‘Jagger the country squire bought estate while high on LSD’
Publisher claims to have manuscript by the rock star packed with amusing and hair-raising anecdotes
SIR MICK JAGGER bought a country estate while high on LSD and had a near-death horse-riding experience, according to what is claimed to be a secret autobiography by the rock star.
The 75,000-word manuscript, which is alleged to have been written in the Eighties by the singer, claims his mother was horrified at the state of his hair after being on tour and how he was high on drugs when he bought the historic Hampshire house Stargroves – which the Rolling Stones used as a recording venue in the Seventies.
John Blake, the publisher, claims he was handed the manuscript three years ago and has tried to get Sir Mick to authenticate it, which he has not done, according to his spokesperson.
“One of my favourite anecdotes is of Mick returning unannounced to Dartford to see his parents after two years of chaotic world tours, debauchery, mayhem, riots and goodness only knows what else. ‘Oh Michael,’ says his horrified mother on opening the door. ‘Your hair...’,” Mr Blake writes in The Spectator. “The book shows a quieter, more watchful Sir Mick than the fastliving caricature. He describes the little room he’d retreat to backstage before a performance, where he’d hide away, sizing up the audience.
“All that famous partying had to wait till afterwards. Those extravagant feasts that rumour had it the Stones demanded backstage: caviar, vintage champagne, stuffed quails… they never ate any of it.
“They took their shows far too seriously for that. He had carbs for an early lunch. Then water, maybe eight pints, because he’d lose 10 pints on stage.”
But despite Mr Blake portraying a less rock and roll Sir Mick, other parts of the manuscript suggest the singer purchased his home while on drugs, that he almost died in a riding accident and refers to the “tedium” of looking at Keith Richard’s “scraggy, monkey-like bottom night after night”.
Mr Blake adds: “Mick tells of buying a historic mansion, Stargroves, while high on acid and of trying out the life of horse-riding country squire.
“Having never ridden a horse before, he leapt on to a stallion, whereupon it reared and roared off ‘like a Ferrari’.
“He gave the stallion a thump on the forehead right between the eyes and slowed it down – otherwise the Stones’ story might have ended differently.”
Mr Blake added: “[Mick] has said again and again, in countless interviews, that he never will [write an autobiography]. Except what virtually nobody knows is that he already has.
“It is an extraordinary insight into one of the three most influential rock stars of all time – but the sad thing is, the public will probably never see it.”
A spokesperson for Sir Mick said Mr Blake has not been in contact with the singer and was unable to comment on any specific incidents.
‘Having never ridden a horse before, he leapt upon a stallion. It reared and roared off like a Ferrari’