Young Mick Jagger smoking a cigarette, wearing a leather jacket, in a black-and-white photo from 1964.
Keystone Features / Hulton Archive via Getty Images
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Mick Jagger Says Nobody Comes to a Concert to Hear a Political Lecture, Days After Bruce Springsteen Called Trump “Treasonous” on Stage

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Mick Jagger’s whole job, he says, is to give fans two hours to forget their mortgages and the problems of the world. He compares a Rolling Stones show to a sports event, where everything else gets shouted out and nobody’s thinking about anything but who wins.

Jagger’s pitch is escape: for two hours, fans should get to forget their problems and the problems of the world. The 82-year-old made the case on The New York Times’ podcast Saturday, after host David Marchese asked what his audience means to him and brought up Springsteen, who’s been hammering Trump on his current tour.

Black and white photo of a young man with shaggy hair smoking a cigarette at a table with soda bottles, indoors, 1964.
A young Mick Jagger lights up a cigarette in this candid 1964 portrait, captured early in the Rolling Stones’ rise to fame. Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images.

“You don’t want to lecture them,” Jagger said.

He isn’t allergic to politics in the music itself. He says he’ll write a song about a personal relationship and slip a political verse in, because “nobody wants to hear a whole song about politics.”

Older man with tousled auburn hair in a black tuxedo jacket and floral shirt smiling at a Wells Fargo and New York City Ballet step-and-repeat backdrop.
At Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, the New York City Ballet’s 2025 Fall Fashion Gala drew Mick Jagger to its red carpet on October 8, 2025, where he greeted photographers with a grin. Photo by Theo Wargo / Getty Images.

Springsteen has gone the other way on his “Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour,” calling Trump’s administration “reckless” and “treasonous” and releasing a song about “King Trump” and his “federal thugs” after the deaths of anti-ICE protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Trump answered on Truth Social, calling the singer a “dried up prune” and telling his supporters to boycott the tour.

An older man with gray hair holds a microphone and raises one hand while performing on an outdoor stage with drum kit visible behind him.
Bruce Springsteen performs at the dedication ceremony for the Barack Obama Presidential Center in John Lewis Plaza in Chicago on June 18, 2026. Photo by Win McNamee / Getty Images.

Jagger’s own record isn’t spotless. Playing New Orleans in May 2024, he needled Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry from the stage: “He’s trying to take us back to the Stone Age.”

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Black and white photo of a young man with shaggy hair smoking a cigarette at a table with soda bottles, indoors, 1964.
A young Mick Jagger lights up a cigarette in this candid 1964 portrait, captured early in the Rolling Stones' rise to fame. Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images.
Older man with tousled auburn hair in a black tuxedo jacket and floral shirt smiling at a Wells Fargo and New York City Ballet step-and-repeat backdrop.
At Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater, the New York City Ballet's 2025 Fall Fashion Gala drew Mick Jagger to its red carpet on October 8, 2025, where he greeted photographers with a grin. Photo by Theo Wargo Getty Images.
An older man with gray hair holds a microphone and raises one hand while performing on an outdoor stage with drum kit visible behind him.
Bruce Springsteen performs at the dedication ceremony for the Barack Obama Presidential Center in John Lewis Plaza in Chicago on June 18, 2026. Photo by Win McNamee Getty Images.
Bruce Springsteen singing at a microphone with a harmonica rack, holding an acoustic guitar, wearing a leather jacket and cross necklace on stage.
GILLES LEIMDORFER AFP via Getty Images
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