Why Mick Jagger’s Long Lost Memoir May Never See The Light Of Day

Mick Jagger has book publishers under his thumb. The legendary Rolling Stones frontman has reportedly written a memoir about his heyday in the famous rock band, but the Stones’ management team says a manuscript by Sir Mick won’t be published anytime soon.

In an essay for Spectator magazine, London publisher John Blake revealed he is in possession of a 75,000-word autobiography written by Mick Jagger. Blake described the unpublished book, which he claims landed in his hands three years ago—complete with Jagger’s handwritten notes in the margins—as “a little masterpiece, a 75,000-word time capsule.”

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While Mick Jagger has long denied that he will ever write a book about his life, Blake insists the rocker already has. The rock journalist says Mick wrote the book, possibly with a little help from a ghostwriter, in the early 1980s because he was tired of all the unauthorized books about the Stones. Jagger reportedly received a one-million pound advance for the project, but at least one publisher rejected the manuscript because “it was light on sex and drugs.”

“I thought that was the end of the story until three years ago when a mutual friend handed me a pristine typescript Mick had written,” Blake wrote. “I was dumbfounded. This was the rock ‘n’ roll equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls.”

According to Blake, Mick Jagger’s book shows a quieter, “more watchful” side of his early life in the rock ‘n’ roll spotlight and not the “fast-living caricature” he later became. He compares Mick’s manuscript to “reading Elvis Presley’s diaries from the days before he grew fat and washed-up in Vegas.”

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Some of the anecdotes recorded in the book include the story of the “extravagant” backstage feasts of caviar, quail, and champagne the band allegedly demanded then left untouched, and a tale about Mick Jagger’s high-dollar purchase of the Stargroves mansion while he was high on acid.

When Blake approached Mick a few years ago about the resurfaced manuscript, the rock icon didn’t even remember it, but he still alleges he convinced Jagger to pen a foreword to establish that the book was written by him way back in the day. But soon after, Mick Jagger and his management team shut down.

“Mick wanted nothing further to do with this project. He never wanted to see it published,” Blake wrote.

In a statement posted by The New York Times, Rolling Stones manager Joyce Smyth downplayed the existence of a previously written book by Mick Jagger.

“John Blake writes to me from time to time seeking permission to publish this manuscript,” Smyth said in a statement.

“The answer is always the same: He can not, because it isn’t his and he accepts this. Readers will be able to form a view as regards the matters to which John Blake refers when Sir Mick’s autobiography appears, should he choose to write it.”

Of course, longtime fans know that Mick Jagger has been vocal about his feelings on tell-alls. While his Rolling Stones bandmate Keith Richards penned a bestselling manifesto, Life, in 2010, Jagger told the Hollywood Reporter he has no interest in adding “author” to his own resume.

“I think the rock ‘n’ roll memoir is a glutted market,” Mick told THR in 2014.

“I’d rather be doing something new. I’d rather be making new films, making new music, be touring. If someone wants to know what I did in 1965, they can look it up on Wikipedia without even spending any money.”

Of course, Jagger may just have a bad taste in his mouth regarding tell-alls. Richards famously jabbed Mick in his own book, going so far as to allude that the Rolling Stones frontman is less than endowed. In Life, Richards famously wrote a passage about Mick Jagger’s split from his ex-girlfriend Marianne Faithfull, zinging the rocker with: “She had no fun with his tiny todger. I know he’s got an enormous pair of balls – but it doesn’t quite fill the gap.”

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— RetroCo (@Retro_Co) July 16, 2015

In a 2013 interview with the Daily Mail, both Jagger and Richards revealed that an apology was in order after Life was published.

“I don’t really want to talk about Keith’s book,” Mick added.

Of course, Richards had another take on his tell-all.

“As I told Mick, ‘You should have seen what I left out!”’ Keith told the Daily Mail. “I said, ‘I know exactly what you did. You got the book, you went straight to the index – Jagger, M – and that’s what you read. You didn’t take it in context. You didn’t.’ So, yeah, we had a bit of a doo-dah, but I expected it. We resolved it, in our own way, you know.”

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[Featured Image by Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images]