Press Conference - Buenos Aires
March, 1998
 
 
 

Mick Jagger's Interview:

Q: Your shows are more than simple rock concerts, you have amazing stages, wonderful lighting effects and surprises.  When you decide to go on tour, do you work on the show concept on your own or do you have designers do it for you?

M.J.:  We develop the total concept ourselves we are always very involved in it.  Unfortunately there are very few designers in rock'n'roll.  It's a very small group and most of the big shows end up being designed by the same people. You must be very careful to know what is going on, focus in the the show's concept and try to make it reflect properly your identity.

Q: What is the concept for the Bridges to Babylon Tour?

M.J.: We started with many different ideas, always trying to avoid going back to the old stuff.  This time, after the Voodoo Lounge Tour that was quite modern, we thought   we should have a more operistic stage and show and try to define acts and situations between them.  We started to imagine it  and to see how it worked.  Then we concentrated in thinking how  all these ideas would work together, how would the stage be and how the screen would fit in all that without doing the same things that were done before.  Then we started the actual design that included the bridge and the lighting.  We worked on it for six to nine months.

Q:  For the last album you have worked with more than one producer:  Don Was, The Dust Brothers, yourselves.   Was that because you were looking for diversity?

M.J.: Basically we were looking for different kind of sounds and thus make the best out of the album.  We thought about each song and how it would work best with each of them.  A song can sound different depending on who is in charge of it.  It was very interesting.

Q:  You have even included some techno sounds.

M.J.:  Yes, even if it's not something new anymore, I think it's interesting.
In fact, we have done a couple of dance remixes with our songs.  Now we have just finished  one for "Out of Control" which is a very good version.

Q:  You are performing a lot of the old songs.  Is this a way to say good bye to the big tours and huge stadiums?

M.J.:  No way.  I like playing old and new songs as well.

Q:  The Rolling Stones started with rock'n'roll, R&B, with Berry, Dixon and others and then incorporated reggae, disco and even techno sounds, but they have never done any hip hop. Is that because you are not interested in it?

M.J.: I have a little rap in this show (laughing).

Q:  Is that a joke?

M.J.:  No, it's not.  You will see it.

Q:  You have been playing for 35 years.  How do you manage to renew your energy for each show?

M.J.:  That's the most difficult part of it.  Although there are several things that help musicians, it is the audience above all who does that.  When you look at the people and see their enthusiasm it is like a comunion.  Sometimes you are not well and the audience brings you up.  The inverse can also happen.  An audience lacking enthusiasm cools down the band.  It was really impressing here in 1995.

Q: Don't you think music gets less important in these big shows with stages, lights, fireworks?

M.J.:  No, I think music is very important but we must not forget that it is a concert and not a jazz club.  We have played at small theaters in Europe and in the U.S. and people also watch,  they don't just listen.  We are the Rollingtones and they go to see us.  We are a band to be seen and not only listened to.   So, if we play in big places we have to make big shows and, to be honest, I like doing it.  On the other hand, some of the small shows have been great while we have played for 10 to 15 thousand people in stadiums where there was no chemistry at all.

Q:  You were the bad boys of the 60's who sang about the devil, about not getting satisfaction and your logo is a teasing red tongue. How did you handle the fact of being part of the mainstream?

M.J.:  This happened very early in our carrier.  Sometimes people don't want to think about it but in a few years we  came to be part of the established and accepted.  The Beatles and the Rolling Stones soon became something permanent in the world of rock'n'roll.

Q:  Are you excited about sharing next Saturday, April 4, with Bob Dylan?

M.J.:  Yes, of course.  We have already played with him in 1995 in Montpellier, France, where we sang together "Like a Rolling Stone".  Recently, in January, we played together, although in different stages, at the Madison Square Garden in New York.  He was expected to come in by the end of our show but it got too late for him.  Then he came to our dressing rooms just to say that, but you know, he is not the easiest person in the world
(he said in a complicity tone).

Q: As icons of the 60's culture when it was thought that the world could be changed, how do you see things now that we are approaching the end of the century?

M.J.:  The changes have been amazing.  Including this country where people now can live in freedom after many dark years.  There have been  changes in music and in  politics the Soviet empire no longer exists.  I believe that many of them have been fantastic changes.

Q: The human being, however, has demonstrated being a complicated species.

M.J.:  Well, that's another question or better, a long chat.  It's true that we are war driven but I also believe that some years ago there were more murders and disappearings, you know it.  It's much better now.

Q: Are you optimistic?

M.J.:  Yes, I think it's a good thing to be.

Q: Are you going to record a video here?

M.J.:  No, the show will be recorded for TV and we will probably use some of the scenes from the audience and the show in a future video.

Q: We live in a time where youth is culturally very valuated...

M.J.:  Yes, seems like now you either have to be young or pretend you are...

