Mick Jagger has revealed the meaning behind his new song with Dave Grohl ‘Eazy Sleazy’, and turns out it’s more relevant than ever.
In an interview with Consequence of Sound, Jagger explained that he wanted the track to be a “semi-humorous” take on COVID-19 and life during a pandemic.
He began: “I haven’t written loads of songs about [the pandemic], ‘Eazy Sleazy’ is the only song I’ve written on this subject. I wrote it really quickly a few weeks ago. I thought, “Well, I might as well do one on the whole experience of it in a semi-humorous way.” I mean, it’s not at all humorous, obviously, because it’s not a subject of total humour.”
He continued: “But, it’s an experience of having to be in a very different kind of world for a whole year now. Then we’re seeing that in a lot of places — we’re coming to see the end of it, or coming to the end of this part of it, and being a bit optimistic in the choruses. So, that was my push for this song. I thought, “Well, it has to come out now because this is the period of optimism. I can’t wait another six months.” So, I thought, you know, that would be good to do.”
Jagger continued on to say that he thinks the pandemic would have “subtly affected” many artists’ work, whether they directly addressed it or not.
“I’m sure an atmosphere of isolation or semi-isolation has changed what’s being created in this period… I’m sure it subtly affected a lot of people’s subject material and the way they write music,” he said.
“You’ve got lots of time to think. But in other ways, you’re not being quite so stimulated by what you’re seeing around you, or other people’s ideas as much.”
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When asked about working with Dave Grohl, Jagger said he contacted him because he knew he would be capable of working together from a distance.
“I thought, “Who is very experienced in working from home, and I could work from a distance with, and could really get into it?” And I thought Dave [Grohl] would be a great person to do that, as he’s such a great drummer. I really wanted some live drums, so that’s why I thought Dave would be great on it. I just got him up, and he said, “I’m going in tomorrow to do it!” I said, “OK!” He did bass and some guitar parts, and I had done some guitar parts. So, we did it pretty quickly,” he said.
“I had done the demo, and it was pretty much set the way it was going to be. We worked on the way I’d done the demo. Then I said, “Just play to that.” So, he did the drums first, and he totally got the vibe of it straight away. He just likes to rock hard. It’s what I like. It’s to the point where we’re not messing around, and it’s very incisive. He’s a really easy, very enthusiastic guy to work with, so I enjoyed that. It didn’t take long. In a couple sessions, it was done. Then we got Mark “Spike” Stent, who mixed Medicine at Midnight.”
For more on this topic, check out the Classic Rock Observer.
Check out ‘Eazy Sleazy’ by Mick Jagger and Dave Grohl:
