Mick Jagger appeared on Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend this week and revealed one of the great what-ifs of rock and roll history, a meeting that never happened because of advice from John Lennon that Jagger, 82 years old and still playing stadiums, now considers the stupidest decision of his career.
"I remember John telling me, 'Yeah you know, you should never meet your heroes, I would never meet Elvis, Mick, if I were you,'" Jagger recalled. "And so I didn't. I took John's advice, which was really stupid of me, really. I mean, I would love to have met Elvis! Why did I take John's advice?"
The backstory: Lennon gave that advice because his own meeting with Elvis, at Presley's Bel Air mansion in August 1965, during the Beatles' third US tour, left him deeply deflated.
The Beatles were shown into a room where Elvis was watching television and playing bass. It was awkward. Lennon reportedly asked Elvis point-blank what happened to the rock and roll he used to make.
After some stilted conversation and an eventual guitar jam session, Lennon told his bandmates it had been "about as exciting as meeting Engelbert Humperdinck."
He said it, and meant it, many times over the years, including to Jagger.
Jagger admitted he understood at the time why he listened. "I wanted to keep my Elvis to myself, my version of Elvis.
I didn't want my version of Elvis shattered like John's was. But maybe my Elvis version would have been different."
He will never know. Elvis died in August 1977. Mick Jagger never met him and is still thinking about it 49 years later.