KALAMAZOO, MI -- As Mick Jagger, joint in hand, greeted him in the doorway of a penthouse suite of the Westwood Marquis Hotel in Los Angeles, Vic Robinson had no clue why he was there.
Jagger had one question for 5-foot-11 former weightlifter turned bouncer.
"Have you ever been to jail?" Jagger asked Robinson.
Surprised by the environment, company and the question, Robinson said he told Jagger he had while growing up in Chicago. Police arrested Robinson and his cousins on suspicion of stealing a car, but they were cleared and released a couple hours later. Jagger seemed pleased with the answer, Robinson remembered. The frontman of one of the world's biggest rock band's had Robinson investigated. He was testing Robinson's honesty.
"I can't have anyone around me that would lie. I already know pretty much everything about you," Robinson recalled Jagger saying.
It was October, 1981, and The Rolling Stones were touring in support of their newest album, "Tattoo You." The band fired Jagger's bodyguard after he was suspected of stealing jewelry from his girlfriend, Jerry Hall, to support a drug habit, Robinson said.
Just a few days prior to the Boulder concert, Robinson's roommate -- a student at the University of Colorado -- suggested he offer his doorman skills for an epic two-day concert at the school's Folsom Field. The Rolling Stones would be headlining and the friend thought Robinson could earn a few extra dollars. The suggestion led to Robinson eventually being flown out to L.A. where he'd drop everything to become the personal bodyguard and trainer for one of rock's biggest icons, Jagger, for the next year.
"The whole experience with The Rolling Stones was like nothing I'd ever seen before," he said.
Robinson will share his stories as Jagger's bodyguard and physical trainer, as well as his time keeping Queen's Freddie Mercury and Dee Snider of Twisted Sister out of harms way, in his book, "Never Say Never: You Could Be Next." The book, to be released at a pair of events in the coming weeks, features old photos and tales from the road. Robinson addresses the lavish lifestyles, personality quirks, band member disputes and somewhat harrowing tales, including when a woman claiming Jagger was the father of her child tried to break into a Seattle hotel room and shoot The Rolling Stones frontman.
'Middle of nowhere'
Robinson, now 58, coaches football and track and field at Hillside Middle School in Kalamazoo. He's also a concert and festival promoter.
He was born and raised in Chicago. He attended Catholic school until he started attending Austin High School on Chicago's west side. The public school introduced him to things his Catholic school had not.
"I found there were a lot of things to get into," he said. "My parents caught up on that, too. Thank God my parents caught up on that."
Before Robinson could get into serious trouble, his parents decided to move near his grandparents in Three Rivers. They settled in Mendon in 1969. Robinson went from being in a massive high school of predominately black kids to a small West Michigan town where he was the only black student in the high school. For the first three weeks, Robinson cried.
"I couldn't believe I was out in the middle of nowhere," he said.
The move proved worthwhile, Robinson said.
"To this day, this was the best choice anyone has made for me in my life," he said.
"My experience in Mendon shaped really a lot of who I am today..
Robinson soon made friends, discovered his athletic prowess. He excelled under Mendon High School football coach Robert Critz and track coach Roger Smith. He started receiving letters from football programs at Western Michigan University, Central Michigan University and Michigan State University, among others.
But Robinson blew out his right knee about midway through his senior year in a game against Burr Oak, essentially ending any college football dreams.
He graduated in 1972 and soon joined the Marines, where he learned his strength. He won weight lifting and track titles while in the military. After the Marines, he returned to Kalamazoo with his wife and their daughter.
He opened his first gym, Campus Health Spa, near WMU's campus that attracted "muscle heads from all over."
Robinson later divorced and was invited to visit Boulder by a friend. He loved the area and moved there in January 1981. He eventually was hired to work security at the Dark Horse Saloon, which Robinson likened to the bar in the 1989 film, "Road House." Not long after he was there, the news of The Rolling Stones concert broke.
"It didn't mean anything to me. I didn't know anything about the Rolling Stones," Robinson said.
