The Live Aid concerts of 13 July 1985 took place in London and Philadelphia, bringing together a Who’s Who of popular British and American musicians sharing the two stages to raise money to assist Africa with feeding those in need. A worldwide audience of 1.5 billion people watched the show live. Concert organizers asked the Rolling Stones to perform together. Mick Jagger declined on behalf of the band. Rolling Stones’s bassist Bill Wyman wrote that the band had agreed to focus on recording Dirty Work instead of breaking up the recording sessions to do Live Aid. Wyman would have loved to have performed at Live Aid with his bandmates. Jagger then decided to perform as a solo act.
Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood got an invite from Bob Dylan to join him for the closing act at Philadelphias’ JFK stadium. During their first New York meeting about the gig, Wood asked Dylan if Keith Richards could join them. Dylan asked Richards and Richards accepted. Keith Richards told a reporter it all happened by accident, but he did rejoice in being the closing act of Live Aid. Mick Jagger didn’t have that honor. The three practiced in New York and The Rolling Stones guitarists thought they’d settled on the playset. However, Dylan remained indecisive about his material for the show. Right before they took the stage in Philadelphia, Bob Dylan told Richards and Wood that they were going to start the show with Blowin’ in the Wind,
a tune not rehearsed in New York. The guitarists were late in joining Dylan after he introduced them with Dylan awkwardly stalling. Keith Richards told a reporter a year after Live Aid that people were backstage tuning up for the grand finale of everyone joining together to sing We are the World,
which made things difficult to hear backstage and onstage. During their performance of Blowin’ in the Wind,
Dylan’s guitar string broke. Wood gave him his guitar and went backstage with the damaged guitar for repair. Ronnie Wood wrote about the Live Aid performance in his autobiography. Wood however didn’t mention anything about Mick Jagger at Live Aid. Keith Richards didn’t bother writing about this performance in his Life autobiography.
Mick Jagger had a much better performance than Richards and Wood. Hall and Oates acted as Jagger’s backup band. One critic felt Jagger wasted his allotted time singing material from his so-called second-rate solo album, but praised Jagger’s performance of Miss You,
a Rolling Stone’s tune and his performance with Tina Turner. Tina Turner made a surprise
appearance during Jagger’s set in Philadelphia. They both sang State of Shock,
with Tina acting as Michael Jackson’s replacement. The mega-superstar Jackson opted to sit out Live Aid. Turner reported in her book My Love Story that she felt State of Shock
was a good starting point for their performance but did feel it was a bit subdued. Jagger decided to amp things up during their second song. He took off his shirt when It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll
starting playing, which they both sang together. As the song progressed, Jagger then went offstage to change into a yellow jacket and camouflage pants while still singing. He came back onstage and reached for Turner’s skirt snaps. As he ripped it off with a flourish, Turner looked shocked and hid behind Jagger. Although nothing revealing was shown, the audience shrieked and screamed. They loved it.
Was Jagger’s ripping off Tina Turner’s skirt planned? Yes it was. Both spoke briefly before the show. Knowing the whole world was watching and both wanting to make their performance memorable, Turner and Jagger both wanted to do more than stand there and sing. During their planning discussion, Mick asked Turner if her skirt came off. Turner was wearing a tight leather top and skirt. Jagger told Turner that he would rip off her skirt during their act. Turner was shocked but said Mick was determined to do it. Turner was prepared. She wrote in her book My Love Story that she didn’t just wear underwear while on stage. Turner wore fishnet stockings over her underwear and dancer’s briefs over that just in case their was a wardrobe malfunction. Tina Turner had the impression, but was not quite certain that Mick Jagger knew that when he made his decision. The unveiling occurred and the world saw the layers of clothing Turner wore under her skirt. Turner was relieved that she didn’t look bad. Turner said that she acted surprised and hid behind Jagger. It seems that Tina Turner went along with it only because of Jagger’s determination to do it.
