Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Mick Jagger on New Music from The Rolling Stones

Episode Date: June 14, 2026

Mick Jagger is a rock and roll legend unlike any other.  The four-time Grammy winner has also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy.  Now, Jagger and The Rolling Stones are out with a new album called Foreign Tongues. Jagger got together with Willie Geist to talk about his favorite of the band's iconic records, The Stones' old rivalry with The Beatles, the anxious excitement of releasing new music and much more.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks, as always, for clicking and listening along. Man, do I have a big one for you today? I think we can agree. I think it's fair to say. He is the biggest rock star of them all, a true music icon. Mick Jagger. Mick and I got together in New York to talk about the Stone's new album.

It's called Foreign Tongues. Full disclosure, I've been a Stones fan since I was a kid. I grew up in a Stone's house, my dad, my mom, my uncles. Everybody listened to the Rolling Stones. I've been in to see Mick a bunch of times from a young age to recently. And so every once in a while, you get to meet some incredible people in this job and sit across from and have long conversations with people you've looked up to and admired. But this just feels like something else. I mean, Mick Jagger, to me, lived on some different planet.

And there he was sitting across from me. We had a great conversation about this new album, Foreign Tongues. but also about the band, the history of the band. They put some drums on this new album from Charlie Watts, the late great Charlie Watts, who died in 2021. They had some recorded drums that they put onto a song. Paul McCartney plays bass on this album. So we talk about the old Stones, Beatles rivalry from the 60s.

And then we talk about some of his favorite albums. Obviously, these are difficult decisions to make, but they had a run there in the late 60s, early 70s of what many people, critics say, are some of the four or five best albums of all time. And they all came from the Stones in about three and a half years. So we talk about that, talk about whether or not we're going to see the Stones touring again, back out on the road. A great conversation. He and I just sitting in a hotel room with a bunch of people standing around us doing this interview. I don't really need to say much more to introduce Mick Jagger, do I?

So let's get right to it. Mick Jagger on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Mick, thank you for doing this. Nice to see you. Great to see you as well. Congratulations on the album, Foreign Tungs. Thank you. By my math, this is your 27th U.S. album of original material.

Okay. Do you still get that thrill or those nerves or whatever the emotions are on the eve of an album release? Yeah, yeah, you do, because you know, you spent a lot of time in it and to your baby and, you know, you want other people to like it or, you know, you know that not everyone's going to like it, and they're not maybe going to like everything, but, you know, they hope that it's not just, you know, oh, yeah, not just, oh, yeah, well, it's not really interesting. You weren't just take notice, you know, of what you've done.

And I guess, I mean, I don't really think about that, but everyone else's the same thing, you know, because when you make your first record, you're obviously hugely excited. I can remember that. And then, but, you know, as you say, the 27th, it's not quite the same. But I mean, we hadn't made an album for 18 years, and then we made

Hackney Diamonds. I mean, we've been we've made a blues album. We didn't make an original material. So, Hackney Diamonds had the 18-year waiting list, so, you know. So we did this one, you know, it was like not so long waiting for the next new one. So we did

10 new tracks for this album, which we recorded in London. And four were from the previous sessions from the Hattney Diamond sessions and one from before that. So yeah, most of it's pretty new. It does feel like you're in a bit of a groove. Hackney was only three years ago. As you say, Bigger Bang was 18 years before that. Are you feeling those creative juices flowing at the moment? Yeah, I mean, I'm like I write all the time, really. I mean, that's the thing. You don't,

