Mick Jagger has opened up about why he never finished writing his memoirs, calling the process “simply dull and upsetting”.
In an interview with BBC 6 Music News (via NME), Jagger explained that he hadn’t been motivated to continue working on the project.
“I could’ve done that [writing his memoirs], yeah. It was a thing that people started doing, writing,” he said.
“I think in the ’80s I started it and I was offered a lot of money – the money was the seductive part of it! So when I actually started to get into it I really didn’t enjoy it…reliving my life, to the detriment of living in the now,” he continued.
“If you wanna write an autobiography, this is not a process you can just do in a week – it takes a lot out of you. It takes a lot of reliving emotions, reliving friendships, reliving ups and downs.”
Mick Jagger continued on to reveal that his experience of attempting to write his memoirs “wasn’t the most enjoyable”, adding: “It was all simply dull and upsetting, and there really weren’t that many highs out of it.”
“So I just said ‘I can’t be bothered with this’, and gave the money back to my publisher, and said that I’d do it another day. That was the end of it. I think later I said something stupid like I’d written it and couldn’t remember any of it, but it really wasn’t that: I just didn’t enjoy the process.”
Love Classic Rock?
Get the latest Classic Rock news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
When asked whether he intended to finish writing the memoir one day, he said: “Not any moment soon.”
Jagger previously said in 2014 that anyone wanting to read his memoirs should “look it up on Wikipedia”.
“I think the rock’n’roll memoir is a glutted market. I’d rather be doing something new,” he told The Hollywood Reporter at the time.
“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.”
For more on this topic, check out the Classic Rock Observer.
Check out ‘Eazy Sleazy’ by Mick Jagger with Dave Grohl:
