Mick Jagger regrets never taking the chance to meet Elvis Presley.
During an appearance on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast on Monday, the Rolling Stones frontman revealed that John Lennon once warned him not to try to get to know the King of Rock and Roll.
“I remember John telling me, ‘You should never meet your heroes. I would never meet Elvis, Mick, if I were you,'” he recalled. “And so, I didn’t. I took John’s advice. It was really stupid of me, really. I’d love to have met Elvis.”
Lennon met Presley alongside The Beatles in 1965.
Yet, the Imagine hitmaker urged Jagger not to try and meet the Jailhouse Rock star on multiple occasions. Presley died at the age of 42 in 1977.
“I wanted to keep my Elvis to myself, my version of Elvis,” the 82-year-old mused. “And so, I didn’t want my version of Elvis shattered like John’s was, but maybe my Elvis version would have been different.”
Lennon was shot and fatally wounded at the age of 40 in 1980.
Later in the conversation, Jagger also reflected on his “friendly” rivalry with David Bowie.
The rocker claimed Bowie once played him The Jean Genie before it was released in 1973 and confessed it was an “homage” to the Rolling Stones.
“I said, ‘God (you’ve) nicked all my things. (He said), ‘Yeah, I know, man. I know. But it’s like a homage to you. It’s homage.’ Yeah. Sure. Homage. Yeah. Yeah,” he laughed. “I think John (Lennon) and I were very competitive, too. John Lennon, but we’re more competitive in being sarcastic.”
The Rolling Stones’ twenty-fifth studio album, Foreign Tongues, is now available.