I mean, I think you just get into a groove of writing. That's good. And then, you know, working with Andy Watts. It's really helpful because he makes it all go so fast that's not hanging around. And we have a plan of how we're going to do it and how we're going to do it like X amount of weeks. We did the 10 tracks in four weeks. That's pretty quick. I mean, we used to spend months in the studio writing in the studio,

you know, like, I know you two still do this. And so we used to write in the studio and then whatever came out, you know, would be... We've got great things out of that, but these days it doesn't seem to be working. So, you know, I do a lot of prep on the songs. So I prep the songs and do demos, a lot of the songs. And so I know where they should go, where I think they should go, and then you hope that the band will take them somewhere much further than you've imagined,

which sometimes happens. Is the process of writing songs with Keith much different than it was years back when you would do it? Yeah, I mean, it was a lot of. A lot of processes are writing songs with Keith. In the old days, I mean, we used to sit around with, you know, and just doodle and, you know, we're the little tape recorder or actually start off with a big tape recorder at so long ago. And, you know, I used to write mostly lyrics and then,

but I used to have to write the top lines because, you know, guitar player writers often come up with a lot of great chord sequences or little bits of melody. You have to fill the rest of it in. It's a lot of times a sketch. But over the years, we've written in all kinds of different ways, and we write a lot on our own, you know. And we do a lot of this stuff not writing.

And then we got together in New York and played each other's stuff that we've written. I've seen some of the videos behind the scenes making the album, some of them at the event yesterday. And if anyone's wondering if you guys still enjoy the process of making music, go watch these videos. I mean, you could be 25 years old again, the way you are together, the way you're creative together, and honestly watching you perform these songs

and takes of songs as if you're at Wembley or something. You're dancing, you're moving around the room. Is that how you do it? Yeah, well, when you get really rocker, you know, you don't like sit in an armchair doing it just because they're in the studio. You just get taken by it, you know? And sadly, in the ballad,

you know, if you've got a ballad, you're not going to do that, but you wouldn't do that on stage, you know. But if you've got a real rock, you take a, you know, use a handheld mic, you know, or you, I mean, I can't keep still when I'm doing that stuff. But you've got to be on the mic. Right. We learn that a bit, did we? Yes. Moving the mic around.

Yeah, you don't. One of the really cool things about this album among many is some of the guests who join you. Yeah. including Paul McCartney. Yeah. How did that come about? I mean, Paul played on the Hattie Diamonds, and he plays one song on this,

which is kind of like a melodic rap song. But he plays really good. He's really in the groove, very different. Because on the last album, he played one more as a punk tune. Yeah. But this is more like a soul tune kind of a groove. But he's really got ability to swap stuff. He's a really good bass player.

Your musical relationship with Paul McCartney these days seems like you get along great and then you enjoy making music together. Has it always been that way? Yeah, he did sing with us in the 60s on a couple of tunes, him and John. And they were, like, we were going through a really hard time and they were very supportive

and we were making a record, and it was difficult. And so, but I've never written with Paul which is kind of I mean I don't think he really writes with anyone else but I mean Andy was saying you should write one with Paul but we never got around to it. Well there's time clearly you're still

finding the group I mean there was always this are you Beatles or you stones all through the years was that just sort of a false creation from outsiders did you feel like rivals? I think it was an element of truth in it but I think there was a lot of element of PR in it too Right. But it was also London, Liverpool. So it's a bit like L.A. New York. Yes. I mean, not that Liverpool's like L.A.

No, slightly different. Not really. But, yeah, there was, obviously that was a good talking point for press to get on to. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Mick Jagger right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Mick Jagger. Do you have a song on this album that you are most excited to play for people? Is there one you go? I can't wait to get out and play it for a crowd. Jealous lover, I'd like to sing that.

Yeah. You know? I mean, there's a lot of them. Mr. Charm, I'd like to do that one live. I really look towards doing that one live. Yeah. Rough and talking about it. And it's a dance tune.

