It was unbelievable.迷你倉 Without an appointment, my friends and I met the Rolling Stones star in his hotel room and chattedYou may find this hard to believe, but there was once when rock 'n' roll's icon Mick Jagger mixed whisky drinks for me and two friends in his hotel suite here and spent 90 minutes with us.This was way back in 1979 when Jagger and his then-girlfriend Jerry Hall stopped over in Singapore after their holiday in Bali.My two friends were Jimmy Wee, then head of WEA (Warner, Electra, Atlantic) Singapore, and Peter Ong, my colleague in New Nation who also stringed for Billboard, the music industry's trade journal.Ahmet Ertugun, founder of Atlantic Records and the man instrumental in signing the Rolling Stones to the label at the time, sent Jimmy a message that Jagger would be in town and do go and say hello to him.We asked around the hotels and found that the couple were staying in a $400-a-night suite at the Hyatt. We also obtained the room number.We thought we would chance it and go knock on their door without any appointment. We didn't expect Jagger would want to meet us, so we had not taken any notebook or tape-recorder.But to our surprise, the 35-year-old Rolling Stones frontman opened the door and, after we introduced ourselves, invited us in. He was in a baggy blue shirt, old blue trousers and a pair of even older-looking shoes.On the coffee table in the centre of the room was a copy of The Straits Times, open to the Parliament page. When we asked him if he had a chance to look at New Nation, the afternoon tabloid newspaper, as well, he said: "Oh, yeah, yeah, lousy, no bloody cricket report."He took us to the bar and poured us Scotch. Then we went to sit on the sofa. Jagger curled up in a chair opposite us. His manner seemed effeminate - he cupped his mouth when he laughed - which was surprising.Jerry Hall, in an unbuttoned blouse and tight blue jeans, came down from the open mezzanine. She was tall (over 1.9m) and stunning-looking, with straight blonde hair down to her shoulders. She sat on the sofa with us.She was quiet throughout our time there, except once to say that she didn't believe in women's liberation and was "awed by all those women working in the sun in Bali"."Back home, you don't get to see women doing that," she said. Hall is a Texan and was a model when she met Jagger."Yeah, yeah," Jagger agreed. "Not in England, definitely.""All those truck drivers going on strike," he said, betraying Establishment disgust. Maggie Thatcher would have adored him.We spoke about music. He denounced rock tycoon Robert Stigwood and his brand of文件倉music. "Naww, corporate music."He dismissed the Bee Gees. "We all know how many reincarnations the Bee Gees have undergone."When Peter offered him a cigarette, he declined and said he hadn't smoked for 15 years.We must have looked incredulous, for he added: "Cigarettes, that is."We asked him about his bandmate Keith Richards, who was to perform in Toronto (as a penalty for a drug offence), his ex-wife Bianca, and punk rock and disco.When we asked him about Linda Ronstadt, who sang Tumbling Dice with Jagger when the Stones played in her hometown in Tuscon, Arizona, last year, he said: "She's good. But," he added, "she can't dress."That remark made us laugh.I asked him how he could be so relaxed and then become this whirlwind of energy onstage.He replied: "I try and relax when I'm not working because if you don't, you'll end up like the others - dead. You can't live your image, you can't be onstage 24 hours a day."We telephoned for a New Nation photographer to come and while we waited for him, Jagger went up to the mezzanine to have a shower. The couple had an appointment with a friend in half an hour's time, he told us.The singer put on Jackson Browne's Running On Empty on a portable tape-recorder and took it into the bathroom with him.The album was banned in Singapore because it has a song titled Cocaine (not the J.J. Cale version which Eric Clapton would popularise some years later). Jagger wouldn't have known. We could hear him singing snatches to Browne's tape as he showered. His verdict of Browne later: "He's no good."When Jagger reappeared after his shower, he was dressed in a loose white shirt with a pink collar and cuffs and wide, white pants.Our photographer had arrived and he posed gamely for pictures, even taking out an acoustic guitar to strum. He also posed with Hall.He asked us where he could go for some live music later and we gave a few suggestions. Of course, we eagerly offered our services, but he said his friend would take him around.After we left, we couldn't believe our good luck. Peter and I returned to the office to file a report of the interview right away.Recently, I phoned Jimmy, who is now an impresario in the region, and he told me he had told this story to many of his younger friends, but none had believed him.Let me assure them that it is true.Coda: Jagger and Hall went to the Black Velvet disco at the Century Park Sheraton Singapore that night, but there was a queue and they were refused entry. Apparently, the guys at the door didn't recognise the rock star. The couple didn't make a fuss and went away quietly.ricklim@sph.com.sg存倉
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