Mick Jagger, the iconic rock legend and frontman of The Rolling Stones, knows how much his band’s music is worth…but at this point in his life, he doesn’t seem to care much for the money.
The rocker spoke to the Wall Street Journal magazine to promote the group’s forthcoming new album Hackney Diamonds, and among questions about the new work, Jagger also opened up about whether or not the band wants to sell the rights to some of their biggest hits and most successful albums.
Jagger says that if The Rolling Stones did ever sell—which they’re not looking to do at the moment—he wouldn’t keep it all to himself. In fact, at 80 years old, he’s already thinking about what he’s going to leave to his children, and it’s not the millions upon millions he and his bandmates might earn from such a sale.
“The children don’t need $500 million to live well,” The Rolling Stones singer mused, adding, simply, “Come on.” That’s an eye-popping sum, but it’s probably not far off from what the catalog would fetch during a bidding war.
Based on other recent sales of extremely high-profile sales of catalogs from some of the top stars in the music industry, chances are that if The Rolling Stones sold the rights to the music that’s still available—their albums and hits post-1971—they’d make a small fortune.
Bruce Springsteen sold the rights to his music for $550 million in 2021, while Bob Dylan sold the right to his back catalog for between $150 and $200 million just last year.
If The Rolling Stones did decide to jump on board the money train and sell their catalog, Jagger says they’d likely want to do something more meaningful with the windfall, such as donate it to charity. “You maybe do some good in the world,” he commented.
Jagger has eight children with several women, and they range in age from just six years old to into their 50s. Many of them are working and have built careers of their own, and even without selling the Stones’s catalog, the musicians are incredibly wealthy.
These days, The Rolling Stones make the bulk of their millions on the road. The band tours regularly, and they have no issue selling out large arenas and moving tickets at high prices. With a new album coming next month, the group might be planning even more shows, and their catalog is sure to grow in worth yet again.
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