Rather than twisted, it could be good, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So that raises the question. Is there a chance you guys will get out and play these for crowds, go on tour? Well, I'd love to. You know, I really want to. And I'm ready to go. But I don't think we're going to do shows this year, but hopefully we'll do shows

it next year. You'll be back out on the road. Okay. Your fans will be very excited to hear that. Very excited to hear that. It seems to be just listening to this, that this is, classic stones, this album. And by that, I just mean, it's just great,

blues-inspired, rhythm guitar, your voice sounds great. Thank you. Does it feel like a classic Stones album? Yeah, I don't really know. I mean, it has a lot of styles on it. You know, in a way, and I think that's what's a good thing about the Rolling Stones,

and I said this yesterday. But the Stones, you think of them as a classic rock band and everything, but in reality, there's very little classic rock on the album, really. A lot of it is, there's, you know, there's dance tunes, there's like country music, there's ballads, there's blues, you know. So I think that when you say it's a classic stone's album,

to me that means that's like one of the best ones. Right. Do you know what I mean? Is it one of the best ones? I think you have to give it time, you know. Even I don't know at this point, you know, you have to take a step back from it. And you say, that was, you know, that in itself was, you know, that was one of your best albums. It had good things.

I mean, a lot of stuff you look back on and you go, you know, first of all, there's some, Ronnie Stone's albums that have eight tracks. I mean, you only had eight tracks. I mean, we don't have been called 20 tracks in 10 days. You know, you had eight tracks and you were like 30 years old. Come on, what are you doing? And then out of those eight tracks, when you look back on it, you go, well, you know, I like three of them, but I don't really like all of them. Yeah.

You know, and, but at the time, obviously, you like them all. So. I don't know what to say. I guess by classic, I just mean it sounds like your best stuff. Yeah. Well, that's what you hope. You hope that everyone, you hope that every track has got something for everyone. And not everyone's taste is that kind of, this kind of style.

Not everyone's taste is that song. And so, you know, that's why you've got, you know, 14 tracks. Yes. So we're talking about classic albums. I was thinking about your run of about three and a half years from 68, starting with beggars, Bankrupt to 72, I guess, with Exile, those four albums. Yeah, those were really good albums. And probably nearly all of the tracks I've got something to say.

You know, nearly every track's got something to say. There's no fillers in things. I mean, these days things are not quite the same. You've got to remember that, I mean, we all talk about albums and we're talking about album covers, but very few people, including myself, really listen to a whole album anymore. Of course, there are people that do, but they're a minority.

So you really pick and choose. I mean, we always did that. We played the opening track on an album, play two tracks, and then we go, okay, I'll play something else. Or you play, if you really love this artist, But now, you know, most of the time you listen to things online, you know, and so you pick and choose. And if you like a new album of someone, you play the first couple of tracks and that's enough. And if you really like those, then you might, I might, what I do is I dig into it later and I go on, okay, I let the album play.

And I put the album on, not the track online. And I let's let the album play. And I go, I discover things. You know, that one doesn't like, bang. No. You know? Nah, no. Then you find something really interesting that you wouldn't have found, you know, maybe.

So it's a different way of discovery, I think. Or sometimes one grows on you that you didn't like initially and then it takes out a new meaning as you listen to it more. So there's a parlor game among Stones fans about the Desert Island Stones album. I just listed a group of them. Okay. Do you have a favorite Rolling Stones album? Mm-hmm. I mean, I think Sticky Fingers is really good.

I think Beggar's Banquet is really good. I think Hackney Diamonds is pretty good, too. How about a song? If there's one song that you could look back and say... I understand, but if there's one that you say, that is us at our best, that song. I mean, there's so many different styles. I mean, you're running the gamut of sympathy

leave the devil, you know, start me up, Angie, Hong Kong, women. All these are great, but they're all very different, you know. One's a samba, one's a ballad, one's a rock, you know. That's what I like about so many stars, that's why it's hard to pick one. And that's why I don't mind the stones being like classic rock, but in my mind they're really not. They're not to that, because they're not playing.

There's no album with the Rolling Stones where you hear 12 rock tunes. in a row. There isn't one. Yeah. And they're all blues songs at the end of the day. Yeah, there's always blues songs. Yes. There's always blues songs. And everything is very blues tinged, you know. So a lot of rock bands, obviously a lot of rock bands are blues inspired.

