Imagine a world without Mick Jagger. Imagine if, after 1969, there were no more Rolling Stones songs; no ‘Tumbling Dice’, no ‘Beast Of Burden’, no ‘Start Me Up’ – nothing. That would have been almost a reality if it hadn’t been for a lucky spot of bad weather.
The Rolling Stones have had their fair share of dealings with danger. In 1967, the band were the target of a major police raid as a whole squad of 18 police officers showed up at one of Keith Richards’ parties at his Redland home. At some point or another, almost all the band members were arrested for drug possession or disorderly behaviour. But everything stepped up a gear in 1969.
The Rolling Stones show at Altamont Speedway Free Festival has been written into the history books as one of music’s most harrowing tragedies. As the Charles Manson murders took place and the hippies started to disappear, the Altamont show is another event that historians link to the end of the optimism of the 1960s.
The Altamont Festival in California was hoped to be the “Woodstock of the West”, trying to bring that same free spirit to the opposite coast. But instead, it descended into violence. For security at the event, organisers hired the infamous Hells Angels gang to try to keep the peace. At a time when anger and suspicion towards the government and the police was at an all-time high, the festival decided to keep the authorities out of it.
By the time the Rolling Stones took to the stage, Mick Jagger was already unnerved by the growing violence in the crowd. “Just be cool down in the front there, don’t push around,” he said before having to stop three songs in while the Hells Angels broke up a fight.
At one point, a group of fans, including Meredith Hunter, tried to clamber onto the stage with the band. The Angels grabbed Hunter, and a fight between the two broke out. In the end, Hunter pulled a gun out, and in reaction, the Angels stabbed him to death. The Stones became aware of the situation and weren’t sure how to react. From the stage, Jagger cried out, “We’ve really got someone hurt here… is there a doctor?” before the band decided to complete their set. They reasoned that if they had stopped, a full-scale riot would’ve broken out.
After the event, the Hells Angels had it out for Jagger, who they seemed to blame for the gang’s punishment. So determined to get their revenge, the FBI has since revealed that the Hells Angels had a plot to assassinate the Stones frontman.
As part of The FBI at 100 TV series, an FBI agent revealed that the gang had planned to attack Jagger at his holiday home in the Hamptons, near New York City.
“The Hells Angels were so angered by Jagger’s treatment of them that they decided to kill him,” Tom Mangold, who presents the series, told The Sunday Telegraph. “They planned the attack from the sea so they could enter his property from the garden and avoid security at the front.”
However, Jagger luckily survived, all thanks to the weather. Poor conditions stopped the attack as “the boat was hit by a storm, and all of the men were thrown overboard.”
It’s not known whether the gang ever tried again or if there have been any further attempts on Jagger’s life, but luckily, Jagger survived to continue delivering hits well into today.
