The drug use for legendary rock band The Rolling Stones was “just a part of life” according to frontman Mick Jagger.
The veteran performer spoke candidly about the band’s “heavy drug behaviour” in a tell-all interview with Rolling Stone Magazine founder, Jann Wenner. Jagger said the Exile on Main St. recordings were heavily influenced by the drugs of the time, and says, in hindsight, the drug taking was never a “special event”. The Let It Bleed hitmaker has since suggested the lifestyle did not suit him, and that the “drinking and taking drugs and having sex” was just a part of life rather than something the band were actively pursuing. He would go as far as to say the events were a “bit of a bore”.
Speaking to Wenner, Jagger shared: “I was thinking about this the other day, and I don’t really think I was suited to heavy drug behavior, to be perfectly honest. But I don’t mind talking about it. It’s hard to believe that you did so many drugs for so long.
“That’s what I find really hard. And didn’t really consider it. You know, it was eating and drinking and taking drugs and having sex. It was just part of life. It wasn’t really anything special. It was just a bit of a bore, really. Everyone took drugs the whole time, and you were out of it the whole time. It wasn’t a special event.”
The impact on the band was clear, however, as Jagger confirmed the influence was more on “behaviour” than it was on the albums made at the time. He added: “All these drugs had tremendous influence on behaviour. I think half of starting to take drugs in that early period was to kind of place yourself outside of normal society.”
Bill Wyman, writing in his memoir Stone Alone, suggested there was a split at the time between those heavy on their drug use and those who were abstaining. Wyman, as well as drummer Charlie Watts and Jagger, had abstained to varying degrees during the sessions.
The bassist, who left the band in 1993, claimed that Keith Richards, Jimmy Miller, Mick Taylor, Bobby Keys, and engineer Andy Johns were freely indulging in drugs. Jagger has since claimed the period was a “stoned” time for the band.
In his interview with Wenner, he said: “Stoned is the word that might describe it. It’s the first album Mick Taylor’s on, really. So it’s different than previous albums, which had Brian on them – or Brian not on them, as the case may be. It was a difficult period, because we had all these lawsuits going with [business manager] Allen Klein.
“We had to leave England because of tax problems. We had no money and went to live in the South of France – the first album we made where we weren’t based in England, thus the title.”
