Mick Jagger: 'Apology From Keith Was A Prerequisite For Tour'

The Rolling Stones would not have reunited for a 50th anniversary tour if Keith Richards hadn't apologised for poking fun at bandmate Mick Jagger in his memoirs.

The guitar great took aim at the size of his longtime songwriting partner's manhood, his relationships and his musical talents in bestseller Life, driving a wedge between himself and the frontman, and Jagger admits an apology was an unspoken "prerequisite" before the group could start talking about working together again.
The singer tells Rolling Stone magazine, "I think it was a good thing he got together with me and said that (apologised). I don't really want to talk about it apart from that, but I think it's good that he said it, and yes, it was a prerequisite, really.
"You have to put those things to one side; you can't leave them unspoken. It's very tempting. English people like to do that quite a lot. They don't like to face up to these things. Sometimes it's easy to push them out of the way, but I think it's good that we had that conversation."
But it's clear that Richards' memoirs still irk Jagger - when the rocker was pressed to comment on the accuracy of his bandmate's book, he said, "I don't really want to talk about Keith's book."
Richards confesses he apologised to Jagger, but he still wishes his bandmate had read the book properly.
He tells the publication, "I told Mick, 'You should have seen what I left out'. I did also say to Mick, 'I know exactly what you did. You got the book, you went straight to the index - Jagger, M - and that's what you read. You didn't take it in context. You didn't'.
"So, yeah, we had a bit of a doo-dah about that, but I was expecting it. We resolved it, in our own way, you know... I said that I regret if I caused you any, you know, inconvenience or pain, or something... I'd say anything to get the band together, you know? I'd lie to my mother."
Jagger and Richards officially launched the 50 & Counting tour with the Stones in Los Angeles last Friday (03May13) after playing five arena shows at the end of 2012.