Mick Jagger Lets Fans Know His High-Energy Days Are Winding Down

The Stones just keep on rolling.

It’s been 60 years since the band formed, and they’re set to kick off a 14-date, 60th-anniversary tour June 1 in Madrid, Spain.

Mick Jagger says rock n’ roll isn’t meant to be played by a bunch of 70-year-olds, but it’s a challenge he and the band welcome.

“Rock ’n’ roll, or any kind of pop music honestly, isn’t supposed to be done when you’re in your 70s,” Jagger told the Sunday Times. “It wasn’t designed for that. Doing anything high-energy at this age is really pushing it. But that makes it even more challenging. So it’s, like, ‘OK, we’ve got to f***ing do this right,’ but it’s got to be as full-on as possible. Of course you could do another type of music — we’ve got lots of ballads. I could sit on a chair.”

Jagger and Keith Richards are 78. Ronnie Wood will celebrate his 75th birthday on June 1.

Jagger now travels with a cardiologist after undergoing heart valve replacement surgery in 2019. But the famously limber front-man is committed to keeping up his workout routine.

“Six weeks of practice even before rehearsals start,” Jagger says of his workout regimen. “And I do dancing, gym, every day of the week. I don’t enjoy it very much, but it has to be done.”

Two years ago, Richard gave up his 55-year cigarette habit. He says his concert prep these days is more sedate than his libertine reputation might suggest.

“I may or may not have a stiff drink, but usually I don’t,” he says. “You know, you grow out of everything. I’ve spent all my life giving up things, so that’s about it now.”

Wood, meanwhile, is mindful of his health after bouts with lung cancer and small-cell cancer over the past five years.

“After all my battles in recent years with the big C, I try to keep moving, keep my joints warmed up – stretches and stuff,” he said.

Drummer Charlie Watts died last August following complications from heart surgery.

“I don’t really expect him to be there any more if I turn round during a show,” Jagger says. “But I do think about him. Not only during rehearsals or on stage, but in other ways too. I would have phoned him up and talked about last night’s Arsenal game because he supported Tottenham and I’m Arsenal. I miss him as a player and as a friend. In the show, when we come to the front and bow at the end, there’s no Charlie. He’d always be the last one down. I’d go: ‘Come on, what have you got to do?’ He’d be fiddling with his sticks because he always had to have them in a row before he’d get off the seat.”

With age has come emotional maturity.

“We’ve matured among ourselves,” Wood added. “The attitudes within the band are no longer throwaway. It used to be all ‘Oh, crawl back under your rock.’ I had many years of ‘Shut up, you’re the new boy,’ that kind of feeling, but now every tour has a changed demeanor. Mick’s been through so many different moods and images in his life, and he’s come back to this really warm person. Keith too.”

For A LOT more on The Rolling Stones, you have to check out American Songwriter.