Mick Jagger shed light on his classic Instagram posts featuring him out and about in the U.S. during the Rolling Stones‘ recent “No Filter” tour. The legendary frontman posted shots of himself throughout the recent leg at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, checking out the wildlife in Tennessee, drinking a beer at Charlotte’s Thirsty Beaver Saloon, and chilling out on the beach in Miami.
Jagger told The Washington Post, “I take one security guy or maybe two. And one of the guys — one of the musicians, maybe — and we go out and explore. We walked the strip in Nashville. I’m wearing a mask and a hat and so I (am not recognized). It’s crazy. But most of the places I go aren’t super crowded.”
He went on to explain that posting about his off-night and post-gig activities really is nothing new: “When I started, I did it in our previous tours. But now, social media has become more popular. People didn’t take quite as much notice as they do now. And when I stopped, when I did it from that bar, y’know, the Beaver bar. some people took a lot of notice and I thought, well, actually, this is kind of fun.”
Regarding the photo that went viral of him enjoying a brew at Charlotte’s Thirsty Beaver Saloon: “There’s hardly anyone there. It’s dark. It’s not like really grand. I’m not in a big, huge limo. I just walk the block and then just go down there. And I can’t go inside the room because the covid rules of the tour don’t allow me to go in a saloon. And that’s a promise we made. But I could stand (on the patio) outside the saloon. And I’m far away from the people.”
When pressed as to whether Keith Richards ever asks to join him out on the town, Jagger admitted: “I don’t think Keith really. . . I think he has a different approach to how he handles being on tour. I mean, he does occasionally go out to eat. But I think the covid thing. . . people quite rightly got worried about what would happen if they ran into a crowd of people.”
Although he’s often been portrayed as a workaholic, Mick Jagger explained that over the years, he’s learned to perfectly prioritize his life: “You don’t want to be totally work obsessed only — but, just staying at home with the kids is probably frustrating as well. So you have to be balanced in your life and have time to have pleasure and fun and time to really have hard work and time to have family relationships and friends and not be so hard at work that you can’t enjoy them. I mean, when I’m working, I’m really driven, but when I’m not, I’m not at all driven.”