Paul McCartney Was Jealous of The Rolling Stones’ Clothes

You’d be hard-pressed to find many musicians who wouldn’t trade places with Paul McCartney. Decades of fame and dozens of hit songs pushed his net worth over $1 billion. Still, Paul was jealous of The Rolling Stones — specifically their differing wardrobes — even though The Beatles were the most popular band in England.

Paul McCartney was jealous that The Rolling Stones didn’t have to wear matching clothes

The Beatles striding across a zebra-striped pedestrian crossing for the Abbey Road cover is one of the most recognizable music photos ever. Paul, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison wore different outfits that foreshadowed the individual paths they took when the band broke up after that 1969 album.

But it wasn’t always that way. 

The Fab Four often wore matching clothes when they were a touring group. The more or less had uniforms. Whether they donned light-colored coats with dark slacks (Shea Stadium in 1965) or matching black suits (on The Ed Sullivan Show), they dressed alike. It was standard for groups of the era. Ringo’s first band wore matching pink suits and got better rooms than The Beatles in Hamburg, Germany, because of them.

The Rolling Stones’ attempt to dress alike was a short-lived experiment. They did it once, in 1963, as an upstart band on Thank Your Lucky Stars, writes Jagger author Marc Spitz. Paul was jealous they didn’t wear a uniform, according to his friend Peter Asher:

“Paul was jealous. They got to wear whatever they wanted, whereas Brian Epstein made them wear these f****** suits.”

Paul McCartney’s friend Peter Asher

Spitz writes that Paul’s jealousy stemmed from the relatively upstart band having so much freedom. By allowing The Rolling Stones to wear what they liked, their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, positioned his band as an edgier, scruffier group opposite the more proper-looking Beatles. The distinction became even more pronounced when the Stones started finding success with original songs (instead of covers). 

Mick Jagger said he envied The Beatles’ clothes the first time he met them

The media pitted The Beatles and Stones as rivals, but that was hardly the case. Paul and John gave Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and crew “I Wanna Be Your Man,” their first modestly successful song. Mick inducted the Fab Four into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and admitted during his speech that he could have died when he first met them.

“We were playing a little club in Richmond, and I was doing this song, and suddenly there they were right in front of me — The Fab Four. John, Paul, George, and Ringo. The four-headed monster. They never went anywhere alone at this point,” Jagger said. “And they had on these beautiful, long, black leather trench coats. I could really die for one of those. And I thought, ‘Even if I have to learn to write songs, I’m gonna get this.’”

Paul McCartney was jealous of The Rolling Stones getting to dress differently. That was offset by Jagger’s desire to be a successful musician so he could dress like the Fab Four. The music they made differed, but The Beatles and Stones were more alike than they imagined.

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