The Rolling Stones are a testosterone-driven band. Their popular tunes, such as Under My Thumb,
contain misogynistic lyrics. Women in the lyrics of Stones’s songs are sex objects and/or viewed with contempt. Album covers, such as Some Girls, infuriated women who felt the artwork is demeaning, misogynistic, and racist. During the band’s early days, Jagger wanted The Rolling Stones to possess a bachelor image. He pressured Charlie Watts to postpone his wedding, and when Watts secretly wedded, Andrew Loog Oldham, the Stones’s manager, along with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, implored him to keep it a secret. Jagger also urged Brian Jones not to acknowledge his girlfriend in public. Jagger himself once shoved his girlfriend Chrissie Shrimpton away from him when he noticed a group of female fans coming his way. Groupies threw themselves at Jagger and other band mates. As the band became a mega-group requiring a large group of staff for security and touring purposes, groupies used the group’s staff members as a means to get access to the band. Keith Richards reported in Life that Jagger and Stones’s bassist Bill Wyman often compared the number of conquests they had each night. Biographer Christopher Anderson wrote Jagger’s sexual appetite was the size of Mount Everest. Sex controlled Jagger’s life and his image.
Women in Mick Jagger’s past claimed he didn’t respect women. Chrissie Shrimpton, who stated that she once found Jagger in bed with another man, said that Jagger enjoyed sex with women, but had animosity towards females. Marianne Faithful agreed with Shrimpton, adding that they only exist as a reflection of himself. As stated above, a former Stones’s business manager claimed that Jagger wanted to be like Tina Turner on stage. Tina Turner possessed an energetic sex appeal while on stage. Her legs became the centerpiece of her image. Jagger often performed shirtless as a way to show his sex appeal. Can a shirtless Jagger, a person known to be a very egotistical, misogynistic, controlling person possessing high energy onstage but a bit goofy with his dance moves compete with the legs of Tina Tuner and her ability to effectively showcase them? The answer to Jagger may have been to rip off Tina Turner’s skirt.
After describing events at Live Aid in her book My Love Story, Tina Turner wrote what seems to be a defense for Mick Jagger’s actions, claiming Mick Jagger is a bit fresh and is a playful boy. The first time she performed with him, he tried to press the microphone between her crotch. Turner claimed she always had to be on guard
with Mick because he’s full of pranks. Yet, despite his so-called pranks, Turner wrote that she considered him a brother.
In regards to the dress-ripping incident, Turner wrote that it wasn’t like a random guy tearing off her skirt. To her, it was done by a playful yet old boy. Turner, a survivor of sexual abuse, concluded her defense of Mich Jagger’s actions by stating Jagger and the Stones have been there with her whenever she needed them.
In his article about Live Aid, Steven Erlanger commented in The Boston Globe that he felt artists performed not for charity, but for good publicity and access to over a billion people around the world. Mick Jagger definitely used Live Aid to plug his solo career. The purpose of Jagger’s and Turner’s performance was to make both stand out among a large group of superstars. It was a challenge for forty-something artists in the 1980s to remain relevant in the age of younger stars like Madonna and Michael Jackson. Critics praised Jagger and Turner for creating a sexy performance that stood out. Jagger and Turner needed that praise for their solo careers.
In Ronnie Wood’s autobiography, there’s a set of pictures between pages 214-215. One of those pictures is marked as Live Aid. There are two rows of 8 superstars squished together with a gray screen behind them. Standing at the top row is a laughing Keith Richards. Smiling, but looking like he has to hunch down to be in the shot, is Daryl Hall. His partner John Oates is next to him. A smiling Ronnie Wood is at the end of the row, almost cut off from the picture. At the bottom of the row is a laughing Tina Turner with both of her hands on Mick Jagger’s knee and possibly his right hand. Jagger is smiling. Turner is crowding his right side and Madonna is crowding his left. Madonna has a weary, fake smile. She and Bob Dylan are holding each other, with Dylan’s right hand appearing to firmly hold Madonna down. Dylan is the only one not smiling. He has to lean into Madonna to be in the picture. Funny how the three Rolling Stones mates are in this picture, appearing happy, yet they didn’t perform together. It was the calm before the storm.
©2023 Tim Sheehan