Mick Jagger

Commercial Announcer

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Conan O'Brien

Sona what's a tradition in your home? My family always does a family picnic every year. My aunts, my uncles, my cousins. It's really fun. Well, guess what? No matter how big, small or silly, traditions can bring people together. And Tostitos is there to celebrate the traditions that matter. They start with whole corn kernels to make masa the traditional way and bring you a variety of flavors, like a hint of lime and Mexican street corn. I love street corn. No artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. Just quality ingredients and amazing flavors worth gathering around. That's the Tostitos way. Celebrate your traditions with Tostitos. Or maybe even start a new one. Hello, Tostitos. Tradition matters.

Mick Jagger

Hi, I'm Mick Jago, and I'm feeling ra anxious about being Conan o' Brien's friend.

Conan O'Brien

It's a heavy thing.

Mick Jagger

It is. And we're in an enclosed, very small space together. Fall is here Hear the yell Back

Conan O'Brien

to school Ring the bell Brand new

Mick Jagger

shoes Walk and lose, Climb the fence Books and pens I can tell that

Conan O'Brien

we are gonna be friends Yes, I can tell that we are gonna hey there. Welcome to Conan o' Brien. Needs a friend. I'm not with the gang today. No Sona, no Goarly, no Blay, no Eduardo. I'm pretty much on my own. Why you ask? Because I got a phone call. Oh, just a couple of days ago, and I'm in Los Angeles. And the question was, would you like to come to London to interview one of the most famous people in the world? And I really thought about it. It was a tough call because I have my Pilates class. I take a Lamaze class. Even though I don't know anyone who's pregnant. I just go there. And I've been asked to leave. I have my yogurt regimen, but I said no, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it because this is the thrill of a lifetime. So I jumped on a plane and I am now in London in a very small podcast studio that's off an alley. And I'm excited because I'm talking to

Producer/Interviewer Assistant

just

Conan O'Brien

a phenomenal force in my life and I think in many people's lifetime. And this is bucket list for me. Now I'm gonna reveal who it is. Now, if Goerlay were here, Orsona, they'd laugh and say, no, it's the episode is marked with the person's name. People already know you're being stupid, but I'm old fashioned. And so I'm gonna pretend you don't know who I'm talking about. My guest today is a rock and roll legend and cultural icon who has spent six decades as the frontman of one of the greatest rock bands of all time, the Rolling Stones. Their new album, Foreign Tongues is out. Now. I love this album and I think you have to check it out. It's amazing. This guy's amazing. I'm absolutely honored that he is joining me today. Mick Jagger. Welcome. A couple of weeks ago, I was traveling around the world shooting my travel show and I heard you were going to get a phone call from Mick Dag Jagger. Now, we had met briefly backstage at the Oscars, but we didn't really know each other. The next thing I know, you're calling me and we're having a chat about this event you asked me to do in. In Brooklyn to help launch. It's the press launch of the new album Foreign Tongues. And it was a great day for me because I'm a massive fan. Of course. I said yes. I asked for money. They said there's no money.

Mick Jagger

They said there's no money.

Producer/Interviewer Assistant

That's.

Conan O'Brien

There was nothing. There was no money.

Mick Jagger

That's terrible.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah. And I said, I'm just.

Mick Jagger

I do apologize for that. I thought they were paying you hundreds of thousands for doing this.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah, yeah.

Mick Jagger

It's my going rate.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Mick Jagger

I would have said my going rate

Conan O'Brien

is I was like Chuck berry. I wanted $100,000 in a briefcase before I went on. And so it was a fantastic experience. And I got to be with you, Keith. Ronnie.

Mick Jagger

Yes.

Conan O'Brien

Now, I don't think I had met Ronnie before. He's a lovely guy.

Mick Jagger

Yes, he is.

Conan O'Brien

Tells a lot of jokes, terrible jokes.

Mick Jagger

The only worst joke teller is Bill Wyman, who's not in the band anymore, but he could be co opted to tell his terrible jokes versus Ronnie, Ronnie versus Bill. Their terrible jokes, just awful.

Conan O'Brien

And I At one point, and I don't. And it's.

Guest/Additional Voice

It's.

Conan O'Brien

You know, it's Ronnie Wood. He's a legend and a legendary comedian. A legendary comedian. But at one point, I said, ronnie, you have got to stop. And I had known him an hour at that point, but we had a lovely time. And I had some observations about that day, which is leading up to it. You and I had several phone calls. You were really going over all the details. And then when we got to the event, at one point, you were looking out at the audience to check them. And I looked back at Keith and I said, was this Mick in 1962? And he said, yes. And this. I get the sense that, in a way, you've always been the organizer, the manager, the guy who's keeping it together. Is that a fair thing to say?

Mick Jagger

I. I guess so. I mean, sometimes I was called a control freak, but I'm not a control freak at all. I like to delegate. You know, the. The. The thing about doing this kind of thing is you. You. You delegate these big jobs. You know, I never organized that thing that we did. Not really, but what did I do? I approved the place. You know, I thought that you would be a great person to do it.

Conan O'Brien

And were you disappointed?

Mick Jagger

I was so happy. It went off really well.

Conan O'Brien

It was great. It was very fun.

Mick Jagger

You handled Keith's microphone technique perfectly.

Conan O'Brien

I was worried the minute they gave you guys handheld microphones at this event in Brooklyn. You think, well, that can get dodgy.

Mick Jagger

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

And then Keith did a thing where the microphone was by his mouth, and when I'd ask him a question, he would start to answer, and the microphone would drift away from his mouth until the point where I was.

Mick Jagger

He's still holding it. This is not drifting away in the air on its own.

Conan O'Brien

No, no, no. He's holding it, but it's drifting. His arm is drifting away from his body. But we got a laugh out of it. It was fun. He was lovely. But I did get the sense that. Not that I didn't see Control Freak when I saw you, but I saw someone who was very interested in the details.

Mick Jagger

Yeah. And sometimes just. I mean, this looking through to see. Well, you know, I'd seen the room empty, but you. You've got to see the room full. You know, what's. What kind of people are there?

Commercial Announcer

What.

Mick Jagger

You know, how many people are there? What are they? What does the room feel like? I think that's important. I'm sure you. If you. When you go on and do things with a live Audience, you know, you. You want to feel the room, you know, a little bit. You do want to fill the room, because how your behavior would be, you know, how. How the audience is going to react. I mean, so I think all that sort of stuff's really important.

Conan O'Brien

What surprised me very first time I met you, you mentioned the Oscars. I don't know if you remember, but you came up behind me, and I'm looking at my notes. What do I have to do next? We're halfway through the show, and I feel someone jabbing me in the back saying, how's the crowd? How's the crowd? How's the crowd? In kind of a funny American accent. How's the crowd? How's the crowd? And I turn around, it's you. And I said, mick, you don't care how the crowd is. You're Mick Jagger. And you said, oh, I do, yeah. Because anyone else in the world who's not you would say, what's he worried about? People are delighted to see you. You're this.

