Shortly after The Stones announced 9 concerts to take place later this year, The Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot interviewed The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger over the telephone.
Highlights:
Greg Kot: Was asked to rejoin ?
Mick Jagger: He played with us in London last year, but he’s not keen on touring. He made that very clear to us.
Greg Kot: Any surprises on the set list, or will it be mostly greatest hits again?
Mick Jagger: Well, we have quite a lot of songs. We will swap around somewhat. I’m interested in feedback and learning what people want. It’s a tricky thing for me when I do a set list. You get bored doing the same songs. Let’s say we do one ballad in two hours, and it’s “Wild Horses.” If you say, I’m tired of that, let’s try something less well known, and then you’re out there stumbling through this song you just relearned at sound check, and you realize people probably want “Wild Horses” instead of this (laughs). You do need to do some songs that aren’t so well known. The question is how many? I’m open to people posting their requests (Jagger has solicited songs on his Twitter account @MickJagger).
Greg Kot: People are already fretting that the secondary ticket market will gobble up most of the best seats and resell them at several times face value. What is your attitude toward these secondary market sellers and are the Stones participating at all in those profits?
Mick Jagger: I’m very much against the secondary ticket market. I don’t know anyone who isn’t. We have a lot of secondary market problems in the U.K., it’s really bad there. And lots of artists are starting to participate in it, because they put the tickets up at a certain price, then the tickets get marked up by the secondary sellers and someone else gets twice as much as you. Personally, we don’t participate in it. That’s the view we take. I think it should be illegal, and in the U.K. it would be very easy to stop it. It’s a very concentrated operation you could stop immediately. It’s a bigger problem in the U.S., more difficult to contain, but they don’t even try. It should be made completely illegal. If people don’t like it, don’t complain to the artists. Each state should make secondary reselling illegal.
Greg Kot: Is there any new Stones music or an album in the works?
Mick Jagger: I have a lot of songs and I’d love to do some more recording with the band. But we’re going to get through the tour first and then see what happens.
Click here to read the full interview at the Chicago Tribune's website.
