Mick Jagger

Biography: Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of rock band The Rolling Stones. Jagger gained much press notoriety for admitted drug use and romantic involvements, and was often portrayed as a counterculture figure. In the late 1960s Jagger began acting in films (starting with Performance and Ned Kelly), to mixed reception. In 1985, Jagger released his first solo album, She?s the Boss, and was knighted in 2003. In early 2009, he joined the eclectic supergroup SuperHeavy.

Jagger?s career has spanned over 50 years. His performance style has been said to have "opened up definitions of gendered masculinity and so laid the foundations for self-invention and sexual plasticity which are now an integral part of contemporary youth culture". Allmusic has described Jagger as "one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll". His distinctive voice and performance, along with Keith Richards? guitar style, have been the trademark of The Rolling Stones throughout their career.

Jagger was born into a middle class family at the Livingstone Hospital, in Dartford, Kent, England. His father, Basil Fanshawe ("Joe") Jagger and his paternal grandfather, David Ernest Jagger, were both teachers. His mother, Eva Ensley Mary (nee Scutts), born in New South Wales, Australia, was a hairdresser and an active member of the Conservative Party. Jagger is the elder of two sons (his brother Chris Jagger was born in 1947) and was raised to follow in his father?s career path.

In the book According to the Rolling Stones, Jagger states "I was always a singer. I always sang as a child. I was one of those kids who just liked to sing. Some kids sing in choirs; others like to show off in front of the mirror. I was in the church choir and I also loved listening to singers on the radio - the BBC or Radio Luxembourg - or watching them on TV and in the movies."

From September 1950, Keith Richards and Jagger (known as "Mike" to his friends) were classmates at Wentworth Primary School in Dartford, Kent. In 1954, Jagger passed the eleven-plus, and went to Dartford Grammar School, where there is now The Mick Jagger Centre, as part of the school. Having lost contact with each other when they went to different schools, Richards and Jagger resumed their friendship in July 1960 after a chance encounter and discovered that they had both developed a love for rhythm and blues music, which began for Jagger with Little Richard.

Jagger left school in 1961. He obtained seven O-levels and three A-levels. Jagger and Richards moved into a flat in Edith Grove in Chelsea with a guitarist they had encountered named Brian Jones. While Richards and Jones were making plans to start their own rhythm and blues group, Jagger continued his business courses at the London School of Economics, and had seriously considered becoming either a journalist or a politician.

In their earliest days, the members played for no money in the interval of Alexis Korner?s gigs at a basement club opposite Ealing Broadway tube station (subsequently called "Ferry?s" club). At the time, the group had very little equipment and needed to borrow Alexis? gear to play. This was before Andrew Loog Oldham became their manager.

The group?s first appearance under the name The Rollin? Stones (after one of their favourite Muddy Waters tunes) was at the Marquee Club, a jazz club, on 12 July 1962. They would later change their name to - The Rolling Stones - as it seemed more formal. Victor Bockris states that the band members included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Ian Stewart on piano, Dick Taylor on bass and Tony Chapman on drums. However, Richards states in Life, "The drummer that night was Mick Avory - not Tony Chapman, as history has mysteriously handed it down..."Some time later, the band went on their first tour in the United Kingdom; this was known as the - training ground - tour because it was a new experience for all of them. The line-up did not at that time include drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman. By 1963, they were finding their stride as well as popularity. By 1964, two unscientific opinion polls rated them as England?s most popular group, outranking even the Beatles.

By the autumn of 1963, Jagger had left the London School of Economics in favour of his promising musical career with the Rolling Stones. The group continued to mine the works of American rhythm and blues artists such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, but with the strong encouragement of Andrew Loog Oldham, Jagger and Richards soon began to write their own songs. This core songwriting partnership would flourish in time; one of their early compositions, "As Tears Go By", was a song written for Marianne Faithfull, a young singer being promoted by Loog Oldham at the time. For the Rolling Stones, the duo would write "The Last Time", the group?s third number-one single in the UK (their first two UK number-one hits had been cover versions). Another of the fruits of this collaboration was their first international hit, "(I Can?t Get No) Satisfaction". It also established The Rolling Stones? image as defiant troublemakers in contrast to The Beatles? "lovable moptop" image.