Mick Jagger

Yeah, you're not worried about it, but you want information because you're only on that. You're on the whole show. Good luck. Good luck with that. I mean, you know, that's a difficult job, and you have to roll with the punches. And there's all kinds of weird things happening at the Oscars. People jump on stage and punch people, you know, who knows what's gonna happen, you know, I mean, I'm a presenter, you know, which is the lowest category of people appearing on the Oscars. And usually they read something off the teleprompter, which is just not funny. And it. And it's not interesting. And they're obviously reading it, and. And then they're, you know, it just isn't. So I just rewrote all the stuff they asked me to say and. And made. I wanted to make it into something. It was my words.

Conan O'Brien

Organic to you.

Mick Jagger

Yeah, it's personal to me, you know? Yeah. So all these little things you do, you know, because the good thing about it was I'd done a rehearsal. So you walk onto the stage and they hit the weird. Also weird, they have the very famous people in cardboard cutouts. You remember that in the rehearsal. Yes. So there's the Timothee Chalamet cutout. He's just in front of you. So I was going to make a Bob Dylan reference. So I knew. I knew that he was there because I'm staring at the cardboard cutout of him. Scarlett Johansson's there. Whatever, Whatever, whatever. So. So that it was good to do the rehearsal, which was about five minutes. And then I shared what was not a dressing room, was an office, didn't have any dressing room things with Neil Young, who wasn't on the show.

Conan O'Brien

And then he just hangs out in dressing rooms.

Mick Jagger

And I said, yeah, he's just hanging out. And I going, that's Neil Young over in this office. Hi, Neil. And I realized Daryl Hannah was also a presenter.

Conan O'Brien

Oh, there you go. There you go.

Mick Jagger

That was the deal. And so Daryl Hannah, Neil Young and I shared an office.

Conan O'Brien

It's so funny how you've achieved this level that's hard to comprehend where I would think you can be very much in control of what you want to do and how you want to do it. Whenever I see footage of the early Stone shows, when you've really guys have hit and you're in Denmark, you're trying to perform, kids are running up on stage and you're singing and people are jumping on your back, girls are jumping on you. And so half of your time is spent getting out of a headlock.

Mick Jagger

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

By some.

Mick Jagger

While singing.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah, while singing and dancing.

Mick Jagger

And dancing all at the same time.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

Those are the days.

Conan O'Brien

Do those moments occur to you now? Every now and then. Because things are so locked down now in a great way. But those early days were just so.

Mick Jagger

There was chaotic. There was no. See, the thing was, in those days, there wasn't any organization for these concerts. And the organization was minimal. There was no really security. So if there was security, it was the local police. And the local police had no experience of a concert audience. They'd probably never done it before. And in some places, like we used to play in the west coast in little places, and the police would come out and there would be like 14 year old girls and they bang them on the heads with their night sticks. That was their solution. I mean, it's like, huh, we took care of it. These could be your daughters. Yeah. You know what I mean? Maybe they are bang, you know, and it was the same in Europe, you know, I mean, they would just throw them, you know, out of the door bodily. I mean, it was just chaotic.

Conan O'Brien

The other thing that strikes me, which has changed so much, not to embarrass you, but you reach this iconic level where if someone were to make a short list of who are the greatest entertainers of the 20th, early 21st century, you know, and I'm including everybody, you're an Al Jolson, you know, Michael Jackson, you're on the very, very short list of this iconic Performer.

Mick Jagger

I want to see Al Jolson and Michael Jackson as a duo.

Conan O'Brien

Al Jolson, like, come on, let me shower. And then moonwalks right past him.

Mick Jagger

Exactly. It's a good one.

Conan O'Brien

But you know, you're in this position and the press. I don't think people today understand how hostile the media was towards all pop groups. But then specifically they just decided and it was kind of a press creation. The Rolling Stone, they're bad. They're punks.

Mick Jagger

Before punks, they were bad. Rolling Stones. Bad, dirty Rolling Stones. You know, scary. Shouldn't be allowed. And yeah, that's just sort of press stuff. But people were actually. Obviously people were really welcoming in. In most places. But there was, there was a group that were really not welcoming. But maybe they didn't know. Who even know you were. But they would just shout names at you. They know you were that they. They would just shout names. So it was very polarized.

Commercial Announcer

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

In, you know, in a kind of modern way. Just the look of you. Which when you look at the pictures is pretty normal.

Conan O'Brien

It's tame now.

Mick Jagger

Very tame.

Conan O'Brien

But.

Mick Jagger

But in those days it wasn't. So it's hard to. That's why it's so hard to imagine because we look pretty normal and you know, and, but not for those people that, you know, especially in the US when we first went in there like say 64 in the. In the outside of New York and LA, that, that, that was, that was. They. We were like freaks for them.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah, it was also. I was always careful in my comedy career. A new band would come up or a new performer who looked strange and my writers would say, let's make fun of that person. I would say I do not want to be. Cause this footage doesn't age well.

Mick Jagger

No.

Conan O'Brien

If this person goes on to be iconic and this is when bands were coming on my show for the first time. Their first TV experience would be a no Doubt or a Green Day. And I'm glad that I was welcoming and didn't make any jokes because they would look so stupid now. In the 1960s, all performers decided that these long haired freaks from England were a passing fad. They had no conception that this was going to be the music that dominated people's lives for the next 60 years. They didn't know.

Mick Jagger

No one knew that. No one knew that. And so it was easy for them to be. To be patronizing and to make a joke of it because it's an easy cheap gag, you know.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

I mean Dean Martin did it, you know, like famously Ed Sullivan. We Went on a lot. He didn't do it. He. Well, Ed Salomon didn't do anything really. He just. He was a different kind of person. But he didn't. I don't think Ed Sal. I think Ed Salomon knew that he got good ratings because when the Beatles went on, Ed Sullivan, whatever Ed Sullivan thought of the Beatles, that he got great ratings when they went on. So he knew what you're saying that. I bet there's no point in me making fun of them because who knows what's going to happen? Yeah. You know, but I mean, there were a lot of exceptions. There were talk show people say maybe local. I can't remember all their names now, like Mike Wallace and all that. They were willing to have serious conversations with you. They respected you a bit more. There were others that did not. And you didn't do their shows.

Guest/Additional Voice

So.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah, it's just interesting now. I think, I don't think people today understand, not that they should, but the environment that you guys were in in 64, 65, 66. Actually, all through most the 60s, it

Mick Jagger

was a hostile environment, particularly in America. I'm not only America. I mean, we can't, we're not. I'm not blaming America for being the only. They were hostile. In England, there was a lot of hostility, but the. America was not really ready for this stuff. Really. They weren't. You know, and, and, and, and obviously things change. I mean, it didn't take long. When you think about it, in, in years, like you said, 64 by Nick, by 66, it was changed a lot, you know, so two or three years changed.

Conan O'Brien

There are a lot of singers or entertainers that get to this point in their career and they get very nostalgic and they start singing or writing a lot about their childhood or looking back, and what I find interesting is you do not strike me as a nostalgic writer. You're very interested in what's happening right now. I think that's a. And I say that in a very positive way. When I listen to foreign tongues, there's no really looking back. This is music that you made for someone to listen to in 20, 26, 27. And there's no leaning on this vast history that you have. Is that fair to say?

Mick Jagger

Yeah, it's true. That's not really. I don't really do that. I mean, I'm quite happy to talk about, like we just talked about, you

Conan O'Brien

know, the early days.