Secretly vetted
During his two-day stint working security for the Boulder concert, those with The Rolling Stones were vetting Robinson. He said he remembered a member of the group's security would ask him probing questions that seemingly had nothing to do with his job. Robinson thought maybe he did something wrong.
After the Oct. 4, 1981, performance, Robinson and some friends went out for drinks at Dark Horse. At around 4 a.m., he got a call from a woman who handled travel logistics for the band. She told him he'd need to go to the Denver airport in the afternoon and fly to L.A.
Dressed in jeans, tennis shoes and a T-shirt, Robinson packed just a small duffel bag "because I had no idea what I was going for." He called the Dark Horse and said he couldn't work that night and he'd be back the day after.
This didn't happen.
Robinson was picked up at the airport in a limousine, a first for him. He met briefly with the same man who asked the series of questions during the Boulder concerts and then shortly talked with Jagger. Robinson still wasn't clear about what was happening, he said.
He met with the band's accountant who was flanked by stacks of cash, more money than Robinson had seen in his life. The accountant handed him an envelope filled with $100 bills for Jagger's needs. If Jagger wanted more, Robinson just needed to ask. He was also given $1,000 in cash to spend on himself and a key to a hotel room, an indication he would not be going back to Colorado that day.
Waiting in his room were flowers, candy and a card welcoming aboard. He realized he'd joined the band's security detail, but didn't find out until his first night out that he was personally responsible for Jagger's well being.
That night, Jagger invited Robinson out to the Roxy Club in Los Angeles where they met with Jack Nicholson and John Belushi. The trio, and Robinson, hung out together for the next three days.
From that night on, he shadowed Jagger. He checked entrances and exits everywhere they went. They flew in jumbo jets with the band's entourage. They jogged together. He shielded Jagger from the media.
"It was just crazy as far as the media stuff and paparazzi everywhere you went," he said.
Robinson had complete access to the band. He said in 1981 Jagger wasn't using hard drugs. He drank beer, wine and smoked pot. Robinson said he often saw Jagger and Keith Richards clash.
"They just got on stage and play. Keith and Mick don't really get along. They play and make millions of millions of dollars together, but they're not what you call best of friends. Keith can't go in and tell Mick to do something and Mick can't go in and tell Keith to do anything," he said.
He also said Jagger was a savvy businessman and generous.
"He was an extremely kind guy," Robinson said. "Whatever he ate, I ate. We did basically five-star restaurants every day."
When the tour ended, Robinson received a "nice bonus" and returned to Dark Horse. Jagger said maybe they'd see each other down the road.
"That kind of touring and that kind of lifestyle takes it out of you. It's like nothing you could ever imagine," Robinson said.
He also had a lot of responsibility, including scouting buildings and the safest ways to get in and out.
"It wasn't the easiest thing to do because you had to be on top of your game all the time, because his life was in your hands. You're the guy picking the doors you're going through," he said.
'They lived life'
Around three weeks later after returning to Boulder, he got a call inviting him to be the bodyguard for Freddie Mercury, frontman of the band Queen. Robinson spent almost seven months in 1982 with Mercury, who he said was a "private person" who "didn't take crap from anyone."
Robinson called him "awesome" and "one of his favorite bosses."
"There's not a better band on stage," Robinson said. "No one could sing like Freddie Mercury. Freddie could take a crowd in the palm of his hands and make them do whatever. We'd have shows where he'd be singing and people would be crying."
Robinson went on to work with Dee Snider of Twisted Sister. He also toured with Iron Maiden, Motley Crue and Billy Squire.
He stopped touring with major bands in 1990. Why?
"It was time. I was ready to settle back and have a different kind of life ... it's like high-priced baby-sitting," he said.
He moved back to Kalamazoo in 2000 to be closer to his parents and two daughters.
"You have to live life and not let life live you. That's what I learned being around all those people. They lived life," he said. 
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Former Mick Jagger Bodyguard Autobiography (Read 1,595 times)
