Photo: Denis Makarenko / Shutterstock
That's rock 'n' roll for you!
By Nia Tipton — Written on Oct 07, 2022
In a new book centered around the rock band "The Rolling Stones," the author alleges that lead vocalist Mick Jagger had an affair with two of his band members.
Jagger, who has a reputation for being a "ladies' man," has long fueled rumors that he is bisexual after a supposed affair with the late singer David Bowie.
Mick Jagger allegedly slept with Keith Richards and Mick Taylor.
Author Lesly-Ann Jones wrote about the affair in her new book, "The Stone Age: Sixty Years of the Rolling Stones," according to the Daily Mail.
In it, she suggests that Jagger had been involved with Richards, Taylor, and other famous male celebrities and musicians.
Jones, who has previously written acclaimed biographies on David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, and John Lennon, claimed the affairs between Jagger and his bandmates were common knowledge among the various girlfriends and wives the three men had.
The author interviewed British singer and actress Marianne Faithfull, who dated Jagger during the rock band's early years.
According to Faithfull, she claimed to have "had an inkling that there was a sexual undercurrent," between Jagger and Richards.
Keith Richards' ex-girlfriend claimed Mick Jagger was 'in love' with him.
Richards' former girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg, who died in 2017, also told Jones that she noticed a romantic rift between the two musicians.
“From when I first met them, I saw Mick was in love with Keith,” Pallenberg said.
Jones wrote that while Jagger had been romantically-involved with Richards, he soon became enthralled with Taylor, who was in the band as a guitarist from 1969 to 1974.
Taylor had replaced former member Brian Jones, who'd left "The Rolling Stones" due to creative differences with Jagger and Richards, along with a drug and alcohol addiction, which took his life in 1969.
In her book, Jones wrote that Taylor's previous wife, Rose, told Paul Levett at a dinner party she discovered her husband and Jagger in a compromising position.
“She told me that she found her husband in bed with Mick Jagger,” Levett said. “Why would she say such a thing to me, if she had not seen it with her own eyes?”
Between Richards and Taylor, according to Jones, Jagger had a closer relationship with the former, writing that Jagger and Richards' affair had meant something deeper.
“Of all Mick’s relationships,” Faithfull explained, “the only one that really means anything to him is with Keith."
Keith Richards and Mick Jagger have a complicated history.
Jagger and Richards had grown up in Dartford, a town in the county of Kent, England, and both attended Wentworth Primary School.
"I can't remember when I didn't know him," Jagger told Rolling Stone in 1995.
"We lived one street away; his mother knew my mother, and we were at primary school together from [ages] 7 to 11. We used to play together, and we weren't the closest friends, but we were friends."
However, their relationship eventually soured after Richards included a diss track about Jagger on his 1998 solo album "Talk Is Cheap" called, "You Don't Move Me Anymore."
The song stemmed from Jagger's decision to pursue his own solo career.
”I think of our differences as a family squabble,” Richards told The New York Times. ”If I shout and scream at him, it's because no one else has the guts to do it, or else they're paid not to do it."
Over the years, Richards continued criticizing Jagger, even writing that the musician had a "swollen head" and an "inflated ego," in his 2010 memoir "Life."
Despite their differences, Richards still holds a lot of love for Jagger, admitting that he loves the rocker "99% of the time."
"Mick knows what I mean and he'll say the same about me," Richards told The Sun in 2019.
"Things happen between Mick and me because it's just two guys working together. You only hear about the odd bust-up. I love the man 99% of the time."
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.