Read the first excerpts from the magazine here!
“You know we’ve never been asked before,” he said. He is planning on making his first Glastonbury appearance a family affair – setting up camp with his daughters, Jade and Elizabeth. “I’ve got nothing else to do, and I want to spend some time with my family. [Daughters Jade and Elizabeth] bring these yurts. Will I get hassled? Depends where I go. I think everyone will be pretty laid back.”
It creates an intriguing image, the global superstar walking through the Green Fields with his daughters acting as tour guides, but he explains: “I don’t need them to show me the cool places to go. I’m sure I can find some places of my own that are much cooler.”
Rock royalty camping in the mud at Glasto? Has he been camping before?
“Yeah, on the beach with my kids. Alright… in the Caribbean. Yeah, but it’s just the same as Brighton. There’s just less chance of bad weather. We went camping all the time when I was a kid. Camping in France was our family holiday. And we brought baked beans with us, as we didn’t trust that fancy foreign food. We were so totally English.”
Sir Mick reveals he uses social media when it comes to planning their show and finds it useful to ask his Twitter following for input on the set list.
“With Twitter you get so much more feedback. But the kind of people who tweet about songs are not your general fan. Not everyone wants obscure songs. Otherwise, you’ll get everyone else saying. ‘I bought my girlfriend along, and she wants Honky Tonk Women, not the whole of the Satanic Majesties, thanks.’”
The Stones are also performing in Hyde Park this July, having previously played there in 1969. It was guitarist Mick Taylor’s debut gig. Taylor left in the mid-‘70s and was replaced by Ronnie Wood. But he’s back guesting on a couple of songs during these anniversary shows.
“I thought about this yesterday,” he says, “how strange it will be to turn round on stage at Hyde Park and see Mick Taylor there again. But it’s nice. He’s playing very well.”
That afternoon in 1969 Mick famously wore a white dress. “I lost that dress. It vanished years ago,” he says. “I bought two for Hyde Park – a white one and an orange one. The orange one’s in the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, I think.”
Asked if it gets any easier being a Rolling Stone after 50 years he says: “It never gets easier. You’ve always got to prove yourself. You can’t rely on anything you’ve done in the past. Every time you play live, it feels like you’re finding your way again. Then you look at Keith or Charlie and think, ‘Oh it’s OK.’”