The group released several successful albums including December?s Children (And Everybody?s), Aftermath, and Between the Buttons, but their reputations were catching up to them. In 1967, Jagger and Richards were arrested on drug charges and were given unusually harsh sentences: Jagger was sentenced to three months? imprisonment for possession of four over-the-counter pep pills he had purchased in Italy. On appeal, Richards? sentence was overturned and Jagger?s was amended to a conditional discharge (he ended up spending one night inside Brixton Prison) after an article appeared in The Times, written by its traditionally conservative editor William (now Lord) Rees-Mogg, but the Rolling Stones continued to face legal battles for the next decade. Around the same time, internal struggles about the direction of the group had begun to surface.

After Jones? death and their move in 1971 to the south of France as tax exiles, Jagger and the rest of the band changed their look and style as the 1970s progressed. For the Rolling Stones? highly publicised 1972 American tour, Jagger wore glam-rock clothing and glittery makeup on stage. Later in the decade, they ventured into genres like disco and punk with the album Some Girls (1978). Their interest in the blues, however, had been made manifest in the 1972 album Exile on Main St. His emotional singing on the gospel-influenced Let It Loose, one of the album?s tracks, has been described by music critic Russell Hall as having been Jagger?s finest ever vocal achievement.

After the band?s acrimonious split with their second manager, Allen Klein, in 1971, Jagger took control of their business affairs and has managed them ever since in collaboration with his friend and colleague, Rupert L�wenstein. Mick Taylor, Brian Jones?s replacement, left the band in December 1974 and was replaced by Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood in 1975, who also operated as a mediator within the group, and between Jagger and Richards in particular.

While continuing to tour and release albums with the Rolling Stones, Jagger began a solo career. His first two solo albums, She?s the Boss (1985) and Primitive Cool (1987).

Wandering Spirit was the third solo album by Jagger and was released in 1993. It would be his only solo album release of the 1990s. Jagger aimed to re-introduce himself as a solo artist in a musical climate vastly changed from that of his first two albums.

Jagger is known for his many high-profile relationships. He has been married twice and has had numerous romantic connections.

In 1970, Mick Jagger purchased Stargroves at East Woodhay in Hampshire as his country estate. It was often used as a recording venue. In the same year, he began a relationship with Nicaraguan-born Bianca De Macias, whom he married on 12 May 1971, in a Catholic ceremony in Saint-Tropez, France. The couple separated in 1977 and in May 1978, she filed for divorce on the grounds of his adultery. Bianca later said "My marriage ended on my wedding day."

In late 1977, he began seeing model Jerry Hall, while still married to Bianca. After a lengthy cohabitation and several children together, the couple married on 21 November 1990, in a Hindu beach ceremony in Indonesia and moved together to Downe House in Richmond, Surrey. Jagger later contested the validity of the ceremony, and the marriage was annulled in August 1999.

Jagger has seven children by four women:

By Marsha Hunt, he has daughter Karis Hunt Jagger (born 1970).

By Bianca Jagger, he has daughter Jade Sheena Jezebel (born 1971).

By Jerry Hall he has daughter Elizabeth Scarlett (born 1984), son James Leroy Augustin (born 1985), daughter Georgia May Ayeesha (born 1992) and son Gabriel Luke Beauregard (born 1997)

By Luciana Gimenez, he has son Lucas Maurice Morad (born 18 May 1999).

He also has four grandchildren.

Jagger is an avid cricket fan. He founded Jagged Internetworks so he could get coverage of English Cricket.

His personal fortune was estimated in 2010, at �190 million.

He said in September 2010 that he has a daily meditation and Buddhist practice.

On 12 December 2003, Jagger was knighted for Services to Music, as Sir Michael Jagger by The Prince of Wales. Mick Jagger?s knighthood received mixed reactions. Some fans were disappointed when he accepted the honour as it seemed to contradict his anti-establishment stance