Los Angeles (AP) – As Mick Jagger is driving around Latin America on tour with The Rolling Stones, he’s seeing familiar advertisements promoting his latest project plastered around town.
This time it’s not his music — but the HBO series “Vinyl,” which he created and executive produced.
“I’m in Argentina and I’m driving to the gig and there are big billboards on the freeway, ‘Vinyl!’” he says happily over the phone. “It’s quite funny really.”
Mick Jagger attends the premiere of HBO’s new drama series “Vinyl” at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York in this Jan. 15, 2016 file photo. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
The show about the music industry in the 1970s debuted last month and has already been renewed for a second season. It stars Bobby Cannavale as a troubled record executive in a music industry mixed with drugs and sex; other cast members include Ray Romano, Olivia Wilde and Jagger’s son, James Jagger.
“Obviously it’s fictional,” Jagger says with a laugh. “It’s a drama series and in a drama series you really want to bring out the characters, the narrative … having said that, of course you also want to instill in people the sense of the times and you want them to buy in that. …You have to make it believable — that’s our overarching goal, whether it’s actually true or not.”
Jagger said filming the show — which he created with Martin Scorsese — reminded him of the 1970s when the Stones were dominating the music scene and touring around the world.
“I never worked at a recording company like that because in that time I was working at Atlantic Records with Ahmet Ertegun, and there’s some of that in there, but it’s a combination of a lot of things,” he said. “It’s a particular crazy time and place for this particular company.”
In the series, Jagger’s 30-year-old son plays the role of Kip Stevens, the lead singer of the punk rock band Nasty Bits.
“Well, first of all, I thought he was really good so I didn’t have to worry too much. I mean, if he was really, really not good, maybe I wouldn’t have been the one to tell him,” Jagger said. “I was really pleased with his performance.”
The Jaggers worked together on the song “Rotten Apple,” which Nasty Bits perform in the debut episode on “Vinyl.”
“I’m happy to help him in any way when I’ve got time to do it,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said of James Jagger.
The icon added that he didn’t think of recording his own music for the series — “I wouldn’t say it would never happen” — but music from others for the show has been released and more will come.
Jagger, who has been busying producing TV series’, films and documentaries, said he’s never been interested in being a record label head like Cannavale’s character in “Vinyl.”
“Everyone has their little imprint, but actually owning something like that would drive me nuts. Literally nuts,” he said. “We want to be an artist; you don’t really want to be involved too much business.”
