http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/05/10/interview-mick-ja...Mick Jagger is telling me about the elephants at the Nashville Zoo, and I'm not sure how to respond.
"I just wonder whether Juno the elephant, who's going to be moved to Florida, is going to be back in time for my visit," he says.
Is he joking? I shouldn't laugh, I think to myself. What if Mick Jagger, unbeknownst to me, is serious about African wildlife?
I pause a bit too long. Mick breaks the silence.
"I'm just kidding," he says. "I happened to see that in your paper. Apparently, you're moving all of your elephants to Florida while you improve the facilities in their Nashville habitat."
Though he's calling from London, the Rolling Stones frontman is thumbing through a very recent edition of The Tennessean. I hadn't gotten a chance to read that elephant story yet. Instead, I'd spent my morning getting ready for a phone call from one of the most iconic musicians of the last 50 years.
We're supposed to be exclusively talking about his band's upcoming tour stop in Nashville — June 17 at LP Field — which is poised to be the biggest rock and roll concert Music City has ever seen. Instead, we're starting our 10-minute chat with a discussion of pachyderms, and I can hear his smile getting bigger as he gives me the bullet points of the story.
After 53 years with the Stones, and thousands of interviews just like this one, it really seems like Mick Jagger, somehow, is still having fun.
Country influence
"I've been dancing around dance studio rooms," he says of his tour preparations. "It's hilarious."
He was set to meet up with his bandmates for their first rehearsals last week. That's also the time when they go through their long list of rock classics ("Satisfaction," "Start Me Up" and "Gimme Shelter," for starters) and figure out what they'll be playing on this tour.
Jagger says they might throw in several songs from their 1971 album "Sticky Fingers," which is getting a deluxe reissue next month. In that case, it's good timing that they're playing their first Nashville concert in 13 years, as the album includes "Wild Horses" and "Dead Flowers" — two songs with a strong country stamp.
"I used to listen to Hank Snow," Jagger says. "They (country artists) made records that were very popular, you know? They were pop hits. We used to do covers of them when we used to rehearse, George Jones and these kinds of people. ... Everyone heard these records, including us, and they were songs that everyone knew. So it was very hard to avoid the influence of country music in the early days of rock."
Also tying "Sticky Fingers" to Nashville: the unmistakable saxophone of the late Bobby Keys. The band's longtime sideman called the Nashville area home for more than 20 years, and died in December after a lengthy illness. Jagger called Keys "a really big guy for us in the band."
"He's going to be really missed. It's the first time we're touring in America without him. It'll be sad not to have him there, but he'll be with us there. We're thinking of him."
Years of Nashville visits
Jagger has heard that Nashville is booming these days, and he's looking forward to seeing how the town has changed since the band's last visit in 2002. He also remembers a few of Music City's old standbys.
"You've got a classical copy of a Greek temple, haven't you got in Nashville that's quite famous?" he asks. "I don't think I saw it last time I was there, so that's something for me to go and see. A bit of culture there."
The Parthenon is one of the rare Nashville attractions that actually was around back when the Rolling Stones first came to town 50 years ago. A 1965 gig at Municipal Auditorium was among their first-ever concerts in the south. Jagger's first visit to the land of blues and country has stuck with him.
"Nashville was very small," he recalls. "And I remember, when I got there, thinking how small it was. A lot of these towns were big names, but small places. ... They were very friendly places, intimate and friendly, and hopefully that feeling hasn't been lost."
We'll see how intimate it feels when the Rolling Stones take the stage in Nashville's 69,000-seat football stadium, but at least there should be quite a few friendly faces there to greet them.
Jagger says he really likes playing stadiums, and seeing fans of all ages in the audience. He's looking forward to spending one of the band's summer nights in Music City.
"It'll be a nice, warm evening."
The Rolling Stones perform at Nashville's LP Field on Wednesday, June 17. Tickets are $65-$350 and on sale now at Ticketmaster.
50 years of The Rolling Stones in Nashville
1965: In November, the band makes its Music City debut at Municipal Auditorium. Its most recent single was "Get Off of My Cloud" and "As Tears Go By" would be released the following month.
1972: The Stones return to Municipal Auditorium in June with quite the opening act: Stevie Wonder. One month earlier, they'd released the raw rock masterpiece "Exile On Main St."
1997: 25 years pass before Mick, Keith and company return to Music City. They make up for it with a massive show at Vanderbilt Stadium on Oct. 26 as they tour in support of "Bridges to Babylon."
2002: The "40 Licks" tour brings the band back to Nashville, this time to Gaylord Entertainment Center (now Bridgestone Arena).
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Jagger talks about tour/rehearsals/plans for the elephants (Read 1,396 times)
