Mick Jagger, say it ain’t so.
“BackStage Pass VIP, ” a new Jagger biography being shopped around for a publisher, exposes the Rolling Stones lead singer as a closet conservative who brought his parents flowers during dinner visits and begged his ex-wife, Bianca, to wear a bra under her see-through shirt during a surprise visit from his mother.
“Bianca refused, stormed out and Jagger was left to nervously fix a tray of tea and spread a bunch of pastries on a doily to cater to his mum,” writes Debra Sharon Davis. “It is the absolute opposite of everything the public thought they knew about Jagger.”
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Davis, who traveled with the Rolling Stones to Europe in the 1980s, interviewed a cast everyone from fans to culture commentators to Jagger’s bandmates.
Her manuscript includes many never-before-heard stories of icons, from John Lennon to Janis Joplin.
The book also exposes Jagger’s conservative subtleties, such as his affinity for eggs served soft boiled in a Wedgewood cup, “which Bianca always seemed to overcook.”
“Jagger was like the young private equity moguls of this era, the money guys,” said Davis, in a press release. “He supervised the Rolling Stones organization – the toughest CEO, except he trusted no one and was not a delegator. He questioned every purchase. He even concerned himself with the price of pencil sharpeners in the Stones’ office. Whatever the price, he thought it was too high. He was obsessed with profits.”
And profits he made. The group garnered nearly $600 million in touring and record sales alone.
Davis, currently in the market for publishers, revisited the project at the encouragement of publishing veteran and literary agent Robert G. Diforio, after shelfing it at the completion of her 1980s interviews.
A possible 2012 release would also mark the Stones’ 50th anniversary.