Mick Jagger

The early days of going to the United States or going to Holland or Denmark or whatever we Talked about. I'm quite happy to remember that if I can. It's hard. It's so long ago. It's hard to really remember.

Commercial Announcer

But.

Mick Jagger

No, I mean, I'm not drawing in this Foreign Tongues album lyrically. I'm not drawing on nostalgia or. I mean, obviously you're drawing on past experiences, but they might be recent past experiences. They could be any. But they're not referred back. And musically speaking, every time. Andy Watt, the producer, would make a. Producers always like references. So it. Which is unstable because you. You go like, this is a bit like this song you did previously. It's to explain to the musicians the relatability to this song. Yeah, it's. It's a bit. Think of it a bit like this, you know, and then that's fine. But then I says to. And a bit. Yeah, but don't. Don't make references musically. Don't. There was one track, I think, Mr. Charm. Yeah. And at the end of it, he said. Well, he. It could be a bit more like Jumping Jack Flash at the end. I said, no, it's not like anything like that and I don't want you to refer to it. And I mean, we didn't have an argument about. So I said, just don't make it like that. We're not going to encourage anyone to overdub guitars like that. And so I didn't want any references to that, if you know what I mean. Yeah, so. So. And I've heard that Paul McCartney's record has some of this that you're talking about. I. I haven't yet got round to listening to it. I apologize, Paul. I will. I will do. Because it's been talked about a lot and I've heard it's very good, but I haven't listened to it yet. So.

Conan O'Brien

Now, in the old days, would you have gotten a track by the Beatles or a competitor right away and listen to it? Listen to that record the minute you could.

Mick Jagger

Yeah, probably.

Conan O'Brien

You're beyond all that now?

Mick Jagger

Well, I mean, I just. I'm not beyond it. I. I just keep forgetting. I'm being so busy, I just keep forgetting to listen to it. Yeah. I've been running around doing promotion and.

Conan O'Brien

Sure.

Mick Jagger

And. And I just haven't been listening to current music very much.

Conan O'Brien

I could sing it to you.

Commercial Announcer

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

Okay, I'm ready. How's it going? What's the lead track? What's it called? What's it called? Do you remember what it's called? What's the lead track?

Conan O'Brien

I don't remember. Come on. No, He's. What is it? Dungeon. Alley Dungeon.

Mick Jagger

I've heard this. This is this. I've heard the title.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

What does that refer to?

Conan O'Brien

I think it's a street in Liverpool that was like an alley that led down to. So he's singing about Liverpool. He's looking back.

Mick Jagger

So on Haney Diamonds, on the. On the track called Whole Wide World. I did refer back a little bit to student Diggs days and everything, but it was a pretty oblique reference. But it was there. There was two lines about it.

Conan O'Brien

Now, normally, Eduardo, you are sitting behind the board. You are the puppet master. You're working all the dials and switches making this podcast happen. But I've asked you to step out. I'm nervous, and I think you're gonna like this surprise.

Mick Jagger

Okay?

Conan O'Brien

And it involves our friends at Miller Lite. I know that you're a massive football fan. That's right. Because we've caught you watching matches while you're. While we're taping a podcast. And you clearly have just taped some of the buttons down into position so you can watch. I'm gonna present to you Miller Time MVP Match Ball. This is the Miller Time MVP Match Ball. Look at this thing. Miller Lite knows you're a big fan, so they asked me to give this to you. And look at this. It holds up to 12 miller lights. This is incredible. Yes.

Mick Jagger

Wow.

Conan O'Brien

I've been asked to specify, do not kick this ball.

Mick Jagger

Oh, shoot.

Conan O'Brien

I was just going to ask that. No, do not kick this ball because 12 beers will go flying through the air. Tell me, how is this going to be used? Where is this going to go in your home instantly. I mean, I've been watching all the matches with friends and family. This is the perfect piece to add to the table. This is really cool.

Commercial Announcer

Let me hear.

Conan O'Brien

You want one?

Commercial Announcer

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

Oh, thanks a lot.

Commercial Announcer

Oh, look at.

Conan O'Brien

Thank you. Thank you.

Commercial Announcer

Look at.

Conan O'Brien

Oh, it's cold. It keeps.

Commercial Announcer

It's.

Conan O'Brien

Hubby. I don't want to make any promises, but I think it's actually kept it kind of chilly, which is nice. Hey, well, cheers to you. Cheers to you, Eduardo. Remember, celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Sona, what's a tradition in your home? My family always does a family picnic every year. My aunts, my uncles, my cousins. It's really fun. Well, guess what? No matter how big, small, or silly, traditions can bring people together. And Tostitos is there to celebrate the traditions that matter. They start with whole Corn kernels to make masa the traditional way and bring you a variety of flavors like a hint of lime and Mexican street corn. I love street corn. No artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. Just quality ingredients and amazing flavors worth gathering around. That's the Tostitos way. Celebrate your traditions with Tostitos or maybe even start a new one. Hello, Tostitos. Tradition matters.

Producer/Interviewer Assistant

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Conan O'Brien

Listening to the album you mentioned Mr. Charm. So I'm gonna bring this up. I don't think any singer does attitude better than you. It's so interesting cause I will do another reference but in Mr. Charm I get some of the. This is not a reference but some of the delicious kind of almost oily disdain that you can hear in like Sympathy for the Devil. There's a little bit of. There's this great attitude and you do it in. I'm a big fan of the show Slow Horses. You do the theme song.

Mick Jagger

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

I love the attitude that you possess and inhabit when you're singing that song.

Mick Jagger

Which one? To Mr. Charm.

Conan O'Brien

Well, Mr.

Mick Jagger

Charm, but also the, the. The Slow Horses.

Conan O'Brien

The Slow Horses theme.

Mick Jagger

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

Which is. You know, it, it. It's very kind of almost burlesque, but

Mick Jagger

it's called Strange Game.

Conan O'Brien

Strange Game. Yeah. I think I saw you once said in an interview that yes, the lyrics are important, but really it's the sound. And you have this. I can tell you think a lot about what is this gonna sound like because some very strange things in like doo wop music sounded great but when you look at what it says, it's rubbish. It's just absolute rubbish. And it's the sound and I think of so many Stones records and so many of your vocalizations as it's a great shattered or, you know. And on this record there's a great attitude and a sound to what you are singing that I think adds a lot to the lyrics.

Mick Jagger

I think in attitudes though, you know, it's like it's acting really because you're taking on the character of the song, you know. And when you do a love song, say like back in your life or the jilted Lover. You're playing the jolted lover. So obviously that's happened to you before. But I mean, so. But that's a whole different attitude. It's a different person. You. You know, you. So when you come to do. I mean, it's easier in the recording studio because you don't have to do them one after another. Yeah, yeah. On stage, it's. You'd have to switch Personas, you know, quickly. You know, you go from sympathy Daryl to a ballad, you know, whatever. But you don't. Do.

Conan O'Brien

You almost want a screen to come down for a second so you can

Mick Jagger

inhabit and want to inhabit another space, you know, so when you get into a song in the studio, but remembering you haven't done that song that many times.

