Dave Stewart opens up about Mick Jagger and the future of SuperHeavy
SuperHeavy, whose members include Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart, still has a documentary in the works, and Jagger wants "Energy" to be SuperHeavy's second music video. These are some of the things that Stewart told me when I did an exclusive interview with him on February 15, 2012, while he was in Los Angeles for his tour with Joss Stone, one of the other members of SuperHeavy. The other members of the group are Damian Marley and A.R. Rahman. As of now, all of SuperHeavy's members are pursuing multiple projects. For Stewart, he has been touring (with Stone in 2012 and Stevie Nicks in 2011), promoting his solo music, and preparing for the Broadway opening of "Ghost The Musical," whose songs he co-wrote with Glen Ballard.
SuperHeavy has no plans to tour and has yet to do any official live public performances for the group's self-titled album, which was released in September 2011. (SuperHeavy's music video for "Miracle Worker," which Stewart directed, has footage of the band performing, but that was on a music-video set with an audience that consisted mostly of hired extras.) One place where SuperHeavy won't be performing is at the 2012 Olympics, since Stewart revealed during our conversation that SuperHeavy turned down an invitation to do an Olympics performance. My full interview with Stewart will be in my Celebrity Q&A column around the time that "Ghost The Musical" officially opens on Broadway in April 2012. In the meantime, here is what Stewart said when we talked about SuperHeavy.
You’ve been directing and producing a SuperHeavy documentary, which has had some footage officially released on the Internet. What is the latest status on the full-length documentary?
My little company has been making documentaries — it’s a company called Weapons of Mass Entertainment — we made a feature-film-length documentary on Stevie Nicks and Joss Stone. I just signed a six-picture deal with CineDine — a six-documentary film deal.
With SuperHeavy, I just made a documentary, which was an amazing thing to capture. I’ve probably got an hour-and-15-minute-long film. I think it’s interesting, but because things keep happening, I keep filming that.
Mick wants to make a video for [SuperHeavy song] “Energy.” It’s one of his favorites. I started to feed some of [the documentary footage] on Facebook, some little teasers. We have amazing stuff.
I know you’ve been asked this question almost every time you’ve done an interview talking about SuperHeavy, but do you think SuperHeavy will ever do a live public performance?
We would all like to, but the thing is with having a band like that, Joss and I have just been playing live. A.R. [Rahman] is busy rehearsing for the Academy Awards show. Everybody’s busy doing things, but we can all regroup at one point. It’s a mixture of five managers.
Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood said in a recent interview that the Rolling Stones have been invited to perform at the 2012 Olympics in London. Do you think the Stones are going to do it?
I’m not sure. They might. I think the Olympics committee has been asking a few people, hedging their bets. Why not? It would be a hell of a thing. It’s London, and it’s where the Stones are from. The funny thing is, SuperHeavy was also approached [to perform at the 2012 Olympics], because SuperHeavy is mixed culturally: Indian, Jamaican, British. It’s all very interesting.
Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese are producing a TV drama series about the music business, and Terence Winter (of “The Sopranos” and “Boardwalk Empire” fame) reportedly wrote the screenplay for the show’s pilot episode. Would you be interested in doing the soundtrack or score music for that TV series if it gets picked up by a network?
Oh yeah! I created the music for the TV series "Malibu Country” [starring Reba McEntire]. We’re making the pilot in April [2012]. So I’ve done stuff like that. Yeah, I’d work anytime with Mick and Scorsese. Obviously, it would be amazing. Mick and I have got so many great songs and experiments that nobody’s heard. Anything with Mick and Scorsese would be incredible to work on.
You mentioned earlier that SuperHeavy was asked to perform at the 2012 Olympics. It sounds like that’s not going to happen. So what would be the band’s ideal place for the first SuperHeavy live public performance?
SuperHeavy, when people realized what it was, we were asked to do everything: the Grammys, the Olympics, the opening of a balloon in Bangkok. There’s a wall of invitations.
We always talk about making it … not a secret gig, but just a small place in New York or something like that. We haven’t set anything. We went through a million different ramifications. We did the [documentary] film.
We can decide anything at any point. We’re always free to do something. Everybody wants to do something. It’s not like we have to find something to do.
Since you've been collaborating with Mick Jagger for several years, what do you think the two of you will work on next?
I have no idea. Maybe another SuperHeavy thing. I don’t know.
