Mick Jagger on his memories of speaking Singlish and using AI in Rolling Stones’ new era

SINGAPORE – Rock icon Mick Jagger’s memories of Singapore span vastly different eras of The Rolling Stones’ career, from the English band’s first performance here back in 1965 to their most recent concert at Marina Bay Sands’ (MBS) Grand Ballroom in 2014.

Speaking to The Straits Times in a Zoom video call from London, the 82-year-old singer remembers the gig from about 60 years ago, recalling the venue, the Singapore Badminton Hall in Guillemard Road, as “a quite small place”. It was their first show in Asia.

The Stones’ subsequent visit comprised two nights at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in 2003. More recently, at the MBS show, Jagger famously endeared himself to the audience by dropping Singlish phrases, with lines like “Wah lau, your weather damn hot” and “stylo milo”, and teasing band member and guitarist Ronnie Wood, 79, as “blur like sotong”.

Looking back, Jagger laughed about using the “Singaporean sort of dialect”, noting humorously that “of course, not everyone understood it, because not everyone was (from) Singapore”.

Will the Stones bring their live show back to Singapore’s shores? Jagger certainly hopes so. “I always have a good time there,” he said. “I like Singapore very much and, yeah, I would really like to go back and do a show there.”

In 2026, more than six decades after they formed in 1962, the Stones remain a creative force. The trio, who also include guitarist Keith Richards, 82, are gearing up to release their 25th studio album Foreign Tongues, which drops on July 10. It comes three years after Hackney Diamonds, their first album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang, and their first since the 2021 death of drummer Charlie Watts.

Produced by Andrew Watt, the 35-year-old Grammy-winning American who has crafted hits for artistes ranging from K-pop idol Jungkook of boyband BTS to Canadian pop star Justin Bieber, Foreign Tongues promises a new chapter.

The record features cameos by fellow rock icon Paul McCartney from one-time rivals The Beatles, Robert Smith from English band The Cure and American band Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith, as well as drums recorded by Watts before he died at the age of 80. Most are original songs, but it also has covers, including late British singer Amy Winehouse’s 2006 hit You Know I’m No Good.

Unafraid of technological advancements, the Stones released the music video for the album’s lead single, In The Stars, in May. It made headlines by using artificial intelligence technology to visually de-age Jagger, Richards and Wood back to their 1970s prime.

Seeing his younger self on screen was a surreal experience for the frontman.

“It’s kind of weird, but I mean, you get used to it very quickly,” Jagger admitted. As the AI was applied only to the members’ faces, the rest of the video, which also starred rising American actress Odessa A’zion, 26, was entirely real.

The technology, however, required constant refinement. “The beginning of them, they’re not perfect, so you keep getting them sent on your computer... You go, like, ah, you know, that's really not right,” he explained.

He also poked fun at his bandmates’ digital facelifts. “It wasn’t right. Keith and Ronnie didn’t look like Keith and Ronnie at all, you know,” he says with a laugh. “(The makers of the video) spent a lot of time on me, thank you very much. I look pretty good.”

While the music video was a playful experiment, Jagger holds nuanced views on the broader implications of generative AI in the music industry. Asked if the technology poses a threat to the legacy of artistes, he was realistic.

“It could be a threat with people just making new Stones songs,” he noted, pointing out that the vast amount of data available makes the band an easy target for imitation. “You don’t really want people to do that and be in competition with yourself.”

Despite these concerns, Jagger views AI as a natural evolution of studio engineering. He recalled that the Stones were early adopters of computerised mixing consoles in the late 1970s, noting that it was “very hard to mix 24 tracks with one pair of hands”.

To him, modern AI is the next step. “The studio is a big technical tool to make music,” he said. “So of course, AI is part of making the studio part of your work.”

This cutting-edge technology sits alongside vintage equipment in their current set-up as their sound engineers still source classic analogue gear. As he puts it, the band are “using things that came out last week, and we’re using things that come from the 1950s”.

This blend of old and new defined the recording of Foreign Tongues. In past sessions, the band would enter the studio with half-ready sketches and struggle to write on the spot.

For the current record, they came meticulously prepared. “Nearly all these songs are prepped before they go in... So you have 12 songs that you know are more or less done.”

Still, there was room for spontaneity, such as the unplanned decision to record Winehouse’s song. “We didn’t have that idea until we got halfway through,” Jagger revealed.

Jagger, who was knighted in 2003, attributes the Stones’ lasting creativity to remaining open-minded while making the album.

“You mustn’t fall in love with the demo,” he said, emphasising that artistes must be “open to changing the arrangements”. Whether swopping a chorus for a verse or changing a track’s vibe, flexibility is key.

After more than 60 years in rock ’n’ roll, the question of retirement inevitably looms. Yet, Jagger – who has eight children with five women, including an eight-year-old son with his fiancee, 39-year-old American ballerina Melanie Hamrick – remains focused on the music.

As the Stones prepare to release Foreign Tongues, he was honest about the band’s eventual end. “I don’t know, I mean, obviously it can’t go on forever,” he reflected. “I would say I’ll push it until I feel it’s no good.”