Commercial Announcer

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

You know, you might have done a demo of it. In that case. In this case of Mr. Ch, I did a demo. So I. I wasn't like, walking into doing a song that I didn't know I knew it, but I had to make it much better than the demo, you know, And I rewrote the lyrics and everything. And then you. You start to get into the character of this, the. And. And like in that song, there's two attitudes. So there's the verse attitude where you're kind of trying to be beguiling, and then there's the chorus attitude where you're kind of throwing something else away, you know, saying, life's too short. Just make money and what. So it's a slightly different. Different attitude. Then you come back to the verse where you're then, you know, throwing sort of these kind of scattered gun images out, you know, in what you hope is a kind of interesting way.

Conan O'Brien

I listened to this album. I've listened to it a bunch. Cause I really like it. And I noticed that, yes, I can see, obviously you guys famously started as a blues band, but there's blues in here. There's rock and roll. There's also country. Again, I think you've always been interested in many different genres of kind of music. And I was very interested in the country aspect of the album. Because I know that if I didn't know any better, I'd think, well, country couldn't have been an influence. But it was an influence.

Mick Jagger

Country was a huge influence when on. Well, I think on every. Most English musicians of that period. Don't forget, these songs were also. A lot of these country songs were big hits. They were like top 10 hits as they were in the US but people like Eddie Arnold and all these people, they had huge hits. They were pop Hits, even though they were country songs. And then you got onto people like George Jones and they were played on the radio. So this wasn't obscure. You know, the blues was more obscure. These were hits. The Everly Brothers were country. Yeah. I mean, really? Yeah. I mean, they were pop, but they're still country. And. And Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash had a number one record with Ballad of a Teenage Queen. So as soon as you heard that and you liked Johnny Cash, you would explore more Johnny Cash and you'd realize that he was a country singer.

Conan O'Brien

It's also. You realize when you listen to 1954 Elvis sun session, it's a click and a half away from country. It's rockabilly.

Guest/Additional Voice

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

But if you slowed it down a little bit. Yes. The instrumentation, it's so close to country.

Mick Jagger

So close. But he was covering rhythm and blues songs a lot of times. I mean, of course, he did standards like Blue Moon in those kinds. In the same period we're talking about, obviously, these. These songs like that's a Right Mama, which is, I think the first one he did.

Conan O'Brien

He did first one.

Mick Jagger

Yeah. And. And that was a R B song. And then he did Hound Dog. That was an R and B song. They're all. These are all R and B songs. So even though we say, yeah, he's so country, he was covering R and B in a kind of slightly different country way. Yeah. I'm not sure. I'm not a great Elvis student, but, I mean, I love Elvis and all that, but did he really do country music as we know it?

Conan O'Brien

No. Probably more. Well, gospel. He loved gospel.

Commercial Announcer

Yes.

Mick Jagger

Gospel.

Conan O'Brien

He did loved gospel, but you can see that. You're right, those early influences. I think it's a gumbo. Country is part of his makeup, but much more so gospel, rhythm and blues. I'm just. You never met Elvis, did you meet Elvis?

Mick Jagger

No, I never met Elvis.

Conan O'Brien

That's incredible to me.

Mick Jagger

You know why? I tell you why. The Daily Mirror, an English tabloid that still exists, you always did publicity with the Daily Mirror. And the Beatles did it. There was a showbiz journalist, I can't remember his name, very famous at the time, and he took the Beatles in Los Angeles to visit with Elvis. Yeah. And they. There's pictures of this.

Commercial Announcer

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

So they went up to Elvis's house and his pool and they walked in

Conan O'Brien

and he was playing bass, watching tv, playing bass. But they were all high. The Beatles were high. And they. None of them have their story straight. None of them can remember anything.

Mick Jagger

They don't remember anything. I remember John telling me, yeah, you know, you should never meet your heroes. I would never meet Elvis, Mick, if I were you.

Conan O'Brien

That's fascinating. Yeah.

Mick Jagger

And so I didn't. I took John's advice. Yeah. It was really stupid of me, really, but, I mean, I would love to have met Elvis.

Conan O'Brien

Why?

Mick Jagger

I take John's advice. But, I mean, at the time, it seemed to ring. Well, that means no, no.

Conan O'Brien

He. He famously, on the 64 tour, he kept saying, the minute they got to America, John kept saying, where's Elvis? Where's Elvis? Where's Elvis? That's all the only person he wanted to meet. Then they met Elvis, and in Bel Air, at his house, John walked out and said, where's Elvis? Because that was not the guy he wanted to meet. Yeah, he disappointed him.

Mick Jagger

Yeah. And he told me all this story more than once, and so it sort of put me off. So I wanted to keep my Elvis to myself. My version of the Elvis.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

And so I didn't want my version of Elvis chattered like John's was. But maybe my Elvis version would have been different.

Conan O'Brien

Well, I have to tell you, I've always wanted to sit and talk with you, and this is a massive disappointment.

Mick Jagger

Yeah, I can imagine it is. Here we are stuck in this little tiny room in West London.

Conan O'Brien

I'm gonna leave and go, where's Mick Jagger?

Mick Jagger

And, yeah, and I was enjoying being in Casablanca. This is crap.

Conan O'Brien

I did have a good time in Casablanca. And, you know, there's something about this album, Foreign Tongues. I was thinking, you're not nostalgic. I can feel an urgency. There's a sense that you guys got into the studio. I know you made it very quickly. And what I'm very impressed by is it almost feels like you've got something to prove, which you don't. But that's how it feels. A lot of these songs really feel like you're having a great time, but let's get this shit and get it right.

Guest/Additional Voice

Is that fair?

Mick Jagger

Yeah, that's fair. I mean, but that's that modus operandi for when we did Hackney Diamonds, you know, it was a way of working. So the previous way, the bands obviously had a lot of ways of working in a studio. And. And when we did Hanging Diamonds, that was a different way of doing it. It's like, okay, we got these songs, we got them prepped a bit. At least they're done. We're not writing songs in the studio. Which lower bands do we used to do if something comes up in the studio? Fantastic. And this might change this song may change completely and utterly, but you have an idea and we're going to plow through them. We're not going to hang around, we're not going to wait. We're not going to play them all day. We're going to do them for a couple of hours and then we'll move on to the next one. And if we'll come back the next day, we might do it again or might leave, come back next week and do it again. So we're always moving ahead, always plowing ahead. So there's no time for too much self analysis of whether it's the songs any good, where the performance is any. We'll find out because when it's all finished, we'll. We'll listen to them all, you know, and see what have we got after we've done four weeks, what have we got left? What was good? Which are your favorites? Which ones? Is there anyone you don't like? Is. Is this. Does this all stand up? Because we want to set the bar high.

Conan O'Brien

Sure.

Mick Jagger

Because we don't want to have. We said in Hatton's Armies this. We don't want to. Any filler. We want to set the bar high. So every track has to have something special about it. Okay. Some might be. You might be your favorites, but it doesn't mean to say that the other ones don't have something to say.

Conan O'Brien

Well, Rough and Twisted. I love in the Stars. Obviously you guys knew we've got something really great here.

Mick Jagger

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

Love the video.

Commercial Announcer

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

That's crazy.

Conan O'Brien

Fantastic. You guys sort of reimagined as your younger selves. And it's, it's, it's great. It's fantastic.

Mick Jagger

It was only AI with the faces. Yeah. Everything else is real.

