With his pouting lips and swivelling hips, Jagger has been a constant presence in the musical lives of millions, many of whom have followed him from their schooldays to old age.
Michael Philip Jagger was born in Dartford, southeast England on July 26, 1943, the son of a school games teacher who lived to the age of 93, and a hairdresser.
An avid fan of American blues artists like Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley, he formed his first band in his teens.
Jagger won a place at the prestigious London School of Economics but admitted he never took his studies seriously.
At London’s Ealing Blues Club, Jagger met Brian Jones who was recruiting for a band he called the Rollin’ Stones – the “g” was to be restored later – after a Muddy Waters song.
The trademark Jagger moves and pout made their debut on black-and-white television in Britain in 1963 as the group belted out their first hit “Come On.”
Surlier, more sensual rivals to The Beatles, the Stones delighted teenagers of the time as much as they appalled some of their parents. The BBC helpfully banned “Let’s Spend the Night Together” and in the United States, Ed Sullivan forced them to tone down its suggestive lyrics when they appeared on his show in 1967.
There were riots when the band went to America and it was in 1965 that “Satisfaction” gave them their first U.S. and British hit.
A stream of hits followed, from the misogyny in “Under My Thumb”, to the anarchic “19th Nervous Breakdown”, doom-laden “Paint It Black” and the stomping “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” with one of rock’s most famous guitar riffs.
Adding to the bad-boy image, Jagger and his girlfriend Marianne Faithfull got themselves arrested after a drugs raid on Richards’ English country house in 1967, and were again held for drugs possession after police swooped on Jagger‘s home in 1969.
In 1970, Jagger made a foray into the movie world appearing in “Ned Kelly” and “Performance” which were followed by the albums “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out” and “Sticky Fingers.”
The following year, he married Nicaraguan Bianca Perez Macias in Saint Tropez, France. They stayed together for eight years and had one child.
Jagger‘s relationship with Texan model Jerry Hall lasted more than two decades, produced four children and ended in 1999 after she eventually tired of his philandering. The pair were married on the Indonesian island of Bali in 1990, but the union was declared legally invalid by a court after they split.
Other Jagger children have come from his liaisons with singer Marsha Hunt, Brazilian model Luciana Gimenez and current girlfriend Melanie Hamrick.
By the late 1970s, the Stones were almost being written off by a British media in thrall to the new punk rock era, but they responded with a series of big-selling albums that also returned them to critical acclaim after a years-long drought.
Recognition by the establishment finally came in 2003 when Jagger went to Buckingham Palace to receive his knighthood from Prince Charles after being nominated by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.
National treasures by now, the band continue touring and in 2016 made history when they played a free concert to 500,000 people in Havana, Cuba, where their music had long been banned by the country’s Communist leaders.
