mick jagger Regrets Missing Elvis Meet After Lennon Advice
Said he still regrets taking John Lennon’s advice not to meet Elvis Presley, calling it “really stupid of me.” He also recalled David Bowie admitting he had…
Mick Jagger says one piece of advice from John Lennon still bothers him: the decision not to meet Elvis Presley. In a recent reflection reported by Rolling Stone, the Rolling Stones frontman called it “really stupid of me.”
The remark adds a new layer to a story that has followed Jagger for years. It is a small regret, but a revealing one. For a musician whose career helped define modern rock, missing a chance to meet Presley clearly still carries weight.
According to the Rolling Stone report, Jagger said he had taken Lennon’s advice and passed on the meeting. The result, in his view, was a mistake that never really faded. The comment lands with extra force because it comes from someone who has spent decades in the center of rock history, close to many of its biggest names, and still remembers the moments that got away.
Why the regret still matters
The exchange is more than nostalgia. It shows how informal advice between music giants could shape personal choices in ways that lasted far longer than the moment itself. Lennon’s opinion carried real influence, and Jagger’s memory of the episode suggests he has continued to measure that decision against what it might have meant.
Presley’s place in rock history makes the story sting more. Jagger did not describe a career setback or a missed business deal. He described a missed encounter with one of the genre’s defining figures. That kind of near miss tends to linger, especially when it involves an artist who helped set the template for what came next.
Jagger also touched on another famous name from rock’s orbit: David Bowie. In the same conversation, he recalled Bowie admitting that he had stolen the Rolling Stones’ sound on one classic song. Jagger quoted Bowie saying, “I said, 'God, you’ve nicked all my things.' He said, ‘Yeah, I know, man. I know. It's like a homage to you’.”
The line is vintage rock-room talk, but it also points to something bigger. Jagger was not just revisiting old memories; he was describing a world where artists borrowed, acknowledged, teased, and paid tribute to one another in public and private. For listeners, that means these legends were not sealed off from each other. They were listening closely.
A portrait of rock’s overlapping circle
Stories like this matter because they show how tightly connected the era’s biggest figures were. Lennon, Presley, Bowie, and Jagger are often treated as separate pillars. Jagger’s recollection pulls them into the same room.
It also gives fans a rare glimpse of how regret works at that level. Not every regret is about a failed record or a lost tour. Sometimes it is about not saying hello. Just that.
Jagger’s words leave little room for mystery. He said it plainly, and he did not try to soften it. “Really stupid of me.”
That bluntness is what makes the memory stick. It sounds like a man looking back at rock history and spotting one tiny door he should have walked through. He never did.
And the story still carries because the people around it remain part of the same myth. In Jagger’s telling, Bowie was willing to admit the borrowing, Lennon was willing to advise against the meeting, and Presley stayed the figure at the center of the missed chance. That old decision still has a sharp edge.