Conan O'Brien

And you told me that at one point they got a little screwed up because you thought Ronnie Wood doesn't look right. They're young. Young. You looks great. Young Keith looks great. They made sort of. They tried to make a Faces era. Ronnie Wood.

Mick Jagger

No, I said to. I said to. We were talking with the lady that I'm working with on the video. So they're doing this AI. And I said, stop it at 3:18. I said to us, just. We're on a zoom. I said stop it at 3:18. I said, that's Jeff Beck.

Conan O'Brien

Ronnie.

Mick Jagger

That's not your guy. Your guy is. He's referring to Jeff. He's got the right. Because the thing was.

Conan O'Brien

AI makes mistakes.

Mick Jagger

The thing was. The thing was that Ronnie was in a band with Jeff Beck.

Conan O'Brien

Yes.

Mick Jagger

So they might have Gone back to this footage and said, please don't bother me about this. I know exactly who these people are. And he got. And it looked exactly like Jeff Beck. So we had Jeff Beck in the band for a minute there, that was interesting. So I said, now you've got to change it to Ronnie. Because the Keith and I images were taken from Sympathy for the Devil, mostly. It's not quite that simple.

Conan O'Brien

Was it Godard who made the. He made a movie, of course.

Mick Jagger

Someone famous. A famous French film director.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah, A French filmmaker. And I know at the time you were thinking, why is he shooting us creating. And now. It's a great document.

Mick Jagger

Yeah. It's the only one like that. It's the only one that exists from the 60s.

Conan O'Brien

You know what's another great piece of footage is there's this great footage of you and Keith. You've just come back from recording in Muscle Shoals. You go into. I'm sure you've seen this. You walk into a room and you've got the demo for. I think it's Brown Sugar.

Mick Jagger

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

You put it on and you're listening to it. It's not out yet, but you're listening to it. And you see, you start to. Both of you start to groove to this thing and you start strutting around the room and you have the same reaction that later on everybody's gonna have, which is. This is a great track, but it's. You guys hearing it for the first time.

Mick Jagger

Yeah. You're hearing the rough mix or something.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah. And it's.

Mick Jagger

Is that in Gimme Shelter by the Mazer Brothers? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Conan O'Brien

It's great. It's just a. It's just a great moment. You as a fan of the Rolling Stones.

Mick Jagger

Yeah, I can be that.

Commercial Announcer

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

I can also be their severest critic.

Conan O'Brien

Is that true?

Mick Jagger

Well, you kind of have to be sometimes, you know, I mean, and sometimes you're wrong. You know, you can be very wrong because you're not a very good critic of your own work. One is not a good critic of one's own work, really. But, you know, you are the first person that hears it after all, in reality.

Conan O'Brien

I have to ask you. I mentioned this when we talked in Brooklyn, but I have to bring it up. Your voice sounds as good as ever. There are times where I think it's better than ever. It defies logic. But I know that you are an extremely disciplined guy about your health and taking care of yourself. But you listen to this album and I think this is a 28 year old singer. It's really amazing.

Mick Jagger

Oh, that's very kind of you to say that.

Conan O'Brien

And you're doing falsetto stuff on foreign tongues.

Mick Jagger

That's pretty easy. I find that quite easy. That's not. I mean, people have given me lots of compliments about that, and to be honest, that's the. And I appreciate the kindness, but that. That some of the other songs are much more difficult than that. That one's relatively easy to do. I learned falsetto singing very early on in Stone's career. When I listened to Don Cavet, he was a soul singer, and he was singing this song called have Mercy. Don Caveill also wrote Chain of Fools for Aretha Frankton. He was a songwriter as well. And I met him a few occasions anyway. But on his song have Mercy, he sings only in falsetto. So then I copied that and we covered that song. I mean, I'm sure my version is useless compared to her. I was practicing. But that kind of falsetto scene is relatively easy because you never change from falsetto back into your regular voice. That's the difficult thing to do. The difficult thing is going in and out of falsetto.

Commercial Announcer

Yes.

Mick Jagger

So I can't really do that very well. Like, the person that does that brilliantly is Al Green. Yeah. So if you listen to Algorithm, and I was. Last month, I was. I was put on this Algorithm record, and I hadn't heard it for a while, and I said. I was analyzing what he was doing with his vocal. He was. So he's going for a seto, and then he's going back in the same line as going back to his regular voice, and then he's going back for a set. I said, okay, I see. So I've got to do that, too. I have to learn how to do that. And so I just sang along with Al Green trying to do it. I mean, it's not easy, but it's possible.

Conan O'Brien

I learned this a long time ago, which is very few people sort of in your caliber. But I remembered once getting to see Bruce Springsteen, the E Street Band perform. And then I got taken backstage because my drummer for years, Max Weinberg, is Bruce's drummer. He took me backstage, and I got to hang out with Bruce a little bit just after the show. And he at one point, had been trying to. Had been singing in this falsetto. And I said, that was great. I love that part. And I didn't realize you could do that. And he said, yeah, I'm really working on it. And I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying, and I Thought, this is fascinating. I see the same thing with you. Everyone else would assume that you've got nothing left to try, but of course,

Mick Jagger

you do loads of things you can do.

Conan O'Brien

And you are still thinking, yeah, I'm gonna listen to this Al Green record and, okay, what's he doing here? And I want to work on that.

Mick Jagger

Yeah. Because I haven't mo. Mastered that. So in the studio. So do it like a song like Jealous Lover.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah, yeah.

Mick Jagger

So I. So I can sing the falsetto part in the verse first, and then. Then the chorus is in full voice, and then you layer it with lots of harmonies that I did in falsetto and full voice. But then I'm not really doing the Al Green thing. I'm doing one set in falsetto and one set in full voice, you know, so. So, I mean, it's not cheating. That's just the way I layered it.

Conan O'Brien

But I do think there's something about we all have our heroes. It's your attempt to be your hero that fails. But in the failing of being exactly like the person you idolize, you create something.

Mick Jagger

Something new comes out. Yeah, it can't be that. I mean, you guys were listening to

Conan O'Brien

blues and saying, we want to do that. And it's. Of course it's different. You're from Dartford, you know, it's gonna be different.

Mick Jagger

I can't be Howlin Wolf, you know, I mean. But you do. Have. I never tried to sound like Hound Wolf? Nobody can. Nobody sounds like Hound Wolf. Not even. I've never heard anyone. But, yeah, you're absolutely right. While you're copying people, you create something new.

Conan O'Brien

You know, we were talking about how so much has changed. One of the things that this first wave of pop stars in the 60s faced was, well, you can't be doing this when you're not in your 20s. Once you're, you know, once you're 28, 29, this is for young kids to do. You can't be doing this. There's a great clip I saw. It's backstage. It might be Madison Square Garden. I think it's late 60s. Dick Cavett's talking to you. And he said, you think you'll be doing this when you're 60? And he said, and you have a cane. And you said, sure. You said. A lot of. You said, marlene Dietrich is still out there, and she's amazing. And I thought, that's such a great answer. Because I think the standard answer then was, well, of course not. Of course not. But you said, why not? Yeah, why not?

