Are Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney Really Punk Rock Stars?

Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards mentioned the singer’s punk rock tendencies, whereas Jagger urged Beatles icon Paul McCartney shared them.

In a brand new interview with the Times, centered on the Stones’ upcoming album Hackney Diamonds, Jagger mentioned he’d written materials his colleagues refused to report, and mirrored on McCartney’s visitor spot on the tune “Bite My Head Off.”

“I was kind of surprised Paul wanted to play on that track, actually,” the frontman mentioned. “I wrote so many punk songs for the Stones and I could never get away with them, but Paul is a very open-minded person – musically speaking.”

In a separate interview, Richards advised the Sun: “Mick’s a punk!” he added: “The punk side of Jagger has always been there and we’ll never get rid of it.” He went on to explain the Stones’ mid-‘60s rise to fame as an experience similar to what happened in the U.K. punk scene the following decade.

READ MORE: Eight TImes the Beatles and Rolling Stones Worked Together

“I don’t assume we completed a present for 2 years,” Richards mentioned. “That’s when Mick developed his punk attitude. Before you went on, the main thing was, ‘How do you get out of here?’ It was mayhem. Girls were going berserk, fainting all over the place, and we were all getting shoved out the way because of the stretchers heaving them away.”

Referring to McCartney’s look on Hackey Diamonds, he added: “Macca just strolled in with his bass. I think the song reminded him of those times. Beatlemania was equally as bizarre as Stones mania.” He argued: “Punk wished to be like us. They just re-enacted!”

Why Mick Jagger Thanked Paul McCartney for ‘Covers Band’ Dig

In 2021 McCartney and Jagger reactivated the primarily fictional rivalry between their bands when the previous Beatle described the Stones as a blues covers band, and his counterpart retaliated by inventing a narrative about McCartney becoming a member of them for a jam.

“When we’re on tour I like to say that someone is in the audience when they’re actually not, to create a big moment,” Jagger advised the Times. “So I said one time, ‘Paul McCartney is here tonight. He’s going to come up on stage and play some of our blues cover tunes.’ I texted Paul to say thank you for his comment because it has given me a lot of comic material.”

He mentioned of his group’s longevity: “The only thing I want the Stones to be remembered for is being a good rock band. There is going to be the Beatles and there is going to be the Stones and together they will represent the rock era.”

Perhaps cheekily, he added: “The Stones are much longer-lived, obviously.”