How Mick Jagger warned John Lennon about “the biggest mistake” of his life
There are several reasons why The Beatles split up and why their split was inevitable. The most obvious is perhaps the simple fact that the members had been mates since they were kids and that trying to grow together for that long is almost impossible. As the cracks became irreparable, Mick Jagger tried to step in and warn John Lennon of what might just have been their fatal move.
The relationship between Jagger and Lennon is an interesting one. The Rolling Stones emerged a year or so after The Beatles, and in one sense, were their juniors. For a while, Lennon definitely believed that, as he once even claimed that Jagger and Keith Richards only ever began writing songs because of them. “That’s how Mick and Keith got inspired to write, because, ‘Jesus, look at that. They just went in the corner and wrote it and came back!’” Lennon once said, describing the moment when he and Paul McCartney wrote a song right there in front of them.
As the two bands grew, and as The Stones caught up with them as one of the biggest bands in the world, their relationship became less one of student and master and more a stance of mutual respect and, later, a strong friendship.
In 1969, all the drugs and jokes of their friendship were put aside for a serious conversation. As The Beatles seemed to be barrelling towards their split, building an array of tensions between them, a villain emerged: Allen Klein.
After the death of Brian Epstein, John Lennon was approached by Klein and put it to the rest of the band that he be their new manager. When Jagger heard whispers of this, he tried to step in.
Only a few years prior, The Rolling Stones had a run-in with Klein. After promising to make them more money than The Beatles were making, he became their manager. But over time, the band grew distrustful. That inkling was correct as it turned out that Klein planted the band’s $1.25 million advance right into his own bank account. The band would later accuse Klein of withholding royalty payments, stealing the publishing rights to their songs, and neglecting to pay their taxes for five years, leading to their tax exile to France.
So when Jagger heard he was now sniffing around The Beatles, he went to Apple Corps to talk to them, only to find Klein right there. “We, The Beatles, were all gathered in the big boardroom there, and we asked Mick how Klein was, and he said, ‘Well, he’s all right if you like that kind of thing,’” Paul McCartney recalled of the tense meeting between the band, Jagger and Klein. “He didn’t say, ‘He’s a robber,’ even though Klein had already taken all the Hot Rocks copyrights off them by that time.”
But after growing cowardly at the meeting, Jagger called Lennon up in private, warning him that he was about to make “the biggest mistake of your life.”
Lennon didn’t listen. His backing of Klein not only risked the band’s entire business legacy but was also another major contributing factor to their split. McCartney, heeding Jagger’s doubts, sued his bandmates to dissolve the band, therefore keeping Klein’s dastardly hands from being able to touch their work.
