Mick Talks

Mick jagger opens up about journeying through the past for the career-spanning rolling stones exhibition, ‘exhibitionism’.

- Stephen Mooallem

“Welcome to the Palm Springs retirement home for genteel musicians,” quipped Mick Jagger from the stage during the first of two headlining gigs with the Rolling Stones at the Desert Trip musical festival in Indio, California, last year. Engineered by the organisers of Coachella as a pair of blockbuster boomer-rock weekends in October, the event was immediately rechristened “Oldchella” for a line-up that also featured Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, The Who, and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, with nary a performer under the age of 60 (most, in fact, were in their 70s). The crowd, though, was varied—a mix of age-appropriate diehards and younger fans—and the festival, by most accounts, was a success, drawing more than 75,000 people over six evenings. “I still want a challenge, and doing things like Desert Trip is a challenge,” Jagger, 73, tells me on the phone from Los Angeles, where he has retreated between shows. “There are great people on the bill, and it’s a special weekend. So, that sets up a challenge for you, and you just want to give it your best shot and try to please everybody and make everybody have a great time,” he explains. “You know,” he adds, “that’s really one of my roles in life.”