The two artists who convinced Mick Jagger to become a frontman
Mick Jagger is perhaps the frontman to end all frontmen. He’s held up as the shiny, golden example of what the word means. Even today, Jagger steps on stage ready to give it his all as the all-singing, all-dancing face of the band. His is a style often imitated but never beaten. But according to the man himself, it’s a style he stole from two legends that came before him.
It’s hard to think of a singer quite as iconic as Jagger. While the band’s anthemic tracks made them a global success, it’s their frontman’s infamous on-stage swagger that has made them endure as a phenomenon and become one of the most coveted to-see live bands around. Even as the members gain O.A.P status, it hasn’t slowed their shows down, with the singer still racing his way across the stage with that signature hip wiggle, finger point and clap combo.
Even as the band first broke out, it was Jagger’s on-stage presence that captured attention. It also caught the eye of their fellow musicians, with many ruffling the Stones’ feathers by seemingly copying them. Steven Tyler was especially one that Jagger got wound up by, saying in an interview, “Here, what are you playing at, fuckin’ impersonating me?” as he critiqued Aerosmith’s lack of originality. But perhaps it was a little hypocritical.
While Jagger might be the epitome of a frontman, he didn’t invent the craft. When it comes to his performance, he actually credits it to two artists who came before him, inspiring him to fly out of the gate with all that charisma and groove instantly. “I used to do mad things – you know, I used to go and do these shows and go on my knees and roll on the ground – when I was 15,16 years old,” he said about his earliest shows in school talent contests or local open mics, “I didn’t have any inhibitions”. But even as a teenager, he seemed to embody the kind of performer he would go on to be as he mirrored those that he looked up to.
“I saw Elvis and Gene Vincent, and I thought, ‘Well, I can do this’,” he told Rolling Stone, picking out two 1950s idols as his earliest inspirations. Both Elvis Presley and Gene Vincent were leaders of the original rock and roll wave as rockabilly broke out. Jagger undeniably sits in their lineage as both those two singers and the Stones merged the sounds of blues or black American artists with the catchiness of pop to create their own brand of rock and roll.
He also sits in their lineage of musicians with a distinctive and captivating on-stage energy that’s spurred their career on. Elvis had his scandalous hips, making him a sensation from the first second they shook. Similarly, Gene Vincent had an unabashed sex appeal, turning every performance into a seduction routine as if the sheer power of music was carrying him off and turning him on. If you merge the two together, it’s essentially a blueprint for Mick Jagger.
But mostly, they’re all performers who seem to lose themselves in the sheer fun of performing. “It’s a real buzz, even in front of 20 people, to make a complete fool of yourself,” Jagger said, “But people seemed to like it. And the thing is, if people started throwing tomatoes at me, I wouldn’t have gone on with it. But they all liked it, and it always seemed to be a success, and people were shocked. I could see it in their faces.”
Now, over 60 years into The Rolling Stones’ career, people still like it. Jagger’s performance style will go down in history as one of music’s greatest on-stage masters, right next to that of his idols.