Q:  It's a recent cultural phenomena, you started playing Waters'or Berry's songs when they  were not young anymore.     Noel Gallagher, from Oasis, said that rock'n'roll is for young people.  What do you think of that?

M.J.:  It's difficult for rock'n'roll people accepting the fact that you grow up and that there are people over 50 doing rock'n'roll.   But this involves musical growth.  When young people start playing they do it in a very simple manner because it's simple music that does not require too much technique.
That's what makes rock'n'roll so attractive, anyone can play it, if compared to jazz for example.  If you want to play jazz you need a lot more of technique and a lot of study, but anyone can play rock'n'roll.    I also think that people who start playing are influenced by the old bands like Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd.  When you begin, you must have an idea of how you want to sound.  You have a favorite band that, most probably, is not one that became famous a year ago, because such band would only have one album.

Q:  What kind of music do you listen at when you are at home, whenever you are there, of course?

M.J.:  That is something that does not happen frequently (laughing).  I like everything except opera which I don't like much.  I listen to pop music, jazz, blues, folk, classics.  Sometimes I hear about a band which I don't know so I buy the album to get to know it.  It's that simple, just as anyone else would do.

Q:  Do you like being on tour?

M.J.:  Yes, but this tour and the last one have been too long.  I think they shouldn't be longer than six months.  It can be quite crazy living all the time in different countries.

Q:  What will happen at the end of the tour?

M.J.:  I will rest, probably for a year (laughing).  No, really, I have a lot of things to do.  Movies and start writing new songs.

Q:  Is there going to be any new solo album?

M.J.:  Probably yes and also more Rolling Stones.

Keith Richards' Interview:

15 minutes after Mick's interview, Keith came into the same room with a huge glass of vodka and orange juice in his hand and a cigarette hanging from his lips.  He looked around the big meeting room table and asked: "are we expecting other people for the party?" and laughed.

Then he said:  "ok, let's talk to these invisible men"  and laughed again while drinking.

He started talking before they made him any questions.
"I am happy to be here again"  he said before anyone asked him, making his familiar gesture of taking his wrist to the heart.  "This is the third time I'm here.  The first time was with the XPensive Winos and I could not believe how well you made me feel here.  You were so  receptive  to the music that when I came back, I told Mick 'how is it possible that we have never played there with the Rolling Stones?  It was so amazing with the Winos that's it's hard to imagine how good it could be with the Stones.  We must do it'.  A couple of years later we did it.  And now, here we are again.  We're happy.  It's wonderful".

Q:  Some like  saying that this is a Stones' country.

K.R.: Yes, it is.  I have no doubts (with another stroke to his chest with his wrist, as saying "here I am for you").  You really have a good time in this country, everyone enjoys the songs.

Q: In August, during the press conference at  Brooklyn Bridge, you said you don't write the songs, you just receive them and transmit them.

K.R.: Yeah, that's the way I feel it.  It sounds boring when people say they wrote something, "this is what I have created" they say proudly.  What do they think?  Music for me is part of your heart, part of your life.  I never feel it's time to write a song, that just doesn't work for me.  I get an instrument, sometimes a guitar, others a piano and play my favorite songs, Muddy Waters, Buddy Holly, Little Richards, and I try to learn something.  Sometimes something happens then, probably when I make a mistake.  Most of the musicians get mad when they fail but I see something interesting in failing and recognizing the accidents.  Maybe that is when you get something. It's a way to see it and say, this is not a mistake, this is a new song (laughing).  Got it?
Then it's time to work, to polish it, make it fit and then transmit it.  I have never believed in creation, I leave that to God, he is the one who knows everything.  He is the expert of the creative department (laughing again).

Q:  That's a strange statement.  You go all around the world playing for huge crowds who love you and say it's not you, it's the music.

K.R.:  It's because playing is a pleasure for me, it's the reason for everything.  When I listen to the "olé, olé olé", it still impacts me. I don't feel it as something unimportant, on the contrary, I think that each of those persons is as important to me as I am to them.  Something is going on there.

Q:  In the begining you played Waters, Dixon.  Now and since a while ago, you are enthusiastic about reggae.  Both of them have black roots, but is it the same passion?

K.R.:  I don't like thinking of music as classified in genres.  All kinds of music are connected with each other.  I don't care if it is mariachi, Mozart, tango, rock'n'roll, jazz or blues.  All those titles don't mean much.  Basically they were made up by the industry to sell more.  But that has nothing to do with music.  Everything is music and diversity is the most interesting part of it.  The real question is, why are people so interested in music, and no one has the answer to that.  That's the mistery to me.  Take a look at other forms of art, look at that painting on the wall, it can only exist within that frame.
Look at a book, the cover, the begining, the end.  Music has no frames, no covers, it's like a Pandora box, once you open it you don't know what will happen and you won't be able to stop it anymore.  Maybe the reason is that it brings us together, it makes us equal.  Music and probably blue jeans as well (laughing).

