July 12, 2026

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Why Mick Jagger Will Never Go the Full Bruce Springsteen.

The interviewer pressed Jagger on his relationship with his audience. It’s a good, potentially fruitful question, but it was intended to get Jagger’s political views.

Or, hopefully from the interviewer’s perspective, call out that Orange Mad Bad. Except Jagger didn’t take the bait.

The New York Times reporter called what Springsteen has done in recent years “a meaningful back and forth with his audience.”

Wrong.

Springsteen isn’t having a conversation with his audience. He isn’t debating them or answering their questions. It’s a lecture from a multi-millionaire who doesn’t have all the facts at his disposal.

And that’s on him.

Jagger has a different goal when he steps on stage.

“My job in the live music world is [to make sure audiences] have the best time they possibly can for two hours, to forget all their problems and the problems of the world and their mortgages … it’s similar to going to a sports event,” Jagger said.

And, on occasion, “You encourage them to go more nuts.”

What won’t you hear at a Rolling Stones concert? Political talking points.

“You don’t want to lecture them,” he said of his patrons.

Indeed. In the past quarter century, Jagger has occasionally written political lyrics, such as a song titled “Sweet Neocon” in 2oo5 (taken by many to be a swipe at Condi Rice), and on the the new album, there’s a reference to “mad mogul Mr. Musk,” but these songs don’t get much of a concert workout. As he said above, Jagger knows his job is to give audiences “the best time they possibly can for two hours, to forget all their problems and the problems of the world.”

Posted at 12:45 pm by Ed Driscoll