Taylor Swift and Mick Jagger John Shearer/LP5/Getty Images
Mick Jagger understands what Taylor Swift is going through to get a bit of professional “satisfaction.”
While speaking with the Wall Street Journal, Jagger, 80, reflected on the trials and tribulations that he’s gone through with the Rolling Stones. This includes how Allen Klein, a music-business accountant who died in 2009, secured the copyrights to the Stones’ pre-1971 music, including hits “Time Is On My Side,” “Paint It Black,” “Sympathy For The Devil” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Klein’s company, ABKCO Music & Records, still owns the rights to the music, and Jagger sees parallels between him and the 33-year-old Swift.
“The industry was so nascent, it didn’t have the support and the amount of people that are on tap to be able to advise you as they do now,” he told the WSJ. “But you know, it still happens. I mean, look what happened to Taylor Swift! I don’t really know the ins and outs of it, but she obviously wasn’t happy.”
Swift famously clashed with Scooter Braun in 2019 after his company, Ithaca Holdings, acquired Big Machine Label Group for $330 million. The acquisition included ownership of all the rights and masters owned by Big Machine. Braun, 42, then owned Swift’s first six albums: Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation (he sold them to Shamrock Holdings in 2020 for a reported $405 million.)
Unhappy with Braun controlling the rights to her music, Swift made it clear she would rerecord and rerelease the albums, owning the rights to those masters. The fourth “Taylor’s Version” album – 1989 (Taylor’s Version) – arrives on October 27.
Jagger also drew comparisons between his band and Swift in how they’ve set the standards for massive performances in their respective generations. “One of the things I’m really proud of, with the Stones, is that we pioneered arena tours, with their own stage, with their own sound and everything, and we also did the same with stadiums,” he told the WSJ. “I mean, nobody did a tour of stadiums.”
Similar to how the Stones’ 1972 tour across the United States was a groundbreaking pop culture event, Swift’s Eras Tour has been massive in both scope and box office. The tour could gross $2.2 billion in North American ticket sales alone, according to CNN. This would make the Eras Tour the highest-grossing tour ever.
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Swift and Jagger are no strangers to each other. They shared the stage in 2013 for a performance of the Stones’ “As Tears Go By” and again in 2015 during her “1989 World Tour.” Swift invited the rock icon to join her during the Nashville stop, and they performed “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” She would later reveal how she had texted Jagger to ask if he wanted to make a surprise cameo.
“He texted back just saying, ‘Oh, what will I wear?’” Swift told Australian news outlet News24 in 2015. “I’m always shocked by Mick and his love for what he does. He was on vacation, and he didn’t have to do my show, and he did, completely last minute.”
In another Stones-Swift connection, a week before 1989 (Taylor’s Version) drops, the Rolling Stones will release Hackey Diamonds on October 20, the group’s first album of original material in 18 years.
