists who could lend their talents to nearly any band, but there’s a common language among all of the Stones that would have never worked if Jagger suddenly left the fold.