The Disagreement Between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards That Threatened To Dismantle The Rolling Stones

It’s hard to keep a band together, plain and simple. Like any relationship, bandmates have to work with each other, overcoming many obstacles to earn the kind of enduring success that bands like The Rolling Stones have. These legendary rockers have stayed together in somewhat of the original lineup since the 1960s. They have a better track record than most.

But that said, it doesn’t mean that their tenure has been perfect. The backbone of the band, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, have had their fair share of squabbles over the years. But, instead of letting that make them bitter to the point of breaking up, they’ve used their mutual love of music to overcome it. Find out more about the major disagreement these two had in the 1980s that threatened to fracture this group.

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The 1980s Disagreement Between Keith Richards and Mick Jagger

The 1970s saw drama for The Rolling Stones, but Richards and Jagger’s personal tensions mounted in the 1980s. This era saw their particular brand of rock fall out of style. As reports go, Jagger started tightening his grip on the band’s sound, much to the guitarist’s dismay.

Their internal battle for creative control was highlighted in the 1980 release, “All About You”. “Well if you call this a life / Why must I spend mine with you? / If the show must go on / Let it go on without you,” the lyrics read, pointed at Jagger.

According to the frontman, their feud was inevitable. “So, yeah, we had a bit of a doo-dah, but I expected it,” Jagger once said. “We resolved it, in our own way, you know.”

“If you work with someone that long, it makes a lot of bonds, a lot of memories, and things you relate to from your past,” Jagger added. “You have reference points that you can evoke. You have relationships with everyone in the band and with people in the periphery, so it’s a large group. But it isn’t a family.”

Solo projects, financial issues, addiction, creative differences…all of these things contributed to the personal tensions of Jagger and Richards. But, as the guitar legend once pointed out, music is big enough to overcome any turmoil. While that earnest sentiment might not be the most rock-and-roll thing ever, it speaks to The Stones’ longevity.

“Everybody’s still here, which is obviously an important ingredient,” Richards added in the same conversation. “With any band that has been around, even for a few years, not everybody always likes everybody. But maybe you need that conversation to continue, and music is the one way you can do that. It’s stronger than the other things that get in the way.”

(Watal Asanuma/Shinko Music/Getty Images)

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