The bloody connection between The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger and the Hells Angels
“Murder, It’s just a shot away,” The Rolling Stones sang in 1969 on their new album, Let It Bleed. Within less than a month, the track would become terrifyingly prophetic as the dark tail end of the free love era turned its aim towards the band. Suddenly, Mick Jagger found himself in the firing line as the Hells Angels, a violent biker gang, sought vengeance on the rockstar that almost ended it all.
When music history reflects on the 1960s, the era is most commonly remembered as a period of joy and optimism, experimentation and colossal talent. It was the time of free love, plentiful drugs, and vibrant counterculture as rock and roll grew month on month into something new and exciting. Bands were pushing music into previously unexplored areas of sound and style, and figures like Jagger, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and more were taking up the status of modern gods.
But what goes up must come down. It seemed inevitable that the decade of hedonism would come crashing to a dark end once the consequences of sex, drugs and freedom set in. To some, that happened when the Manson Family tore through a Los Angeles suburb. But to others, it happened at the Altamont Free Festival when the death of crowd members seemed to also mark the death of the 1960s.
However, it was a narrow shot away from being Mick Jagger’s demise. During their headline slot at Altamont Speedway in December of 1969, the issues that had been worsening in the audience all day boiled over. It was a classic countercultural crowd where almost everyone there was tripping on something. That probably would have been fine if the event hadn’t decided to hire the Hells Angels as their security of the day. In keeping with the crowd’s hatred of authority, the festival passed up on having a police presence and instead invited the gang to act as the enforcers of the day. But that meant when things started getting out of hand, they reacted with an iron fist.
As the Stones set started, chaos unfolded. They needed to stop playing repeatedly, with all the members looking actively scared for their safety and the safety of their crowd, who quickly pushed their way onto the stage. At one point, the Hells Angels got in a fight with Meredith Hunter, a drugged-up audience member who they chased to the back of the crowd. But according to the band’s roadie, Hunter was a true danger as he said, “I saw what he was looking at, that he was crazy, he was on drugs, and that he had murderous intent. There was no doubt in my mind that he intended to do terrible harm to Mick or somebody in the Rolling Stones or somebody on that stage.”
With a revolver in his jacket and seemingly intent to use it against the Stones singer, the Hells Angels stepped in, stabbing Hunter to death. He was among three other people who died at the show.
In the wake of the massive controversy, The Stones made the mistake of openly criticising the Hells Angels. Mick Taylor said the scene was “completely barbaric”, adding: “The Hells Angels had a lot to do with it… I got the impression that because they were a security force, they were using it as an excuse… perhaps the only thing we needed security for was the Hells Angels.” With so much press on the event and, therefore, on the gang, leading to police prosecutions, the Hells Angels picked someone to blame and, for some reason, landed on Jagger.
It’s not really in the nature of a violent gang to simply let things go, so instead, they allegedly launched a revenge mission against the Stones singer. Years later, as part of The FBI at 100 TV series, an FBI agent revealed that the gang had planned to attack Jagger at his holiday home in the Hamptons, near New York City.
“The Hells Angels were so angered by Jagger’s treatment of them that they decided to kill him,” Tom Mangold, who presents the series, told The Sunday Telegraph. “They planned the attack from the sea so they could enter his property from the garden and avoid security at the front.”
Once again, Jagger was a shot away from death, but this time, nature stepped in. “Ooh, a storm is threatening my very life today,” Jagger once sang. But in fact, it was a storm that saved his life as on the day that the gang had planned to attack him, they were overboard by chopping waves while on their way to kill. It’s clear that the world wasn’t done with the Stones yet, allowing them to rock on for decades longer.
