How Mick Jagger’s Invitation To Perform With The Rolling Stones Costed ‘Tina’ Singer’s Job

The star of Tina Turner’s musical, Chanel Haynes, recently joined an interview with Rolling Stone and revealed the story behind losing her job after performing with the Rolling Stones.

Chanel Haynes started to portray Tina Turner in ‘Tina: The Tina Turner Musical’ in 2018, with the production’s world premiere in London. While she was still in the musical, the singer was offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform with the Rolling Stones. The singer joined the band to sing their classic, ‘Gimme Shelter,’ at San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy, on June 21, 2022.

As you probably know, the Rolling Stones have been continuing their European tour to celebrate their 60th anniversary as a band. Their show in Milan marked the group’s first appearance on the stage following Mick Jagger’s battle with COVID-19. Chanel Haynes joined the Stones as a replacement for their longstanding backup singer, Sasha Allen, who missed the gig for an unspecified reason.

However, the show resulted in Haynes getting fired from her role in portraying Tina Turner in ‘Tina.’ During the interview, the singer said that the Stones immediately needed someone to perform with them since it was a duet between Jagger and Allen. She found herself on the plane to Milan in a very short time. When she talked to Keith Richards before the show, the guitarist told her to sing the song in her own version rather than the original, which made Haynes glad. The singer rejected giving details about losing her job, yet she clearly implied that it was related to her appearance in the Rolling Stones show, which was heartbreaking.

Chanel Haynes speaking on how he lost her job after performing with the Stones:

“I can’t say exactly when I got the call because I don’t want to give timelines. But I’ll tell you that there was very little notice. Very little. Everybody was biting their nails. ‘How are we going to pull this off?’ But I tell you the machine the Stones have is like Buckingham Palace or the White House. They have the same level of personnel. Next thing I knew, I was on a plane to Milan.

I said to him, ‘You wrote the song. What can you share with me, deposit in me, that I can use so when I go up there, I can feast on that and share it?’ He said, ‘Chanel, I want you to tell me what your interpretation of this song is to you after you sing this song.’ My heart exploded at that moment. I was so glad he did that since I was forced to sing from my perspective, not his.

I will say that if you’re on the West End, there’s no one person that can stop a show. It’s not designed that way. Ultimately, everything was fine. There was a show and a show happened, as did the show in Milan. All the shows happened, and I was happy about that.”

You can watch her performance with the Stones below.