The Rolling Stones Interview on 60 Minutes / 1994 with Ed Bradley

sex drugs and rock and rollers buzz you're beyond that some that still I think I'm afraid that's still there I mean I think that what we always do very much about sexuality I think the audience goes you know it still takes a lot of drugs and rock and roll you have to deliver and no one delivers Rock and Roll like the Rolling Stones with every album and tour this group sets a new benchmark for rock music [Music] each time they come back to the stage they do it more successfully than anyone before [Music] yet what initially created the most attention this time was not the size of their show or the quality of their music it was there a [Music] jagger is 51 drummer Charlie Watts 53 guitarist Ron Wood is 47 and Keith Richards is 50 [Music] why is it that you attract so much attention about the age question when so many others have done it no rock-and-roll bands and I think that's exactly right because they've only ever seen young cats to it and then in a way I mean that's what we're trying to do is say well maybe we can bust that myth the age thing the only problem I have is the eggs and pains you sometimes get but this this keeps you going let's get you over that Charlie Watts likes his role as an elder statesman of rock and roll was it more fun before is it more fun now I think it's more fun now the worst period of being a rolling stone funnily enough for me was when girls used to scream at me because I used to embarrass me like man I could never ever see what they were screaming her I I've never really been that great a teenager young man sort of thing I don't think and I was I can't like being like this really but I don't know if I'd be doing it on this level when I'm 70 or anything so I think there was a time where we're gonna look a bit silly doing it [Music] actually they thought that time would come by age 30 and none of them expected rock and roll would ever be a career yet through four decades the Rolling Stones have managed to stay on the cutting edge of popular music but it hasn't been easy there are fundamental differences between the groups to created forces and songwriters Jagger the jet-setting man of self-described wealth and taste and Richards the quintessential rock and roll outlaw by the 1980s they were so sick of each other it looked like the Rolling Stones were history they didn't perform in concert together for seven years although friends since childhood the Jagger Richards partnership was on the rocks Nick likes to protect himself a lot for everything he's always looking for an angle on people but I can't live like that you know I'd rather take somebody on face value until they screw up and it makes it difficult for me sometimes get through to me because I know that he's wondering what my analyst that was where we hit the crunch but at the same time we've grown up with each other I mean I met him you know in a sandpit four years old I can't divorce him he can't divorce me but you both have tried well he tried I think everyone was very aggravated I think everyone was bored with it to be honest though I don't think anyone's to really admit they're miserable to key out on each other's at work we have to do this and we fed up with it and wanted and I think in it in the end that it was a good thing to take a break from it I think we came back I think better than before and bigger now we're gonna go to places where we've never been we're going to go to Mexico gonna asia going to Chile I see Brazil on this world tour only there are seconds since 1982 the Rolling Stones are our state-of-the-art mobile corporation moving from city to city and country to country with almost 300 employees it's only rock and roll but it's big business so big it sometimes surprises guitarist Ron Wood this is a musical association the bass player but it's also business association it is and we're all very surprised when we have business meetings we'll kind of look at each other like well you mean there's money to loads of money how much money per murder Michael Cole guaranteed the stones a profit of a hundred million dollars to do the tour and they expect to make much more even though it takes a million dollars a week to keep the show on the road he says Jagger who spent his college days at the London School of Economics makes his investment a safe bet I tended to have relationships with artists that talked about the shows and the business was left to be dealt with with the manager and we almost never got an artist who would actually sit down and talk to you about the business aspects where Nick is very involved in those [Music] Jagger is so involved in the details Businessweek magazine labeled him the chief executive officer of the Rolling Stones a rock and roll corporation it's what they call in business a virtual corporation a virtual corporation it's the kind of new thing which lasts for a year makes a huge gross makes hopefully a good profit but then you just fold it all up and the organization disappears [Applause] [Music] yeah it's on a really huge scale it's still sort of for white blokes from England playing American music I think [Music] in fact