Mick Jagger

Well, yeah, There had been, I mean, see, the thing about rock music is it's always associated with youth. It was the music of rebellious youth, so to speak. And I mean, most rock bands are young and you want there to be young rock bands and you know, it sort of comes and goes and there's been a slight revival of it now. But you thought that, that once you're out of the flush of youth, you wouldn't continue. But rock music kind of evolved, I suppose in a way as well. And it also remained the popular music with the, with the same group of people that were in your same age group. They still liked it. So they didn't move on to some other music as they might have moved on, but they still kept a, a thing for their youth, you know. Yeah, so. And you were obviously so. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, there were, there were people. I mean, Frank Sinatra was still a big star and he was, when he was older. But it's a different kind of music. You don't need quite so much energy to do Frank Sinatra as you need to do the Sex Pistols, I mean, or the Ramones or to do Hit Me in the Head.

Conan O'Brien

What I think, I mean, I can't. I'm hard pressed to think of anybody who expends more energy on stage still as you, you're in constant motion. I couldn't do that. I couldn't do that for 15 minutes, let alone a two hour plus show. So, you know, the stamina that you have, I know you work at it. I'm wondering, does any of that come from the fact that your dad was a, a, a gymnast and a physical fitness guy? Did you think that you grew up a little bit with that? Like, I gotta take care of myself.

Mick Jagger

Yeah. He kept telling me, you have to take care of yourself. You, you know, if you don't take care of yourself, you're gonna be. Any point at someone like, who is 55, who fat and smoking in an armchair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'd be like your uncle. So and so.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah, yeah.

Mick Jagger

And you know, you don't want to be like that. I was like, no, no, I don't. Yeah. But it goes in, you know, when you're young that co. That sticks with you. So, yeah, I would have been, I

Conan O'Brien

don't know, 12 years old, I think when Elvis turned 40. And the National Enquirer was just vicious about Elvis turning 40 because he was the real first wave of rock and roll.

Mick Jagger

Absolutely.

Conan O'Brien

So he's, you know, he's another generation older than you guys. And he was the first one to get. Isn't this absurd that this man is still doing this at 40?

Mick Jagger

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

Which now, he wasn't in very good shape. No, he wasn't.

Mick Jagger

That was the thing. I mean. And then he got back in shape. He did a great comeback thing where he looked amazing. But for a while, he was. Why he was such a figure of fun. I'm not saying the National Enquirer is the paper of record, but why he was. Everyone used to take the mech out of him was because he did get overweight and he did. And he obviously wasn't in a very fit. And he wasn't very old. I mean, this is all. And how old was he when he died?

Conan O'Brien

He was 42.

Mick Jagger

Yeah. You know, which now we would consider quite young for him.

Conan O'Brien

Well, this is how screwed up things are. I was in high school when I would have been 17, 16 or 17, when my sister Kate knocked on the door and opened the door. It was in the Morning in 1980, and she told me John Lennon was shot and died. And I was lying in bed and I said, what? And she said, yes. And I said, how old was he? And she said, 40. And I said, well, at least he had a long life. That's what I said. Now I am 63. Now, I don't think 40 is a long life. I don't think 63 is a long life. But that was my perspective then.

Mick Jagger

Yeah, of course.

Conan O'Brien

Which is insane.

Mick Jagger

Yeah. Well, today, I know this is not going out until later, but David Hockney just died.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

And he was creating experimental art. He was 87 years old and he never stopped.

Conan O'Brien

Never stopped.

Mick Jagger

He never stopped. Not just repeating himself. He didn't repeat himself. That was the great thing. He just carried on trying different things and trying different ways of expressing himself.

Conan O'Brien

And Foreign Tongues album, is that you?

Mick Jagger

I mean, he was amazing. And 87. I mean, he was still painting this year.

Conan O'Brien

Support for today's episode comes from Square, the system powering, like, half the places you go. Hello.

Producer/Interviewer Assistant

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

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Mick Jagger

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

Would have really helped us. If you're starting a business or running one that deserves better tools, Square helps you sell, manage and grow without slowing down. Right now, you can get up to $200 off square hardware@square.com. go, Conan. That's S Q U-A-R-E.com G O Conan. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started Today, The World cup is all about what's next. The future of the sport. The player nobody saw coming who suddenly becomes a star. Very exciting. Hyundai, official partner of the 2026 FIFA World cup, believes the next starts now.

Mick Jagger

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah. Do you ever think about that? How the next starts now? I think about it all the time. Me too. Now, personally, I don't know what's next for me. I hope it's that I become inventor of some amazing piece of tech. Oh, boy. And, yeah, it explodes, and I become this legendary tech CEO giant. Okay. But I'm just waiting around for that to happen. I'm not good at tech, and I don't know anything about it. You have trouble with all tech? Yeah, I do. But for Hyundai, they're not like me. They're not sitting around waiting for some impossible thing to happen. They're building it now with innovative vehicles, advanced technology, and by helping support the next generation of soccer stars, or as many people say, football.

Guest/Additional Voice

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

From cars to robotics. They didn't come to the 2026 FIFA World cup to play around. Instead, they're looking ahead, growing, evolving. The future of football. And Hyundai isn't coming. It's already here. Isn't that incredible? Hyundai, official partner of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This is a paid ad by BetterHelp. All of us learn about stigmas when we're a kid. Things we're probably not supposed to talk about. Things we're not supposed to share, maybe be a little ashamed of. Even in 2026, stigma can get in the way of a lot of things, like getting support for your mental health. Unbelievably, that's still an issue for people.

Guest/Additional Voice

Yes.

Conan O'Brien

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Mick Jagger

Ronnie plays the harmonica, but he doesn't play on this album.

Conan O'Brien

Well, also, there's. There's a great quote, a Keith quote. Keith is a huge admirer of your harmonica playing. And he said that is. That's the. That's the. You know, there are many. Mick can assume many forms. That is, he always felt your harmonica playing was the key into. That's the core. Mick Jagger. That's the Apple logo that comes up when you've turned on the computer for the first time, as you are in harmonic. Do you think that's close to something true?

Mick Jagger

It's kind of true. But the thing is, I think in a funny way, the harmonica is an extension of the voice, you know, because it's a blown instrument and you don't. You're making a wah, wah. You know, it's. It's a voice extension thing. So I think it's a. For a vocalist, it's a good extension of a voice, you know, so a natural instrument of a voice. Of course, what I like doing is playing punk guitar, so that's what I really like doing.

Commercial Announcer

So.

Conan O'Brien

So do you ever do open tunings or do you just do.

Mick Jagger

I do both. Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

But when I do the slashy indie guitars, it's always six strings and Ronnie and Keith always sort of look at me, but I. But I do it anyway. I do.

Conan O'Brien

They don't want you on the guitar every.

Mick Jagger

I don't think so, but. But they've sort of learned to put up with it. It. Yeah, they've learned to put up with it. And, you know, I love doing it because. No, it's harder than that. You know, it's like this, you know, because on some of these fast songs, it's like, you know, like, hit me in the head and all that. That's. It's really slamming. You know, you have to really slam it. I'm not saying Ronnie and Keith don't slap it, because they do, but when I've written something like that, I. I think I. I always want to be on it, you know, I always want to be playing guitar on it. So that's why I gave. I mean, I love playing harmonica, too. The harmonica thing was great on the Amy Win song because I played the harmonica. The horn parts. On the Amy original, I played on harmonica, which is a horn part, so I played that harmonica. That was a good opportunity.

