'We were totally the ‘me’ generation': Jerry Hall talks Mick Jagger, poetry and why her children are more sensible than she was
Not content with a long career in fashion and sideline in rock’n’roll, she’s fresh from touring the stage version of The Graduate around Australia and has just had her poetry published in the prestigious literary journal Areté.
“Fashion is fun, but it’s not that important, really is it? It’s important to have other intellectual and creative interests,” she says.
She also gamely throws herself into charity work — just now, she’s campaigning for Give Up Clothes for Good, which encourages people to donate their unwanted outfits to TK Maxx which sorts them to raise funds for Cancer Research. “It’s a good charity and it sort of makes you feel less guilty as you buy more clothes.”
She easily drifts into reminiscence. Hall’s story always had a touch of the mythic, her Texan upbringing pure Southern Gothic. Her father returned from the Second World War with what they now believe was post-traumatic stress disorder. He was volatile, beat his daughters and once lost their house in a poker game. At 16, Hall won $800 compensation following a car accident and fled to France to try to become a model. After a single day on the Riviera, she was spotted — and it so happened that the first photographer to shoot her was the legendary Helmut Newton. “It was pure luck. Good genes helped of course…”
A private view of Bailey's Stardust, a
exhibition of images by David Bailey supported by Hugo Boss, at the
National Portrait Gallery on February 3, 2014 in London, England. Pic
Shows: Jerry Hall; Suzanne Wyman
Pic Credit: Dave Benett
Her glitzy, kinky shoots helped make her a sort of proto-supermodel but it was her rock star boyfriends who kept her in the public eye. First, Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music** and later Jagger, whom she first met in 1976. Their relationship lasted 22 years (though they were only married between 1990 and 1999) and produced four children: model Elizabeth (29), actor James (28), model Georgia May (22) and GCSE student Gabriel (16). Jagger’s philandering was well-documented at the time and earned Hall plenty of sympathy, but she bears no ill-will.
In fact publishers rejected a memoir of her time with Jagger as it was not “revealing” enough and she had to return the six-figure advance to Harper Collins. “I just can’t remember bad things. I guess I’m just lucky!” she says and laughs nervously. It’s quite convenient too, I remark. “Well, the truth is, I don’t like writing about things I know. I want to find out about things I don’t know.”
Her main way of doing so is through poetry and her verse is revealing in its own way. A poem from 2007, Icon, begins: “He is a hollow hyperbole... he fucks their women / and fights their battles against mediocrity / but when he comes home to me / all that’s left is v.d.”
She says she sees poetry not only as a pleasure but also a calling. “So few people read poetry,” she says. “That’s sad isn’t it? Now Mick, he was a good poet…. Hey did you hear, they’re touring again!”
She was appalled at the snide comments The Stones received when they played Glastonbury that summer. “It’s so disrespectful... To get at things takes loooonng — and they’re the best.” Does she think they’ve improved with age? “Definitely. I mean, listen to Keith’s guitar playing. You don’t play like that when you’re 20. And Mick’s vocals have gotten a lot better.”
Model daughter: Georgia May Jagger
The snideness she puts down to sexual jealousy (“oh they had a lot of
chicks”) and to ageism. “I don’t mind being older,” she says. “I’m proud
of my age. I’ve achieved a lot. It’s the same thing with Mick and the
Stones. They should be revered and respected. Isn’t it strange that now
we’re living longer we have so much less respect for old age? Perhaps
it’s a less valuable commodity?”Nothing dodgy about a bunch of sexuagenarians singing about hitting on teenagers? “Oh young people think they’ve got that all for themselves!” she laughs, dirtily. I take this as a cue to enquire about her rumoured new boyfriend, the evolutionary biologist Armand Leroi, but receive a firm: “I’m not going to talk about that.”
Jagger is not off limits, however, and considering he was a serial cheat and concluded their marriage by having it annulled she is remarkably sanguine. “Oh we had a lot of fun too,” she’s quick to interject. “I think that’s very unhealthy, nursing negative feelings and misery.” And, she says, he has always been a fine father. “I mean, he wasn’t a big nappy changer — but then we always had such wonderful nannies. He has wonderful relationships with each of the children. He takes a huge interest in their education and he’s very keen on physical fitness, good manners. He’s quite old-fashioned in his way.”
She speaks proudly of their youngest son, Gabriel, and of level-headed Georgia who has just bought her first home. “How many young people can claim to have done that?”
Is the younger generation a little too sensible compared to her own? “I think they are!” she says. “I’m a bit worried. I mean, you want your children to be reasonable people of course, but there is always this primitive drive to go crazy. It’s much better to make those mistakes when you’re really young and no one’s watching than when you’re older and you have more to lose.”
Well, perhaps it simply falls to the children of the babyboomers to pick up the pieces left by their irresponsible parents? “Oh you sound like my daughter Elizabeth. She’s got so many funny causes. She’s always saying, ‘Mum, your generation is all me, me, me. You polluted the whole world and ruined everything and now we have to work to clean it up.’
Jerry Hall (Picture: Jason Bell)
“We were totally the ‘me’ generation,” she admits, and bursts out laughing.“If experience has taught me anything, it’s to make every day as good as possible. You learn that with age, as it goes by so quick,” she says.
*For younger readers, Mick Jagger was the Harry Styles of his day only his band was called The Rolling Stones. Pretty cool, huh?...By Richard Godwin.
Thx standar.com.uk
