Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, who celebrated his 80th birthday in July, has opened up about parenting young children in his older years.
“You get a bit out of practice – it’s not like riding a bike,” the rock icon told The Guardian of fatherhood in a new interview.
Jagger’s six-year-old son Deveraux was born in 2016, when he was 73 and his girlfriend Melanie Hamrick was 29. He also shares daughter Karis, 52, with Marsha Hunt, daughter Jade, 52, with Bianca Jagger, daughters Elizabeth, 39, Georgia May, 31, and sons James, 38, and Gabriel, 25, with Jerry Hall and son Lucas, 24, with Luciana Gimenez Morad.
“The more children you have, the more laissez-faire you get about them, to be honest,” Jagger said. “And it depends on the child – they have their own personalities and you can mold them to a certain extent, but you see their likes and dislikes and encourage them to do things they gravitate towards.”
“But if you’re working, and always away, you don’t get to enjoy it quite as much.” When Deveraux was born, he added, “I wasn’t working so much, so I was able to spend more time. And then we had the lockdown – he’s only six, and two of those years I did almost nothing [with the band].”
These days, Jagger is much busier with work. The Rolling Stones just released Hackney Diamonds, the legendary band’s first album of new original material in 18 years. Jagger also appeared in two Saturday Night Live sketches this weekend.
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