The Only Aspect Of Pink Floyd Mick Jagger Wanted To Copy

The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd had their early music career around the same time as they were formed at the beginning of the 1960s. While they are both icons to many rock music fans, their musical style is somewhat different since the Stones blended other genres into their sounds, such as country, folk, dance, and reggae. In contrast, Pink Floyd was known to be the originators of two major music movements, psychedelic space-rock and blues-based progressive rock.

Still, that doesn’t mean these two legendary bands couldn’t learn from each other when it came to their live performances because if there’s one thing they have in common, it’s their elaborate live shows. In fact, there’s an interview of Roger Waters in which the musician revealed a time when Mick Jagger personally wanted to have something his band did on stage, and we’re here to take a closer look at it.

Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall Tour’ Was Theatrically Groundbreaking

Following the release of their eleventh studio album entitled ‘The Wall’ on November 30, 1979, Pink Floyd hit the road with ‘The Wall Tour,’ which lasted from 1980 and 1981. The tour was relatively small compared to previous tours following a major release, with only 31 shows in total. However, its impact on the band’s carer and the entire music industry was undeniable.

One of the primary reasons the tour was exceptional was its extensive use of stage theatrics. Their shows included a giant wall constructed across the stage to represent the sense of alienation explored in the album. In addition to the 40-foot wall of cardboard bricks, there were giant inflatables and several animations projected onto the wall on stage. In order to achieve such a production, the band employed a team of 40 animators to create their visuals.

Mick Jagger Visited Pink Floyd Backstage

During a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, Roger Waters remembered a detail about ‘The Wall Tour.’  During one of their shows at the Nassau Coliseum, the Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger was in the audience. In fact, the musician stopped by backstage to see one of their illustrators.

After seeing Pink Floyd’s stage theatrics, Mick Jagger wanted to do the same thing for his band as well. When he asked people where to find somebody from the team that made all that happen, somebody pointed at illustrator Gerald Scarfe who was sitting next to drummer Nick Mason.

The Rolling Stones frontman was entirely unaware that Mason was a Pink Floyd member and thought he was the illustrator. The musician decided to trick Jagger and pretended to be in the illustration team. For an hour and a half, the duo spoke about the stage theatrics during which Jagger didn’t realize what was truly going on.

According to Rolling Stone, Waters said:

“I remember Jagger coming to the Nassau Coliseum gigs in late 1979 and seeing ‘The Wall.’ He came backstage, trying to find out how he could get that. ‘I want that.’ Somebody pointed to illustrator Gerald Scarfe, who was sitting on the sofa chatting with Nick Mason, and said, ‘He’s the one you should see.’ And Jagger didn’t see. He thought it was Nick.

So he went up to Nick and said, ‘I gather you’ve done all the visuals and all that.’ And Nick, of course being Nick, said, ‘Well, yes. I did. I do that in my spare time when I’m not practicing my drumming.’ And Jagger sat and talked to him, wasted half an hour of his life thinking that. Bless Nick. How cool. And not that I’ve got anything against Mick. Well, I haven’t. Well, not a lot. He’s just a bit old for me.”

You can watch one of the performances from ‘The Wall Tour’ below.