It's the most misterious form of art.  Sculpture, yes, Michelangelo is impressive, but you can only see it in a museum. Just as you have to go to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa and even can't be sure   that you're looking at the real one.  It might be a very good fake.

Q:  Do you have any plans for after the tour?

K.R.:  I never make any plans.  I don't like it.  And everytime I do, they never work out (laughing).
 I don't like planning, I like things to happen.  I'm not even good at games.  I can watch a football game but the one who wins will be the one who played better on that particular game.  I can't predict and don't want to do it.  I believe the need to predict is a sign of  being insecure, meaning you want to know what will happen.   What horse you should bet on, and probably you will make the right guess but when you leave you will be hit by a bus.  You won but you also lost as you won't be able to get your money once you're dead.      What I like best in life is that it is unpredictable.  You never know what will happen when you turn the next corner.   People want to know what will happen and that's why they talk about heaven and hell, but no one knows.  That is the best part for me.  If you knew exactly what will happen  and you made plans such as, at 10:00 I will do this and at 11:00 I will do that, it would be boring for me.       I don't want to know what will happen, I want to discover it.

Q:  You know you will play at the concert in a few hours.

K.R.: Yes, as long as a truck does not hit me before that (laughing).  But yes, I'm ready to rock.  I have spent a few days in the country (in Lobos)  learning some argentine secrets (in a misterious voice).  Secrets as leaving you out of a game with a knife on your throat.  It's fun being a "gaucho" for a while and then play in a rock'n'roll concert.

Q:  Your last album is called "Bridges to Babylon",  a rastafari term.

K.R.: Yes, it's a rastafari concept.  They use it to designate the external world.  Babylon is business, deals, yes boss, no boss, the commercial world.  I have been a lot in Jamaica, along many years  and was able to breeth spiritual fresh air there.  Not as something religious, it's more like a connection with the earth, the sea and all that surrounds us, with each of the people around us.  Trying to make things as simple and pure as possible, without complicating.  Having a great time.

 Q:  Is rock'n'roll more than a mere musical genre in your life?

K.R.:  Music is the most important thing for me and has always been by my side.  My grandpa was another crazy music lover.  He didn't have much money,  but was happy when he took his  violin and flew to another world.  Music is something very pure and I couldn't live without it.      Of course I'm not talking about rap.  In that case we wouldn't be talking about music but about bad poetry.

Q:  That sounds like you don't like it.

K.R.:  No, I don't, and I don't think it will last because they are killing each other.  That's what they like best (making a shooting gesture).  But, back to music, I can't live without it.  Sometimes my wife, or ex-wives or women in my life have told me "you love music too bad".  That's the way it is and always was like that.  Take me or leave me (laughing).

Q :  Do you prefer big or small shows?

K.R.:  The big ones are always a challenge.  You never know what will happen, specially the ones outdoors.  When it's  almost begining it starts raining or it's very cold or windy.  It's unpredictable, therefore I like it.  But,
at the same time, I like small places where you are close to the people.
The songs are heard in a different way, more like they were actually written, sounding like a garage band.  That's where we come from and that's the style of the songs.  The challenge in the big locations is trying to make this happen.  Being able to make people in a big stadium feel as if they were in a small bar and, when the show is over, forgetting they were in a football stadium. That's what it is all about.

Q:  How is your guitar work together with Ron Wood?

K.R.:  Ronnie and me -and the same thing happens to me with other guitar players- are not the  leader and the  rithmic players. When one of us starts playing a leading part, the other one slows down and supports him rithmically.  Ronnie and me call that the ancient art of inter-knitting.  We alternate, we search for each other and we support each other.  We interlace and music flows.  It is very changing, very jazzy.  Improvising has a very important role in rock'n'roll.  Many do not accept that and try to sound just like they do in their records.

Q:  You have been  playing 20 or 30 years old songs during this tour, have they changed?

K.R.:  Of course, the strange thing is that you record a song and you probably wrote it one week before, or even on the same day, and when you record it that is the version that  people know.  But then you keep playing it, sometimes for 30 years,  and you realize you can get  even more out of it.   I am still discovering new things in "Satisfaction", "Jumping Jack Flash" or "Brown Sugar", and that's why they stay alive and they sound fresh, because they are never played the same way twice.  In my opinion, you should play the songs on the road for a few years and only then record them.  But the music industry is business so they tell you "when are we going to have new songs, bla, bla" (imitating a fat serious gentleman).   So then you record them and the whole world  listens to them, but we know they are just and embryo.  And if it is a good song you will never stop learning and discovering new things about it.

Q: You spoke about Ron Wood, what about Charlie Watts?

K.R.:  Charlie is the most important guy in the band, he would not agree with me but I tell him that.  He is the reference to all of us.  He is the man.