Why John Lennon called Mick Jagger ‘a joke’ during feud with The Rolling Stones frontman

A feud between veteran musicians John Lennon and Mick Jagger stemmed from The Rolling Stones “copying” The Beatles.

The Imagine songwriter had choice words for his peer in interviews given after the Fab Four had split up. Though he was complimentary about Honky Tonk Woman and a selection of other songs from The Rolling Stones, Lennon was clearly “hurt” by what Jagger had said and done. In Lennon’s eyes, The Rolling Stones were merely copying The Beatles’ sound and releasing it as their own a few months later, which infuriated the legendary songwriter. The Give Peace a Chance songwriter suggested he had originally been “very respectful” when speaking about or to them after a meeting with The Stones’ manager, Allen Klein, but that this friendly relationship deteriorated rapidly.

In an interview given with Rolling Stone Magazine founder Jann Wenner, Lennon said: “I think its a lot of hype. I like Honky Tonk Woman, but I think Mick’s a joke, with all that fag dancing, I always did. I enjoy it, I’ll probably go and see his films and all, like everybody else, but really, I think it’s a joke.”

Lennon would confirm that while he rarely crossed paths with The Rolling Stones’ frontman, the relationship between the two was frosty at best. He added: “We saw a bit of each other around when Allen [Klein] was first coming in – I think Mick got jealous.

“I was always very respectful about Mick and The Stones, but he said a lot of sort of tarty things about The Beatles, which I am hurt by, because you know, I can knock the Beatles, but don’t let Mick Jagger knock them.” Lennon then doubled down on his feud with Jagger, and suggested The Rolling Stones’ frontman “imitates” The Beatles during the 1960s.

He fumed: “I would like to just list what we did and what the Stones did two months after on every fuckin’ album. Every fuckin’ thing we did, Mick does exactly the same – he imitates us.

“And I would like one of you fuckin’ underground people to point it out, you know Satanic Majesties is Pepper, ‘We Love You’, it’s the most fuckin’ bullshit, that’s ‘All You Need Is Love’. I resent the implication that the Stones are like revolutionaries and that the Beatles weren’t. If the Stones were or are, the Beatles really were too.”

Lennon’s tirade against The Stones, given during an interview in December 1970, continued further. He suggested The Rolling Stones are “not in the same class, music-wise or power-wise” as The Beatles and says Jagger is simply “upset” the band are not as big as the Fab Four.

He added: “But they are not in the same class, music-wise or power-wise, never were. I never said anything, I always admired them, because I like their funky music and I like their style. I like rock and roll and the direction they took after they got over trying to imitate us, you know, but he’s even going to do Apple now. He’s going to do the same thing.

“He’s obviously so upset by how big the Beatles are compared with him; he never got over it. Now he’s in his old age, and he is beginning to knock us, you know, and he keeps knocking. I resent it, because even his second fuckin’ record, we wrote it for him. Mick said, ‘Peace made money’. We didn’t make any money from Peace. You know.”