Mick Jagger has explained the different ways he was “competitive” with David Bowie and John Lennon.
The frontman of The Rolling Stones opened up about his relationship with Bowie during a new interview with Conan O’Brien on his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend.
Jagger and the late icon gravitated towards each other when they both lived in New York during the ’80s, which led to their classic 1985 collaborative single, ‘Dancing In The Street’.
O’Brien noted in the conversation that Jagger had once privately told him that he and Bowie were “competitive but remained good friends”.
The singer responded: “Yeah, we were competitive. David was so competitive, much more competitive [than me]. I was made competitive by David. He was so competitive that I had to be competitive back.”
He continued: “David went through all these different iterations. There isn’t one David Bowie. There’s kind of like a slowly evolving David Bowie.
“There’s jump cuts of, you know, to another David Bowie, another style. When he was doing like ‘Jean Genie’, he was very Stonesy. That was a very Stonesy period.”
Jagger then recalled his first reaction to the 1972 single ‘The Jean Genie’, when he told Bowie: “‘God, you nicked all my things’.”
According to the frontman, Bowie did not deny this, telling him: “Yeah, I know man, I know, but it’s like a homage to you.”
Jagger also remembered being “very competitive” with late Beatles legend Lennon, and told O’Brien how this compared to his relationship with Bowie. “But we’re more competitive in being sarcastic,” he explained. “Just verbal competitiveness.”
He asked the host if he’d ever seen the famous video of Lennon and Bob Dylan in the back of a taxi while stoned in 1966. Jagger said this moment “was John at his most… he’s being very sarcastic with Bob and Bob’s not really coming back with zingy answers”.
He added: “It does give you a good illustration of [Lennon], because most of the other things are kind of short, and that’s extended sarcasm [Laughs].”
Jagger said that while Lennon “could be lovely”, he was “one of those people that if you’d say something stupid he’d pick you up [on it]”.
“He’d clock it right away,” he shared. “He was very competitive about it, he wasn’t competitive about anything else.” Jagger clarified that he meant Lennon’s competitiveness was more about “being funny and sarcastic”, saying this was “a kind of Liverpool thing”.
Elsewhere on the podcast, the Stones vocalist revealed that he regretted never meeting Elvis Presley because Lennon had advised him against it: “I remember John telling me, ‘You should never meet your heroes. I would never meet Elvis, Mick, if I were you’. And so I didn’t. I took John’s advice.”
Jagger’s latest interview comes after The Rolling Stones released their 25th album, ‘Foreign Tongues’, last week – which contains contributions from Paul McCartney, The Cure’s Robert Smith, Steve Winwood and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, as well as further posthumous appearances from Charlie Watts.
NME gave the album three-and-a-half stars, with the review describing it as “fresh and refined” and proving that “there’s plenty more left in the tank”.
Speaking to NME as part of a recent ‘In Conversation’ interview, Jagger opened up about the “easy” experience working with McCartney, the collab with Robert Smith, his love of Sam Fender, and whether or not the Stones have more music and touring planned. Read it in full here, or watch it above
The Rolling Stones launched ‘Foreign Tongues’ with a spectacular drone show in London, where they also hosted a star-studded party – with the likes of Fender and Daniel Craig in attendance.
In other news, Jagger has clarified what his “mad mogul” lyric on The Rolling Stones’ new album is really about.
Last summer, Mick Jagger and David Bowie’s ‘Dancing In The Street’ was reissued on limited-edition white vinyl to mark the single’s 40th anniversary.
