OAN Staff Lillian Mann
3:29 PM – Tuesday, July 14, 2026
During a sit down on The New York Times’ podcast “The Interview,” English musician and songwriter Mick Jagger said that concertgoers pay for shows to escape their everyday anxieties rather than listen to political “lectures.”
On Saturday, Jagger told host David Marchese that fans hope to forget “all their problems and the problems of the world” at concerts, not to listen to the performer’s political opinions.
When asked what his connection with his audience means to him, Jagger said his priority is giving fans the best possible experience at his concerts, allowing them to forget their worries and simply enjoy the moment.
“The bottom line of my thing really is that my job in the live music world is [for] those people that come is to have the best time they possibly can and for two hours or whatever it is to forget all their problems and the problems of the world and their mortgages and their whatever, just give them the best time they can have,” he declared.
“It’s similar to going to a sports event really, because everything else is shut out… you’re not worrying about everything else,” Jagger added.
“On the other end of the spectrum,” Marchese jumped in, “you have somebody like a Bruce Springsteen, who clearly sees his job as engaging in a meaningful back and forth with his audience,” to which Jagger agreed.
American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen is well known for his sharp critiques of the Trump administration. His recent “Land of Hope & Dreams” tour and his single, “Streets of Minneapolis,” both served as direct condemnations of President Donald Trump.
In a Truth Social post in April, Trump referred to Springsteen as a “dried up prune who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon.”
Meanwhile, Jagger maintained that a music audience should not be “lectured” at concerts.
“You don’t want to lecture them,” he said and repeated, “Your job is to make them have the best time they possibly can.”
Jagger explained that while he does include “social comment” in his songs, he is adamant that listeners do not want to hear an entire track about politics.
“I’ve also got into this habit of doing songs that are about personal relationships, and then I throw a verse about politics in there,” he said.
The rocker noted that the overall atmosphere and dynamic of a performance largely depend on where the concert takes place, as audience energy varies from region to region. Above all, though, he said his main goal is to ensure everyone is enjoying themselves.
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