Conan O'Brien

Do you write exclusively on guitar, or do you also sit at the piano?

Mick Jagger

I do piano and guitar.

Conan O'Brien

Piano and guitar.

Mick Jagger

Piano, guitar. Sometimes I just sing to drum machines. Just anything with no instrument, just me singing.

Conan O'Brien

Do you find that, like, you've gotta do it early in the morning. Cause I know there are no.

Mick Jagger

I hate doing things early in the morning. I think early in the morning is breakfast and read the newspaper. That's it.

Conan O'Brien

Many people have been asking, is there gonna be a tour for foreign tongues? And I selfishly would want that because I want to hear these songs live. And I know you're gonna get me a ticket. You guys are saying, probably not right away, but what do you think? Do you think it'll be maybe in a year? Is it possible or.

Mick Jagger

It's hard to say it's possible. I think I'd love to do it, too, because I think there's a lot of songs on this album that would translate into live really good. But having said that, you can't really do that many new songs if you do stadium shows. The audience is not that acceptance, accepting of them. You know, they want to hear what they're familiar.

Conan O'Brien

Can you clock that? When you're trying something new and you see people head for the bathroom, you kind of.

Mick Jagger

Yeah, you do. Oh, you'll get used to it. You. You like it. Honestly, you'll like it.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah. But you must have felt that when you were singing some of. I mean, there were many times in your life where you were singing new tracks, of course, but no one, you know, Led Zeppelin had to play Stairway to the Heaven for the first time at one point on Long island. And people were like, what is this shit?

Mick Jagger

Yeah, right. It's always the first time then. Yeah. The more confident you get, the more you just. We're doing it, you know. But there's still a limit to how many you can do out, percentage wise.

Conan O'Brien

So you can see someone headed to the bathroom.

Mick Jagger

Sometimes I can. I don't concentrate on that.

Conan O'Brien

I would only concentrate on it when someone. I'm talking and people are heading to the bathroom. It's all I can think about. And they often. That's when they use the bathroom, is when I start talking. I heard you talk about David Bowie once. I think it was when we were having dinner and you were talking about at David Bowie at one point. And you. You said an interesting thing, which is we were competitive, but we were also good friends. That's a very hard thing to maintain. But I think you did. You guys did that beautifully.

Mick Jagger

Yeah, we were competitive. David was so competitive. Much more competitive. I was made competitive by David. I mean.

Conan O'Brien

How so?

Mick Jagger

Well, he was just so competitive that I had to be competitive back, you know. But it. He. But he would do. I mean. I mean, he. He went through a period. This. David went through all these different. Yes.

Conan O'Brien

You know, iterations.

Mick Jagger

Iterations of David. There isn't one David Bowie. There's kind of like an, like, slowly evolving David Bowie. There's. There's jump cuts of. To, you know, to another David Bowie.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

Another style.

Conan O'Brien

Then he's the Thin White Duke.

Mick Jagger

Yeah. No, when he was doing, like, Gene Genie.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

He was very stonesy, you know. Yes, that was very stonesy, period. And so he would come over and play me Gene Genie, you know, I've got a. Wanna listen? Yeah, of course. I said, God, he nicked all my things. Yeah, I know, man. I know, but it's like a homage to you.

Conan O'Brien

It's homage. Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah.

Mick Jagger

But, yeah, we're competitive. I think John and I were very competitive, too, John Lennon, but we're more competitive in being sarcastic. Yes, there's verbal competitiveness. Have you ever seen the video of him and Bob Dylan in the back of the limo?

Conan O'Brien

I love that. I love that. Because Bob Dylan is not in good shape. They're in the back of a Rolls Royce. They're driving around London. I think in 65. John's got that acid wit where he's saying, come, come, boy, come, come. Do you suffer from scraggly forehead? And, you know, he's. He's he turns it into an aspirin ad because Bob Dylan can't pull it together.

Mick Jagger

No, that. Well, that's what. That's very much like John, that. That.

Conan O'Brien

Did you guys get along?

Mick Jagger

Yeah, we got really got along. But, I mean, that was John at his most. You know, he's being very sarcastic with Bob, you know, and Bob's not really coming back with the. With the zingy answers.

Conan O'Brien

No, no. He's impaired. And he's. He's. He's not. Yeah, he's not.

Mick Jagger

But that. It does give you a good illustration in. Because most of the other things you see of Jon are kind of, like, short. And that's kind of an extended sarcasm.

Conan O'Brien

Yes. So that was him all the time.

Mick Jagger

No, not all the time.

Conan O'Brien

He could be sweet.

Mick Jagger

Of course. He could be lovely.

Conan O'Brien

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

And. But, you know, he's one of these people that if you said something stupid, he'd pick you up. You know, you would see it.

Conan O'Brien

Right. He'd clock it right away.

Mick Jagger

Right away, you know. Yeah. But he. He was very competitive about it. He wasn't competitive about anything else.

Conan O'Brien

You mean just. You think he was most competitive about being funny?

Mick Jagger

Yeah. Being funny and sarcastic. Yes.

Conan O'Brien

More so than music.

Mick Jagger

It's. It's. It's a kind of Liverpool thing, I think.

Guest/Additional Voice

Sure.

Mick Jagger

I think maybe I'm stereotyping, but I think it is.

Conan O'Brien

You've always been. You guys have been great at tour promotion. I don't know what you might do for the next tour. One of the greatest things you ever did was all get on the back of a flatbed truck, drive down Fifth Avenue singing, I believe, Brown Sugar. Something like that.

Producer/Interviewer Assistant

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

And I'm thinking that takes nerve to drive through New York in traffic. And all the press was told you were gonna be in this restaurant. And then they hear music and they come running out of the restaurant with their pads and their cameras and you guys are on the back of a truck going by.

Mick Jagger

That's it.

Conan O'Brien

Which was fantastic.

Mick Jagger

Lovely.

Conan O'Brien

I don't know if people do things like that anymore.

Mick Jagger

They don't really. Apparently. Charlie told me that was a thing that jazz bands did in New York to promote their gigs.

Conan O'Brien

I think in Harlem, I think they would get on the back of a truck.

Mick Jagger

I think that's where we got it from. I think it might have been Charlie's idea, because that was a thing that happened in Harlem.

Conan O'Brien

You mentioned Charlie. Charlie's. You use a track of Charlie's in foreign tongues. It's amazing. I know. You guys are all so readily identifiable by your Sounds. It's very hard to do on drums, but you always know it's Charlie. Yeah, it's really incredible.

Mick Jagger

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

I mean, he's got two sticks and a drum kit that he doesn't have, some Keith Moon crazy kit with a thousand. He's got a standard kit. You always know it's him.

Mick Jagger

Yeah. And the funny thing is on this track, which is pretty fast rock track, you're almost punk, you might say. And everyone says, Charles, such a sensitive jazz drummer, you know, that was so different about him. Well, not on this track.

Conan O'Brien

No.

Mick Jagger

No, he's banging it. Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

I have to ask you, Oxfordshire pub, as we record this, I think days ago, you walked into an Oxfordshire pub and started singing to people. How did that happen? Were you off your meds? What happened?

