How Jagger at 70 Prepares For Shows

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...0130507?page=3

He is terrifically fit, so we talk for a while about his physical regimen – "I have to bump it up when I do a tour, but I don't have to start from ground zero. That's fairly important for me, to keep that" – and I also ask about how he prepares for the songs' vocal requirements. "When I'm onstage," he says, "I'm not just singing. I want to do a performance, as well, so that's waving my arms around and running around, and I'm dancing. That takes 50 percent of your breath power, so my challenge is how to balance that with my vocals. You don't want to be out of breath when you do the ballads. That's the kind of balancing act. I have things that I can do at home for keeping my voice together. I do karaoke singing, and I write songs a lot, and I do demos and sing them. I'm very lucky, in a lot of ways, because – I'm not trying to sound bigheaded – I do all the Rolling Stones songs in all the same keys as they always were in, so my higher end is still there, maybe better than it was, because I don't smoke anymore and I don't drink as much and whatever."

Excellent post... thank you.

"We try and look underneath the normal songs that we do and find unusual songs," says Mick Jagger. "We play them and then get like 14,099 blank stares and one guy goes, 'Yeah, I love that one!' That's my favorite."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/vi...cenes-20130507

But it shouldn't be in the Bon Jovi part of the forum. They have nothing to do with Bon Jovi.

Kudos to Stones for not being AC/DC and touring with the same set for 20 years (something they could easily get away with), but they still don't mix their sets nearly as Bon Jovi. If Stones went on a full tour (not a few one off shows like right now) and we analyze their setlist on a daily basis, they would be more stale.

Vocally, it's also not really impressive. The reason Jagger's voice is still the same is cause his songs are piss-poor easy to sing. He barely has any range. On easy songs, like Wild Is The Wind or I'd Die For You, Jon's vocals haven't changed either. I wonder how Mick would sound in 2013 if most of his catalogue was as challenging as Jon's.

However, the moving around and entertaining part is spot on. That is the incredible part about him when you look at him and remember his actual age. Jon should take notes.

Agreed to a point. Jagger isn't a hard rock singer but I listened to versions of Gimme Shelter live from 2012 back every decade for 40 years and he sounds almost exactly the same. Jon doesn't even have any power in his lower range. That one version of 'I'm With You' they did was awful as David had to sing the 'Yooouuuuuuuu' part that Jon does on the record and Jon went way lower because he's lost so much power in the mid-range.

But yes, the entertainment part is the main thing, you're right.

Axl Rose was pictured in the pit at the recent Stones show in L.A. and after his lazy-ass, porky, falsetto performances of the last 2 years I hope he was taking notes too.

Thierry: it is relevant to Bon Jovi right now, as I hope you can see.

They are easier to sing than Bon Jovi songs IF the Bon Jovi songs remain in the same key but this comment is WAY off the mark...

Mick is also almost twenty years older than Jon and making singing look easy. Jon makes the majority of Bon Jovi songs look like he's having his kidney's removed through his ass without anaesthetic and that's after dropping many songs by a key.

My apologies if your comment is based on experience and you sing songs by both Bon Jovi and The Stones on a regular basis while entertaining a crowd.

Also, they play the staple hits but also mix things up. They key though, is they earn the label of the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world by giving the crowd exactly what they want and putting in the odd rarity for die-hards and to keep it fresh for themselves... all with astounding amounts of attack and energy.

That's quite a statement you are making there...and unless you meant something completely different, you are talking bollocks.

AC/DC only toured 3 times in the last 20 years 1996, 2000-2001 and 2008-2009.

Their sets were very different on each tour.

1996:
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/acdc/1...-3bd33400.html

2000:
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/acdc/2...-3bd22068.html

2008:
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/acdc/2...-4bd71ffa.html

Wish Jon had that attitude - i'd happily be the one guy in the audience jumping up and down for 'Hardest Part Is The Night'

Absolutely. People with balls do it. You think Prince or Springsteen give a **** if they play a rarity and the entire crowd don't react like it's a hit?

It's not like Jon never does it. I nearly lost my shit when I heard he did Santa Fe. It's just that other people do it nightly.

You know what the difference is? Other peoples' audiences are smart and are aware of a lot more going on musically outside of that one band they're going to see and don't treat a song they don't know as a pissbreak opportunity.

The number of people at a Jovi show who don't listen to anything except Jovi is, in my experience, quite large. I'm sure Jon is aware of this to some extent and know he couldn't get away with the kinda stuff Springsteen does. He's mentioned in the past what a ballache it is for him to work the crowd up to a certain point and then start all over again when a song doesn't work. Whether that's insecurity on his part or his desire that everyone has the most possible fun 100% of the time I don't know.