Mick Jagger: closet conservative?
A new 2012 biography of Mick Jagger promises to show a tamer side of rock-and-roll's bad boy.
An upcoming biography is said to reveal that Jagger has long been more traditional – and more careful with his money – than his image might suggest.
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When you think of Mick Jagger, you generally think of the wild and crazy rockstar with the pouty lips, constant rotation of girlfriends, and bad boy attitude.
However, a new Jagger biography being shopped around says that may not be the case, according to Reuters.
"BackStage Pass VIP" by Debra Sharon Davis promises to tell the story of a different side of the music icon. Davis traveled with the Rolling Stones in the 1980's, and Reuters says she interviewed "everyone from fans to culture commentators to Jagger's bandmates," thus uniquely qualifying her to give an insider's look at the mind of Mike Jagger.
Davis's book will also be full of juicy tidbits about other music legends that Jagger came in contact with – Jagger's friend John Lennon, for instance – and will reveal facts about Jagger's private life. Apparently Jagger liked his morning eggs soft-boiled in a china cup, his girlfriends modestly dressed when his parents came to visit, and always brought his mother flowers.
On top of being a social conservative, Jagger appears to have been fiscally conservative as well. Davis claims he managed the Rolling Stone's finances with an eagle-eye, making sure not a penny went to waste.
While Jagger is often portrayed as a libertine, Davis's book is not the first to focus on Jagger's more conservative tendencies. Previous Mick Jagger biographies, including the well-known "Mick Jagger: Rebel Knight" by Christopher Sanford and "Arise Sir Mick: The True Story of Britain's Naughtiest Knight" by Laura Jackson, have also painted Jagger in a less-than-liberal light, in terms of both his personal and fiscal tendencies.
Jagger has been notoriously stingy with interviews over the years, but that has not stopped biographers from scrambling for clues to Jagger's inner life. Likely to be published in 2012 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the "Rolling Stones," Davis's "BackStage Pass VIP" aims to shed further light on the private side of this controversial rock icon, and will probably make for a fascinating, if not entirely surprising read.
Megan Wasson is a Monitor contributor.