You know, not so we're the only one. But there are a lot of indie bands that I really like, but they're not very blues inspired. But you can like them and everything. For everything that the stones do is blues inspired. So the rock numbers come out with that, you know, the Samba song comes out with that. Nearly all, and even the ballads come out with that. So, you know, it's in our first love was blues and everything,

and we have this huge debt to black music, you know, that we always acknowledged. And so we're inspired by that initially. And obviously we want to take it into our own styles and create our own changes in that and create our own music. But we're always in debt to that. And I think you can hear it in every song. Stick around for more of my conversation with Mick Jagger right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Mick Jagger.

Whether you intended it or not, you've elevated so many blues artists, just by talking about them sometimes, but certainly playing with them. Has that been a gratifying byproduct of your work? Well, I mean, we owe this huge debt to those people. You know, first of all, we love them just as fans. And before we were blues players or even thought about it being a blues, but I never thought about actually being a blues player

when I was 13, you know. It wasn't what white kids from the suburbs. Did you became like, you were more like Buddy Holly or something. But I mean that all those people were also by the blues as well. So you didn't think of itself like that. But then, yeah, then you start to see those people live, you start to meet them, you know,

and then eventually, amazingly, you start playing with them. And so this whole thing, you start as a fan, and then you end up playing with these people, which is an amazing thing, and you learn an awful lot. And it's been that way, as you say, since you were a child, basically. Yeah. Thinking of the moment you and Keith had that now famous meeting on the train platform in Dartford. But even before that, we were playing, both Keith and I were, and many other people that we still around were interested in that kind of music from when we were like 13 years old.

And we would play mostly acoustic, we would buy acoustic blues albums. were, you know, they would be on the television, they would do tours of England, you would see them on the television. That's how your first influences came from that. And so we were always very interested in that. And gospel, too, there's a lot of gospel music came through England.

You know, Sister Rosetta Tharp, these kind of Mahalia Jackson, these kind of, they were often on television. And as there was only two television stations, You watched them, you know, you were kind of a captive audience and you watched them. And so I think these were very influential on our early, all of our early musical album. How extraordinary to have a Muddy Waters record under your arms, a kid riding the train, and then to walk in one day to chess records and play with Muddy Waters.

That's to be surreal, right? It's kind of surreal, and it wasn't a very long gap in reality in years. We're not talking that many years until you met all these people and, you know, met them all. And under all kinds of weird circumstances, when we were doing a promotion, Hollywood promotion singles show with go-go dancers, and Howling Wolf came. You know what I mean? And we got him on the show, and Howling Wolf came, and they'd never had anything but just teen, you know, songs. And then Helen Wolfe was there And Helen Wolfe brought with him

This famous old blues singer Called Sun House It goes back to the, this is about the 30s It goes back to the Robert Johnson era Of the blues, yeah This is like really, you know And I met Sunhouse and You know, I never thought I would meet him

And you know, it's just in a Hollywood studio It's just very odd It's just very odd Sure Yeah, but you've had that. kind of impact too that I grew up on your music and I learned about those guys because you played with them or talked about it. Yeah, well, that's a cool legacy. I mean, that's good. You know, and then after that, you got a lot and then after that you had a whole lot of

intermingling of influences and and so that, you know, everyone was, we don't forget that we also had the huge amounts of influence of soul music and gospel music and the Tamamo being so popular and that was the intro into soul music for a lot of people like the Beatles for yes you know I think the Beatles were influenced by salt vice Tamma Motown yes and they used to do covers of Tamma Motown and a show which we never we never did that you know because we were supposedly a blues band but they used to do covers and then and then think after that that leads you into the more kind of like slightly unknown and then leads into James Brown and on and so on and so on, which we always have mine.

