Mick Jagger has responded to Paul McCartney’s 2020 claim that the Beatles were “better” than the Rolling Stones for the second time.
Three years ago, McCartney suggested that his band were better than the Rolling Stones. “They are rooted in blues. When they are writing stuff, it has to do with the blues. We had a little more influences… There’s a lot of differences, and I love the Stones, but I’m with you,” he told Howard Stern on SiriusXM, “The Beatles were better.”
Jagger laughed off the comments at the time, responding in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music. “That’s so funny,” he stated, “He’s a sweetheart. There’s obviously no competition.”
The Stones vocalist went on to suggest that the difference between the two bands was not their influences but, rather, their relationship with touring. “The Rolling Stones is a big concert band in other decades and other areas when The Beatles never even did an arena tour,” he explained, “They broke up before that business started, the touring business for real.”
“One band is unbelievably lucky still playing in stadiums and then the other band doesn’t exist,” he concluded at the time.
Now, in an interview promoting the Rolling Stones’ upcoming record, Hackney Diamonds, Jagger has addressed the comments once more. The frontman recalled McCartney’s comments to The Times: “He said the Beatles were better than the Stones because the Stones were really just a blues cover band. Well, the Beatles were also really just a blues cover band when they started out. Every band is a cover band at the beginning, because that’s how it goes.”
“I texted Paul to say thank you for his comment because it has given me a lot of comic material,” he joked.
Aside from providing the Stones frontman with comic material, McCartney has also contributed his musicianship to their upcoming record. The Beatles songwriter played bass guitar on ‘Bite My Head Off’, the fourth track on the upcoming album.
The record also features appearances from Elton John, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder.
Hackney Diamonds is set for release on Friday, October 20th.
