Rolling Stone Mick Jagger Receives Knighthood
By SUE LEEMAN
LONDON (AP) — He’s 60, still singing, and now he’s Sir Mick. That pouting, posturing icon of rock rebelliousness Mick Jagger officially joined the British establishment upon accepting a knighthood Friday – and hardly anyone objected.
Rolling Stone Keith Richards was a rare dissenter as Jagger – the group’s raffish, womanizing front man – received the honor from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace. Richards said Jagger’s accepting the title was a disgrace, a comment Jagger laughed off.
“I think he would probably like to get the same honor himself,” Jagger told reporters.
“It’s like being given an ice cream – one gets one and they all want one. It’s nothing new. Keith likes to make a fuss.”
Times have changed since 1965, when some outraged dignitaries returned their gold medals in protest after The Beatles were made Members of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE.
Since then, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, Beatles’ producer George Martin, Elton John and Cliff Richard have become rock knights.
Two other senior rockers – Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers, and Gary Brooker of Procol Harum – were at the palace Thursday to collect MBEs for their charity work.
Other than the profanity-laced criticism from Richards, the announcement last year of Jagger’s honor brought only a couple of angry letters to The Daily Telegraph. A Canadian woman whose husband, mother and grandfather received honors wrote: “By giving a knighthood to a rogue like Mick Jagger, the prime minister has denigrated all the worthy recipients of honors from Her Majesty the Queen.”
Born Michael Philip Jagger in a London suburb, Jagger studied at the prestigious London School of Economics, where he started playing with Richards and Brian Jones.
They made their first public appearance at a jazz club in 1962, taking the name Rolling Stones from Muddy Waters’”The Rolling Stone Blues.” Bass player Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts joined later.
Jagger came to the ceremony with his 92-year-old father, Joe – who decades ago chided his son’s passion for “jungle music” – and daughters Karis, 32, and Elizabeth, 19.
He conceded little to sartorial tradition. Instead of the more usual tailcoat, Jagger sported a designer suit with leather lapels and black leather sneakers. He denied that accepting a knighthood was a betrayal of his unconventional past, which epitomized the “sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll” lifestyle.
“I don’t think the establishment as we knew it exists any more,” he said. Honors, he added in a jokey exchange with reporters, are very nice “as long as you don’t take it all too seriously.”
Singer Marianne Faithful commented last year that she wasn’t surprised that her old boyfriend accepted a knighthood. Calling him “a tremendous snob,” she said: “He always wanted that so much, that’s why I’m sort of compassionate about it.”
Jagger suggested that he was now due for a bit more respect.
“I suppose people will call me ‘Sir Mick,’” he told reporters, “but ‘Sir Michael’ has a nice ring to it.”
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