American blues and jazz were the genesis of the Rolling Stone sound when their tour reached New Orleans the birthplace of jazz it was a chance for the stones to sample the local product almost every night Keith Richards and Charlie Watts went to see a local blues band at a small neighborhood bar Mick Jagger and watch joined the traditional New Orleans jazz brave and Jagger was right at home in the second one [Music] [Applause] despite the do given jazz and blues by the Rolling Stones it's the spectacle of Mick Jagger's superstar persona that gets the most attention [Music] [Music] it's an image that's outrageous controversial and carefully crafted doing outfits and people like happening what it helps you get into personality that you couldn't be you know you're gonna project on the stage and the dominant trait of Jagger's stage personality is unabashed sexuality I pushed the set shots and things quite a long way in this I spread it in as many different ways as I could but there's always been this this sort of aura around you well you know androgyny it well yeah when you're young you is a time that you are rather androgynous looking and that's a whole thing of classical literature and painting and that was something that resurfaced with rock and roll in a big way but that's I think something for when you're young and I don't think that that really continues when you go older because you need to define yourself more now you were talking at dinner another night of hours ago I was joking didn't there how did you do the skirts it would you see this guy John he made it for me and he said Ghassan not wearing them I'm never gonna wear that but he does but you have to be here a butch when you got in this gutter when I mean Ascot I'm very aware of being very butch [Applause] and Keith I guess a great look from Keith because he doesn't know whether to laugh or cry to me the spectacle is always subservient to the music first that has to be right then you can build all of his other stuff around it as long as it doesn't interfere with the band's ability to deliver the sound Richards and his guitar have delivered many of the classic stones melodies but his musical contributions have at times been eclipsed by his legendary drug habits during the 70s he developed a notorious appetite for heroin let's talk about the drug years yeah how deep was it how bad was it how long was it ten years a junkie yeah I'm not saying out of order that things that one got I had a pretty good hold of me for a while and I suppose to certain extent drugs there are occupational hazard in music business how did you find the door out basically because I I had so much been busted so many times that I looked around and suddenly was him I am screwing up the stones that she's like for me unforgivable let alone I'm screwing up my family and I said well this is no longer just my private concern you know this is now I've got a you know and I just gotta stop you've you've had a hard life you've lived on the edge yes some people would say I've had it easy you know that I just made it hard for myself maybe that's true Richards was not the only stone who had a problem with drugs I had an awful dabble with them and got in terrible shape you say an awful devil what were you doing amphetamine and heroin she's a bit of contradictory in turn but that's how I was living and it's really bad for you up and down yeah and I thought I was being normal I forgot that I was doing taking these so drinking just becomes hard to wash it down with and I nearly lost everything [Music] bad [Music] Charlie talked today about his problem with with drugs in the early 80s that was a problem for you and Keith was helpful instrumental and bringing you out of that how did you get out of it now keith is too stoned to help me it's out to the individual you have to get out of it yourself some people get out of it quick others take many years like Mick Jagger although heroin wasn't his drug of choice there were many others you've had a reputation of being on the edge of pushing the envelope yeah Bob XS yeah and I did it for a long time and he come to a point where you go oh I did it now think I have to sort of watch it because I prefer to be able to do what I do for a longer it's very dull being you know you're thinking you're having a good time but you're only just a slave to something how long did it take you to realize that 25 years I'm a quick study [Music] in spite of their history with drugs in spite of each other in spite of aid the stones roll all they hear out there still doing what you do and honing it down and still bringing out new stuff and laying it on them and and you're doing it for the same reason that you did it when you started if you should love it and you feel like there's loads more in there to come now then it's got to be you know who want to get off that bus [Applause]

Channel: Holly Martins

Views: 362,052

Rating: 4.8414545 out of 5

Keywords: The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, Interview, 60 Minutes 1994, Voodoo Lounge Tour 1994, Ed Bradley

Id: 8c8M_fS7ec4

Length: 14min 41sec (881 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 13 2019