I have always liked Mick Jagger both as a songwriter and a front-man. He’s my kind of performer because he takes charge and dominates the audience like an alpha-male lion tamer, just as a great entertainer must, especially in the context of the huge arena concert where so many things can go awry. As a front-person, one must always feel like he or she is playing in the Super Bowl to win and be the MVP – every single performance. This is the mindset I have always tried my best to have as a performer, and with my unbridled audacity, I fondly remember one reviewer referring to me as a “Mutant Mick Jagger” back in the day.
So when Mick Jagger was slated to be on Larry King Live recently (in part to promote the re-release of the Stones’ classic LP Exile on Main Street
along with a companion film documentary of the time period), I was excited to see the interview. In watching Mick and Larry, I was somewhat surprised at how animated and engaging Jagger was, but most of all, quite startled by his humility. (Usually legendary rock stars like Jagger & humility are never spoken of in the same sentence.)
When Larry King asked about the enormity and longevity of the Rolling Stones’ success, Mick came right out and credited it to luck, along with being in the right place at the right time. In addition, Jagger also referenced hard work, the fans, and a certain degree of being tactical.
Instead, Mick could have easily told Larry, “Because we’re fucking great!” or “We’re the worlds’ greatest rock n roll band,” which he certainly could have gotten away with saying. Yet he didn’t, and that showed a great deal of awareness on his part regarding the actual reality of how and why The Stones’ success and fame happened. He didn’t let his ego get in the way, which would have been easy to do because of the level of success he’s received throughout his career. Mick may have called it like it is, but are luck and being at the right place at the right time really what they appear to be?
The word “luck” suggests something incredibly fantastic that happens to us seemingly out of the blue and at random with no actual cause behind it. However, “luck” is never really what it seems to be as things really do happen in our lives for a deeper spiritual reason than what meets the human eye. Even for those who are spiritually cynical, physics does indeed prove the immutable law of the universe that for every effect, there is an initial cause. In short, there is always a reason behind everything that happens to us.
As many of you already know, I have been trained by great spiritual masters since I was a teenager, and can easily speak with the spirits of the dead. And I understood from a spiritual perspective exactly what Mick was saying, as synchronously, I had been thinking of this very subject a few days before his interview with Larry King. When Jagger refers to being lucky and being at the right place at the right time, he is actually speaking to something that is quite spiritually profound.
There is a great metaphysical/spiritual phrase that states, “When nature supports a decision, you know it’s the right one.” In practical terms, what does this phrase really mean and how does it apply to musicians and entertainers like The Rolling Stones?
Presumably, every artist who gets into the game initially has a dream and the desire to make it. Then, they work hard and try their best to hit it big. Often, there is a business push by a record label. Yet, is that enough for someone to become successful? Of course it isn’t.
Becoming successful takes way more than what the artist or anyone associated with them can do to make it happen, as many artists who work hard and have talent never hit it big. Jagger spoke to that quite eloquently when he mentioned in the interview the often sad truth that there are a lot of artists who are talented and work hard but don’t ever make it.
For those who do strike gold like The Stones, something else outside of themselves must happen in addition to their hard work, talent and business push. The energetic universal force of nature that humans cannot control must support it, like a cosmic tidal wave that carries us in a certain direction. And this force has absolute direction, precision, intention, and purpose in our journeys. It brings people, things, and occurrences into our lives with precise synchronicity and perfect timing. This is all beyond what any of us can humanly do for ourselves. Think of it like being taken on a wondrous ride in a rocket to the moon or the magical miracle of winning the lottery.
In pragmatic terms, we witness this cosmic phenomenon when things just fall into place, miracles happen and everything comes together in a way that appears to be out of the blue. Never forget that if one thinks of all of the uncountable variables that would have to occur to make it big, and then stay there as The Rolling Stones have for multiple decades, they are humanly incalculable and/or controllable.
Why did Mick Jagger meet Keith Richards? Was that random? Why did their song Satisfaction sell ten million copies in the mid 1960’s? Why do things seem to keep falling into place for The Stones? Is it all an accident? The phenomenal success of The Rolling Stones represents a situation where nature clearly supports the decision.
Again, if someone is not spiritually minded and just dismisses it all as the luck of the draw with a little bit of business and talent thrown in for good measure, physics clearly dismisses that line of thinking by proving that everything that happens has an initial cause behind it – it is never at random. I just like to look at those provable causes from a deeper, more metaphysical and spiritual point of view.
Even as I reflect on my own artistic career, there have been times when nature supported what I was doing which was far beyond my own efforts and control (even though I was obsessive about it all, lol). The mere idea that I made it to the international stage within four years of debuting in Chicago without ever granting interviews, playing the game, or having any big money behind me speaks to this truth. The fact that I connected with Miles Copeland who signed me to an international record deal and put me in the classic film, Urgh! A Music War (which is what I’m probably the most well known for at this point in time), are examples of nature supporting a decision which was not of my doing.
When my most recent album, What’s This? 1976-1979 was finally released on April 1, 2008, it was over thirty years later, and for decades, it seemed like it would never see the light of day. However, when it was supposed to, it was released. The phrase, “When nature supports a decision, you know it’s the right one,” applies to that record being born. And I’m so grateful to have witnessed the meaning and implications of this great spiritual statement many times.
Whether Mick Jagger understands it spiritually or just in a practical sense, he’s wise enough to know that there was something that has been happening all along which facilitated The Stones’ great success that is far beyond hard work, the fans, and being tactical. Whether any of us think of it merely as luck and being at the right place at the right time, or as something quite spiritually profound, it is the atomic force of this universe which can move mountains in a heartbeat that does it. And every so often, we see how nature does that in such a remarkably precise, magical and wondrous way with artists and entertainers like The Rolling Stones.
June 1st, 2010
Categories: Current Events, Musings, News . Author: Skafish . Comments: 6 Comments
To all of my disgraced family: Here are two winners from two Skafish contests!
There is a great story on Skafish on the Dangerous Minds blog entitled 
The 4th of July is supposed to celebrate America’s independence as a country. Some take it as a symbol of their own personal liberty and freedom as well.
I’ve been called the king of rejection and alienation (lucky me, lol), and with my complete ostracization from society, I wrote about it, sang about it, and presented it to the world – and got even more rejected in the process. So with my ongoing lifetime of continuous rejection, I think I have something quite appropriate to give to you.
