Mick Jagger has joked on-stage about Paul McCartney’s recent comments on The Rolling Stones, during which he called them a “blues cover band”.
During an interview with the New Yorker earlier this month, McCartney said: “[The Beatles’] net was cast a bit wider than [the Stones’]. I’m not sure I should say it, but they’re a blues cover band, that’s sort of what the Stones are.”
At a concert in Los Angeles last Thursday (October 14), Jagger made a brief swipe at McCartney’s comments.
“There’s so many celebrities here tonight,” Jagger said during the show. “Megan Fox is here, she’s lovely. Leonardo DiCaprio. Lady Gaga. Kirk Douglas. Paul McCartney is here, he’s going to help us – he’s going to join us in a blues cover later.”
“Paul McCartney is here; he’s going to help us — he’s going to join us in a blues cover.” Mick Jagger responded to Paul McCartney’s Rolling Stones jab during an L.A. concert last night 👀 https://t.co/RJbZ8DatK1 pic.twitter.com/x3HiJ8qhR3
— Variety (@Variety) October 15, 2021
McCartney had made similar comments about the Stones last year during a conversation with radio host Howard Stern on SiriusXM.
“They are rooted in the blues. When they are writing stuff, it has to do with the blues. We had a little more influences. … There’s a lot of differences, and I love the Stones, but I’m with you. The Beatles were better.”
Jagger had responded to those comments at the time by joking that “there’s obviously no competition” between the two bands.
“One band is unbelievably luckily still playing in stadiums, and then the other band doesn’t exist,” he said.
Recently, Jagger and bandmate Keith Richards discussed why the Rolling Stones have taken ‘Brown Sugar’ off the setlist of their current US tour, after being asked whether it’s related to its opening line: “Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields.”
“I’m trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is. Didn’t they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery? But they’re trying to bury it,” Richards told The Los Angeles Times.
“At the moment I don’t want to get into conflicts with all of this shit. But I’m hoping that we’ll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory somewhere along the track.”