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Sitting in his suite at London's Dorchester Hotel, Mick Jagger looks a good decade younger than his 68 years. Whippet thin and constantly restless as he crosses and uncrosses his legs, he is the ultimate rock & roll icon.

Jagger is engaging, articulate company and, despite being a household name for almost his entire adult life, is surprisingly down to earth.

The Rolling Stones have been making music for almost half a century, but the snakehipped singer shows no sign of slowing down. The band may be on an extended hiatus after their last mammoth world tour, but workaholic Sir Mick has pitched in with an impressive project in SuperHeavy, which also features ex-Eurythmic Dave Stewart, singer Joss Stone, Bob Marley's son Damian and award-winning Indian composer AR Rahman.

So how does he manage to defy the years, despite pushing 70? "I'm lucky," he grins. "I have very good genes and I don't put on weight. I still have a drink. I am not a fanatic about being in the gym for hours or pounding the pavements as that's detrimental.

"If you are not doing shows then you have to keep up a certain level of fitness or there's no going back. Five times a week you have to do half an hour biking or in the gym. But dancing is really good and more fun than being in a gym. I go out clubbing. If you can't and you are in the country with nowhere to go, you just clear the furniture away and have a dance.

"That's as good for you as going to the gym and working out on a bike. You put the music on, blast out a few of your favourite tunes and have half an hour dancing. But no stopping! You do have to take the missus out as well, of course."

The lady in question is stunning 6ft 3ins model L'Wren Scott, 44, whom Jagger has been dating since 2001. The father of seven children - aged 12 to 40 - with four different women, and a granddad four times over, he isn't contemplating retirement just yet, but he does admit that the clock is ticking.

"Slowing down must happen," Mick concedes, "so you have to take advantage when you can to keep doing things."

Next year marks a milestone for the Stones as they clock up their 50th anniversary. On July 12, 1962 they played their first ever gig, at London's Marquee Club.

"I don't know what form the anniversary will take," Mick says. "I am sure you will be partially sick of the Stones by the end of next year. We have a lot of stuff to go for. People want to do exhibitions, TV and documentaries, so we have to look at these and see.

"I got used to our longevity in decades. After 10 years I was impressed. We made a documentary after 25 years and thought that was a really long time."

Jagger is amazed they made it this far. "It is quite an achievement I suppose still being around at all," he muses. "I guess you should be pleased with it but, you know, I think it will be interesting to see how people react to the 50th year thing."

Given the huge logistical undertaking that a Rolling Stones tour represents, it's seeming increasingly unlikely that the celebrations will be marked by the world's greatest rock & roll band hitting the road.

They last toured for two long years from August 2005 to August 2007, at the time the highest grossing tour in history, raking in a mammoth £356,000,000.

But the chances of the Stones touring any time soon have been dented by rumours of tension between Jagger and Keith Richards following the publication of Keef's acclaimed autobiography, Life.

"Todgergate", as it became known, saw Richards paint an unflattering portrait of the singer saying he was "unbearable", nicknaming him "that bitch Brenda" and saying "Marianne Faithfull had no fun with his tiny todger".

Jagger remains circumspect.

"There may be a tour, who knows... maybe," he shrugs.

"At the moment nothing is fixed."

What is occupying his mind today, though, is not the Stones but SuperHeavy.

Stewart and Jagger came up with the idea of bringing together musicians with vastly different backgrounds to see what they created.

The eponymously titled album was recorded under conditions of extreme secrecy in a multitude of locations across three continents, and even included sessions on a super yacht loaned by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen.

"I thought, 'It is only 10 days' work. What have I got to lose?'" Mick explains. "You knew if you didn't like it, you could say, 'It's not for me'. You have to throw yourself into these things, contribute as much as you can and listen to other people. You have to let the others have their head and then you go, 'Oh wow, that's really amazing'.

"It was a good experience on that level. I enjoyed singing with all these people - four singers. It was fun to take turns. Even though it was a group effort you had freedom to do your own styles.

"You don't know what's going to happen.

We didn't have any songs so it was a creative cauldron. We didn't know whether it was going to work or not. That's what made it exciting."

The cultural mix saw Jagger step well outside his comfort zone when AR Rahman got him to sing lyrics that weren't in English.

"I do one line in Urdu and the others in Sanskrit," Mick smiles. "That was good fun. I would have done more of that. I was quite happy in the Indian sections and I got to play guitar as well."

The SuperHeavy album sees Jagger railing against politicians on the track I Can't Take It No More. But despite his estimated £180m fortune and homes around the world, he is not one to criticise his homeland.

"It's been a lot worse here in my lifetime," he says. "A lot worse. Whether it has been a lot better, I don't know.

"I was in London for the riots. I was kind of surprised that people were shocked it happened. There's no warning, but it's a regular feature of English urban life if you think about it. Every 10 years you get some riots.

"Is David Cameron overreacting when he calls into question the morality of what is after all a small percentage of people living in an urban environment? "Riots like that have been a feature of Britain for 200 years or so and we like to congratulate ourselves that it has gone away. But the reality is that they haven't, have they? "I am a bit down on politicians as a class. Even Obama, whom I admire a lot. He promised to close Guantanamo Bay and there it is, still open. You make promises but when you get into power those promises are much harder to keep. The reality is that you can't do all the things you wanted to do."

With no plans for retirement, Jagger is happy to roll back the carpet and carry on dancing. Indeed, it seems hard to stop him.

"I feel happy with things," he admits.

"Ronnie [Wood] and I went out last night to see Charlie Watts playing jazz in the rough end of Chelsea.

"It was fun, but there was no dancing. There wasn't any room to move around to what was essentially dance music.

"This stuff was created to dance to and there were girls who wanted to. It was a bit of a shame because I would have liked to have had a bop to that music."

SuperHeavy is out now




Jagger Gives His Personal Rundown On SuperHeavy's Diverse Talents

Dave Stewart - The former Eurythmics star, 59, is now an award-winning producer and composer of the musical Ghost. "Dave wanted to make a record that was different and not the usual kind of thing he makes. The idea was to get disparate people who were open-minded enough to take a few chances.

Dave is a great one for getting things finished and not hanging around.

That's a really good trait because you can put things off.

So it was quick in that way."

Joss Stone - The 24-year-old, Devon-born singer has sold has sold 11m records and is one of the best-selling British artists of the past decade. "I've worked with Joss before. She is a very mature singer for her years.

I found her really easy to work with.

She tells me what to do and bosses me about, and I boss her about too.

There was very good give and take with Joss. We would sit together and try and write the tune and vocal."

Damian Marley - Son of reggae legend Bob Marley, Damian, 33, is a three-time Grammy award winning musician.

"We were thinking about different rappers but Damian isn't a rapper in the traditional sense.

His rhymes are very humorous, so I thought he was a good choice for that.

Damian had his toasting corner in the studio which I daren't interrupt. I just left him to it!"

AR Rahman - Indian composer and songwriter, 45, who won an Oscar for his Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack. "AR was the last member to be recruited.

We wanted something that was much more left-field, more than our Western tradition of music.

AR was the one least experienced in this kind of thing. He was very much his own boss. He has never been in a group, while everyone else had been in groups or had been used to doing these sort of projects.

He added a very different twist."