Mick Jagger

Yes, I didn't know where I was. I had dinner at an Oxford college. I went to an Oxford college. I was invited to a dinner and very interesting people, very pleasant, lots of nice students. And then one of the students that I was talking with said, I play mandolin. I said, oh, that's nice. I said, not the easiest instrument. He said, I play mandolin. I'm going down the road to play with an Irish band. So do you want to come? So I said, sure. And so I took a couple of people that I was with and the provost of the college and. And he took his gown off and got into the pub and. And it was a very small pub of very friendly people and the. The band was doing fiddle pieces and the guy joined in with his mandolin and. But no one was singing.

Conan O'Brien

Right.

Mick Jagger

So I thought, oh, well, here's a. Here's an opening. You want to sing it yet?

Conan O'Brien

This is my. This is my big chance.

Mick Jagger

This is my chance for pub crawling singing. So I did a song that I'd actually recorded and then. But I had to rehearse it just mentally, because I hadn't sung it in years. And I remember the. At least three verses.

Conan O'Brien

It's like an old standard, right?

Mick Jagger

It is. Everyone's done it.

Commercial Announcer

Yeah.

Mick Jagger

I think even Bob Dylan's done it, I found out.

Conan O'Brien

Right.

Mick Jagger

But not that I've heard it, but I had to remember at least three verses in my head before I started. So I didn't just launch into it, because the worst thing you can do is launch into a song and then you've got one verse and that.

Conan O'Brien

So I realized I would pay to see that happen with you. I'm sorry, I would just love to

Mick Jagger

see it, but it was fine. It's two minutes long. Yeah, but.

Conan O'Brien

Well, That's. I mean, that keys into. I think the main point that I wanted to get across in this interview, which is something that really strikes me in the short time that I've been able to hang out with you, is that you were very much living in the moment, making things in the moment. This album, Foreign Tongues, is of this moment. And you. I mean, sitting at a dinner with you and watching you trying everyone else's food, stealing some of Ronnie's dessert. And I thought, you can converse about anything. You're, you know, crazily deeply read, and you're just fascinated in all kinds of stuff. And I thought I left my time with you and I thought, I need. This is. My new spirit animal is Mick Jagger. I want to. I aspire not to be you. Cause that's not gonna happen, but to kind of adopt that philosophy about life, which is. Just bite into it, stay interested.

Mick Jagger

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

Delight yourself.

Mick Jagger

I think that's like, you know, I don't think that attitude suits everyone, because some people. Some. Well, you know, some of your creativity. If you're a creative person, let's imagine you will draw on your past. You. You might draw on something that you had an idea for when you were 25. You might have written a short story when you were in 25. And you. You didn't publish it. And then you realized that that would make a great film script or that would make a novel I could now write. Now I'm 65. Let's. Let's say. So that's. It's not true that you can't draw upon this whole well of your past and make it into something so you're not. You have to be aware of your past, but that doesn't mean you live in it. And, you know, you feel. Of course, I'm always asked, you know, what happened when you did this, and it was so long ago. And you. And you find yourself, like, just repeating these stories, you know, if they're even true anymore. Yeah, you know, it's just like a, you know, footballer in a pub talking about his goal in 1972. You know, it's a. You don't want to become that, and that's a danger. So, yeah, so everyone says, live in the moment. You know, it's just a kind of like a. Like a kind of fashionable mantra. But, I mean, to a certain extent, it's true. And I mean, I think also when you're writing, like, these kind of ephemeral pop songs, which these. This is what this business is.

Conan O'Brien

You.

Mick Jagger

You got to stay in the present day. So I was writing a song like Ringing Hollow. You're. You're thinking about the now of what. What you're living through now, which, of course, you know, you never know, could change by the time the record comes out.

Conan O'Brien

Sure.

Mick Jagger

But, you know. But you can only write that. You can't really look into the future. It's hard. So you just write of the writing of the now, you know, in a song like Divine Intervention, you're writing of the now of what your feelings are, you know, so there's. There's a. There's a thing that runs through these lyrics of these songs that is definitely of the now and the kind of weird period. And we're kind of like. It's. It's difficult for some people living in this period. And, And. And. And, you know, there's possibly dangers that, you know, that we're all in in some way or other, but we're geopolitical dangers or economic dangers and who knows what else, and. And we're all a bit. We're a bit. A little bit sensitive to them. I think people are sensitive to the. To these things. And so when I'm writing this stuff, you know, I can't help myself, but I'm not. I'm not setting out to even write. It just comes out.

Commercial Announcer

Yeah.

Conan O'Brien

It's what's happening right now. And these are scary times. But I have to thank you because you've given me. You and the other lads have given me an enormous amount of joy in my life.

Mick Jagger

Thank you. I'm glad that's what we're here for.

Conan O'Brien

Before I became a bad guitarist, I was a bad drummer. And when I was a kid, I would set up my drum kit in the living room and put on Stones records and try and do what Charlie was doing. And my parents let me do that. That's amazing. And we had neighbors. They were lovely. I can't believe I would not let my kids do that. I would smash the kit. But you've given me enormous joy. Lovely getting to know you and talk to you, and. You're one of my favorite conversations. I've been talking to people nonstop for 32 years, and you're one of my favorite people to drive to.

Mick Jagger

I hope the conversation today. We covered a few of them.

Conan O'Brien

We got so much.

Mick Jagger

You didn't talk about your hillbilly guitar playing much, and you're. Your guitar collection. Yeah. You may have mentioned that on these podcasts before.

Conan O'Brien

No, we. We. We talked about it at dinner, and we got into my fascination with rockabilly yes. And wanting to sing. And. And funny Keith heard me do Ronnie Hawkins, a version of Ronnie Hawkins 40 days where I do it twice as fast as Ronnie Hawkins. And Keith said, you sound like a fucking auctioneer. But yeah, this is one of the joys of my life and I'm so delighted that we were able to get together today, really. And foreign tongues, please, when you get a moment, tour with this because I really want to hear these songs live.

Mick Jagger

Yeah, me too. I want to do it.

Conan O'Brien

Thanks so much.

Mick Jagger

Nice to talk to you.

Producer/Interviewer Assistant

Conan o' Brien Needs a Friend With Conan o', Brien, Brian Sonam of Session and Matt Gourley Produced by me, Matt Gourley executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and Nick Leo Theme song by the White Stripes Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino Take it away, Jimmy. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our associate talent producer is Jennifer. Samples, engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Bur. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Bautista and Brit Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Coco hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at SiriusXM. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O' Brien needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.

Conan O'Brien

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Guest/Additional Voice

Hey, what's going on over there? It's me, Trevor Noah. You know me. You don't know me.

Conan O'Brien

Oh, you do.

Guest/Additional Voice

I was worried there for a second. Well, if you know anything about me, you'll know. I love having interesting conversations. Conversations where we scratch beneath the surface. Like what's really going on in the news? Or what is that celebrity really thinking about that scandal that they had? Or what's the worst way to be a parent? I mean, you want to find that out so you can be the best parent, right? Well, regardless of what it is, this podcast is all about figuring that out. Talking to interesting people who have interesting ideas that give us an interesting perspective on the world that we're living in. So make sure you tune in, check out what now with Trevor Noah, available now on the SiriusXM.

Mick Jagger

Applause.