“Rolling Stones” frontman Mick Jagger fired off criticism at Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry in the middle of a live performance in the state on Thursday.
The iconic British artist, 80, and the rest of the aging Rolling Stones played a sold-out show at the Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
But instead of sticking to the music and entertaining the crowd, Jagger took a politically fueled shot at Gov. Landry after wrapping up the band’s 1969 smash hit, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
“We’re a welcoming crowd, aren’t we?” Jagger said as he addressed the audience. “I hope Mr. Landry is enjoying the show. He’s real inclusive you know. He’s trying to take us back to the Stone Age.”
You can’t always get what you want.
The only person who might remember the Stone Age is @MickJagger.
Love you buddy, you’re always welcome in Louisiana!
— Jeff Landry (@JeffLandry) May 2, 2024
The Republican governor was obviously quickly informed about Jagger’s dig and fired back with a quip about the long-time rock star’s advanced age.
“You can’t always get what you want,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, late Thursday afternoon.
“The only person who might remember the Stone Age is Mick Jagger. Love you buddy, you’re always welcome in Louisiana! #LoveMyCountryMusic.”
While Jagger did not bring up any particular legislation, Landry’s tenure has been marked with support of conservative issues since taking office in January, after serving as the state’s attorney general.
Some of the policies that likely triggered the band leader include an almost complete ban on abortion, restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender youths, and the implementation of tougher crime penalties for offenders.
Landry recently made headlines for threatening to pull scholarships from student athletes who refuse to stand for the nation anthem, after the LSU women’s basketball team were a no-show when the song played ahead of their Elite Eight game against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
“It is time that all college boards, including Regent, put a policy in place that student athletes be present for the national anthem or risk their athletic scholarship,” he tweeted at the time. “This is a matter of respect that all collegiate coaches should instill.”
My mother coached women’s high school basketball during the height of desegregation, no one has a greater respect for the sport and for Coach Mulkey. However, above respect for that game is a deeper respect for those that serve to protect us and unite us under one flag !
It is…
— Jeff Landry (@JeffLandry) April 2, 2024
While Jagger can’t do anything about Landry referencing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” he certainly wasn’t shy about threatening then presidential candidate Donald Trump for using the song at campaign events in 2016.
The band demanded that Trump stop playing the song, which the musician thought was a strange choice.
“It does seem an odd choice to me, too. If I was the DJ, I wouldn’t be choosing that one,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2020.
“I might be doing “Start Me Up” or something as my playout music. I don’t know, it’s just weird. But that’s neither here nor there.”
Following Trump’s continuous use of the track in 2020, the Stones, alongside BMI, a music rights organization, demanded he face legal consequences.
“The BMI have notified the Trump campaign on behalf of the Stones that the unauthorized use of their songs will constitute a breach of its licensing agreement,” the statement read.
“If Donald Trump disregards the exclusion and persists then he would face a lawsuit for breaking the embargo and playing music that has not been licensed.”
The same year, Jagger added his name to a letter from the Artist Right Alliance, which sought to require political candidates to get artist’s permissions to use their songs at campaign events.
One of the major concerns the elderly musician has is being associated with a candidate if his songs are used at a rally without his go ahead.
“It’s just that people really do, believe it or not, even though you say, “Oh, I’m not really affiliated with this political campaign,” when they hear it on the TV, they think you really did want it to be there,” he remarked.
“So I think it’s good that people, if they want to use something like that in a political context, they should ask. I think that’s fair enough.”
“I think it would be a normal, common-sense thing. And people can say yes or no, rather than just being able to do it,” Jagger continued.
“It’s just rather an arcane U.S. law. You can’t do it in most countries. It’s just in the U.S.,” he added.