Mick Jagger Responds to Paul McCartney's Claim of Rolling Stones being a "blues cover band"

It was only natural for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to be "rivals" back during the 1960s. Both bands came from similar backgrounds and did similar types of music. But it couldn't be farther from the truth. Often times, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards would often seek the advice and wisdom from Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Both bands even had it worked out to where, if say, The Beatles had a song ready to go and The Rolling Stones were still working on one, one band would say "Ours is ready, so we'll go ahead and set it out and you take your time to finish" or vice versa. Now it seems that the rivalry is becoming real.

On a recent article Paul McCartney had been in, he'd made a comment about The Rolling Stones. It was only a matter of time before Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger would be asked for his opinion.

According to McCartney, in an article with The New York Times, "I'm not sure I should say it, but they're a blues cover band, that's sort of what the Stones are. I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs."

Jagger predated this type of questioning during a concert recently in Los Angeles. "There are so many celebrities here tonight. Megan Fox is here, she's lovely. Leonardo DiCaprio, Lady Gaga, Kirk Douglas - misread that one. And Paul McCartney is here; he's going to help; he's going to join us in a blues cover later on."

The decades-long rivalry, thought to have never even occurred, had arisen in 2020 during an interview with Howard Stern that Paul McCartney was doing. "Their stuff's rooted in blues. When they're writing stuff, it has to do with the blues. Whereas we had a little more influences. There's a lot of differences. I love The Stones, but I'm with you. The Beatles were better."

Jagger kindly described McCartney as a "sweetheart". He responded by mentioning "There's obviously no competition! The big difference...sort of slightly seriously, is that The Rolling Stones have been a big concert band in other decades and other eras when The Beatles never even did an arena tour [like] Madison Square Garden with a decent sound system. They broke up before that business started, the touring business for real.