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Inside the mind of Jagger: Rock icon opens up

Mick Jagger admits fame has changed the way he reacts to other people.

Mick Jagger admits fame has changed the way he reacts to other people. Photo: AAP

Mick Jagger has admitted he’s “disassociated” from real life.

The 82-year-old Rolling Stones rocker was asked about US comedian John Mulaney’s 2019 special where he said Jagger was not “nice” when they worked together on Saturday Night Live.

Jagger admitted fame has changed how he reacts to other people.

While the star insisted he has not seen the special, he told the New York Times: “Obviously it’s not normal. It’s not like most people’s lives. It does affect you. You become disassociated. From other people.

“A lot of people in show business only hang around with people in show business, because they’ve got something in common, they can relate to each other, and you get disassociated from what people might call ‘real life’.”

In his 2019 Kid Gorgeous at Radio City comedy special, Mulaney, 43, spoke about pitching SNL sketches to Jagger, who is a close friend of producer Lorne Michaels.

“My friends were all like, ‘Is he nice?’ No. Or maybe he is, for his version of life because he has a very different life,” Mulaney said.

John Mulaney Mick Jagger

John Mulaney said playing to stadiums of 20,000 cheering fans ‘must change you as a person’. Photo: AAP

“He’s played to stadiums of 20,000 people cheering for him like he’s a god for 50 years. That must change you as a person.

“If you do that for 50 years, you’re never again gonna be like, ‘Um, does anyone have a laptop charger I could borrow?’ You know that bulls***t way we all have to talk to get through life?”

While Mick Jagger admitted his fame has affected him, he insisted he actively tries to fight it.

“I mean, you do fight against it. It’s a conscious effort. It’s quite easy, really. You go out and walk on the street on your own and do normal things, go and buy The New York Times,” he said.

“But, nevertheless, that’s only temporary because psychologically your actual state of mind is permanently damaged.

“Your late 20s and early 30s is a very tough time for people in this business because it’s a big ego trip, and you have to have a huge ego to do this.

“People that do this that don’t have huge egos have huge problems because they have to manufacture a completely different (personality). I have a friend whose standing joke is that I behave at a dinner party like I behave onstage.”

However, Jagger has tried to tone down his persona when he is off stage.

“It’s absurd what you do onstage. Of course I’m not really like my stage persona … it’s such an exaggerated version of me … And there are people in show business that never switch off,” he said.

“A lot of them are comedians, and sometimes they can’t stop making jokes or they get depressed. That’s a bit of a sweeping statement.

“… This is the show business dichotomy and it’s something you learn to live with, and you always hope that you’re a so-called normal person underneath.”

—AAP

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