I was just telling you backstage here that one of the last times we saw each other was on the set of the James Brown movie. Yeah. The late great Chadwick Boson was there. But even that to be able to help to bring to life the movie about James Brown. Yeah, well, that was great. And Chad was such, you know, that was Chad's second movie. Right. Because he did the biopic, did two biopics on the trots. He did Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson. Yeah. And then he did the James movie and he was so great in that and he really channeled James Brown perfectly I thought what was also fun in that period was doing the documentary on James Brown because with with all his musicians talking about him and discovered a tongue-in-cheek way

and I just sort of skating over some of the you know telling the stories about how bad he was I mean bad in whatever he wants so bad. But telling him about him, you know, his strange behavior or how he behaved if you stepped out of a lion and all this. Right. And, you know, but, yeah, that was a fun documentary, Jamaica. Yeah, that was, then the film was beautiful, too, with Chadwick. Before I let you go, Mick, you were talking about the state of music and how we all listened

to singles, which is very true. I'm curious, are there contemporary, artists that people might be surprised you're a fan of. Is there someone on the charts right now if you know, oh, he or she's cool? No, okay. I like a lot of, you know, I listen to a lot of pop music, really, you know. But I mean, the way I can assume it is like anyone, you know, I'm not like necessarily a huge fan and listen to everything that everyone does, you know? Yeah. That may be, you know, I'm a huge Bob Dylan fan, so I listen to Bob Dylan a lot. But, you know, With pop music, it's more like grazing a lot.

It's a lot of grazing, and you just put that playlist on, and you hear what's happening this week or last week, and something hits you, and you're like, oh, you know. And my son said to me, oh, Zara Larsson's having a big comeback. And I said, well, she never went away for me. Right. I said, I like to since ruin my life, you know, so. And I said, why are you?

I'm like, just what I like. And that's, when I'm in that mood, that's what I like. Right. So you still are tuned in. You know what's going on. I don't know about everything that's going on. But what I was saying is, the way I consume pop music is the way I consume candy.

You know, it's like, sometimes I have a binge of it, you know, and I binge on that chocolate, whatever, and then I've had enough and I have a little break from it. And then I don't know what it's going on, you know. Right. I've lost touch for three weeks. I don't know what the hits of those last three weeks are. And then I go back in again.

Right. And that's probably a good way to do it. A little sampler. Yeah, it's a sampler. And then I go back to listen to Robert Johnson, you know. And I go, wow, it's still amazing. I've heard things. I thought I'd heard everything in there, but it's sort of something.

I just heard the way he sang that. A century later, you're still hearing something new. It's a century later. Yeah. Is it totally, yeah, to think of it like that. It doesn't seem, Mick, that you're slowing out at all. when I listen to this new album, do you expect to continue to put out music every couple of years?

Yeah, I think I have a lot more songs to write. So, yeah, I wrote a lot of stuff, and I hope to be writing more. So, yeah, I don't want to slow down particularly. I don't feel like slowing down. I mean, I don't see why I should, but I think when you do it, songwriting is a weird thing because you just, you need time to get going.

and once you get going, it starts to come. You don't get frustrated. The first few days, you're not going to write necessarily going to write anything. You know, that's amazing. And then, like, fifth day, start writing things. It's coming, you know. And when we were doing, like, I was playing the piano,

and I had this, I just playing to a drum machine, and I was doing this song, Jealous Lover. And I just started it. I just started it. I just got the chorus. I was singing, I know, My mom, Jealous Lover. And the phone rang. I was, I'll answer.

It was Andy. I said, Andy, hang on the minute. I'm right in the middle of doing this chorus. And we play with me. He says, that's great, that's great. Carry on, don't stop. I'm hanging up. Don't stop.

Come when he finished it. That's how, Andy. So that bumps me up a bit, you know. A look inside the process. We will take as much music as you can possibly put out, Mick. Thank you so much. And congratulations. Lovely to see you again.

Thank you. Thank you. My huge thanks to Mick Jagger for the time and thoughtful conversation. The latest Rolling Stones album, Foreign Tongues, comes out on July 10th. And of course, you can hear their full catalog wherever you stream your music. My thanks also to all of you for listing again this week. If you want to hear more of my conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode.

And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC to see these interviews with your own two eyes. in full living color. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.