There have been plenty of books written about Mick Jagger, but unlike his longtime bandmate Keith Richards, Jagger has never written a memoir of his own. Well, it might be more exact to say that Jagger never finished writing a memoir. Earlier this year brought with it the news that Jagger hadn’t enjoyed the process of writing a memoir and thought it unlikely that he’d ever finish it.
“If you wanna write an autobiography, this is not a process you can just do in a week — it takes a lot out of you,” Jagger said in an interview. “It takes a lot of reliving emotions, reliving friendships, reliving ups and downs.”
It’s an understandable reason for not writing a memoir. But these reports contrasted somewhat with articles from 2017 stating that an early-1980s memoir from Jagger existed, but was unlikely to ever see publication. Now, more details on Jagger’s earlier foray into writing a memoir have emerged — in this case, from writer Barry Coleman, who was brought in after the initial ghostwriter on the project dropped out.
An article at Ultimate Classic Rock details Coleman’s recollections of what happened. And what he said lines up with Jagger’s comments about not enjoying the experience of writing a memoir. “All the big stuff was in there, there just wasn’t anything interesting said about it,” said Coleman. “There was always this sense in the transcripts that Mick was holding back, or trying not to hurt anybody’s feelings.”
Eventually, Jagger decided to amicably bring the project to a close, and paid back the advance he’d received for it. “I think he respected his audience by not giving them something ordinary about an extraordinary life,” said Coleman. As advice to celebrities pondering memoirs goes, it’s worth heeding.
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