Mick Jagger Accidentally Fast-Tracked The Beatles’ Break Up
The exact cause of The Beatles’ break up has long been debated, but The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger isn’t often connected with the band’s demise. He didn’t cause their breakup by any means, but he did recommend Allen Klein as a manager for the group. The band’s appointment of Klein sparked such animosity and resentment that their collapse became inevitable.
The band’s manager, Brian Epstein, died unexpectedly
The Beatles began working with Brian Epstein in 1962, and with his help, they became the biggest band in the world. In 1967, though, Epstein suddenly died of an accidental overdose. The Beatles were in India at the time and could hardly believe the news.
“[T]hey said ‘Brian’s dead.’ I was stunned,” John Lennon said, per the book Lennon Remembers by Jann S. Wenner. “We all were.”
Lennon explained that he felt lost and panicked after hearing the news, even though the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi told them to be happy.
“The feeling that anybody has when somebody close to them dies,” he said when asked how he felt. “There is a sort of little hysterical, sort of ‘hee, hee, I’m glad it’s not me’ or something in it, that funny feeling when somebody dies. I don’t know whether you’ve had it. I’ve had a lot of people die on me. And the other feeling is, ‘What the f***? What can I do?’ I knew that we were in trouble then. I didn’t really have any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play music. And I was scared. I thought, ‘We’ve f***in’ had it.'”
Mick Jagger recommended a new manager to The Beatles
After Epstein’s death, Jagger recommended The Rolling Stones’ manager, Klein, to the band. He didn’t exactly have a pristine reputation — even the Stones would soon be embroiled in a legal battle with him — but Jagger did not mention this.
“He’s all right if you like that kind of thing,” Paul McCartney recalled Jagger saying, via Rolling Stone.
Klein immediately won Lennon over, and he felt he could trust him because of Jagger’s recommendation.
“Really, it was Mick who got us together,” Lennon said. “I had heard about all those dreadful rumors about him, but I could never coordinate it with the fact that the Stones seemed to be going on and on with him, and nobody ever said a word. Mick’s not the type to just clam up, so I started thinking he must be all right.”
Mick Jagger couldn’t have predicted the effect of his recommendation on The Beatles
Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were happy to work with Klein, but McCartney did not trust him. He wanted his father-in-law, Lee Eastman, to manage the band, which did not go over well with his bandmates. To be fair, he likely would have bristled if any of them had suggested their in-laws as the band’s management.
The disagreement over Klein meant that the band got stuck focusing on business affairs and legal matters.
“It just got that Paul would say, ‘Speak to my lawyer, I don’t want to speak about business anymore,’ which meant, ‘I’m going to drag my feet and try and f*** you,'” Lennon said.
The band was already dealing with simmering tensions about their music and Yoko Ono’s presence in the recording studio. The arguments over Klein worsened everything and sapped the fun out of the band. Instead of music, they were focused on the business side of things.
Jagger could not have predicted this. He was in no way responsible for the band’s break up, but his recommendation sped up the gradual deterioration of the band. Had they not appointed Klein, they may have lasted for a bit longer.
