Mick Jagger’s regret about Elvis Presley

It is difficult to imagine The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger having any regrets. The multi-millionaire has fronted one of the world’s most successful and well-known rock bands of all time and has enjoyed an intensely successful music career spanning six decades. The archetypal rock star, Jagger’s life is so far removed from normality. Nevertheless, the singer does have some regrets, particularly with regard to the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley.

Elvis is a somewhat contentious artist within the world of rock. On one hand, the Mississippi-born singer helped popularise the rock ‘n’ roll revolution, inspiring countless acts around the globe to pick up a guitar and embark upon a songwriting journey. Without Elvis, some of the best-known acts in rock history would have likely never come to fruition – though he did also inspire Cliff Richard, so it wasn’t all good. However, Elvis is also noted for his plagiarism of prominent Black blues artists, who never received recognition, as well as his horrendous marriage to a 14-year-old Priscilla.

The controversial nature of Elvis was not lost on Mick Jagger, who himself is often criticised for his plagiarism of Black artists. Asked about his heroes in a 2001 interview with Mojo, the Rolling Stone shared, “There was Elvis, I suppose, though he was so ghastly in other ways and you somehow knew it.”

Continuing, he added: “Plus, he didn’t write, and the other people who were influential, say Chuck Berry, were all writers, who would inspire you to be a writer and influence your style.”

Jagger did get the chance to meet his hero, Chuck Berry, though the occasion was less than harmonious. “He was rather rude and overbearing,” the frontman shared after meeting the rock ‘n’ roll star. His meeting was perhaps less problematic than when Keith Richards was met with a right hook from Berry after Richards was found playing Berry’s guitar in a dressing room.

His meeting with Berry influenced Jagger’s decision not to meet Elvis, “I never met Elvis either, because John Lennon once told me he was a real disappointment. So I said I’d take his advice, because I’d already had it with Chuck Berry and I didn’t want it to happen again with Elvis.”

Jagger now regrets turning down the chance to meet Presley, saying, “Now, of course, I wish I had met Elvis, you know what I mean? You never think, ‘Oh he’s gonna die soon, I’d better hurry up and meet him.’”

Adding, “If nothing else, you’d still be able to talk about it, wouldn’t you? It would be awful if I’d never met Chuck Berry, after listening to his things over all those years.”

Jagger’s reasons for not meeting Elvis are somewhat less controversial than that of Cliff Richard, who recently claimed he refused to meet Elvis for the simple reason that the ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ singer had let himself go and therefore would not look good in a photograph. Nevertheless, the premature death of Elvis cemented one of the only regrets of The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger.