According to the late Queen of Rock and Roll in her newly-resurfaced memoir, the Rolling Stones lead vocalist learned some of his signature moves from her.
- May 30, 2023
AceShowbiz - Sir Mick Jagger learned how to dance from Tina Turner. The Rolling Stones frontman, 79, helped her after she got her career going following her divorce from abusive Ike Turner, and the late "Private Dancer" singer said he never gave her credit for giving him some of his trademark stage moves.
"Mick showed up at the dressing room I shared with our dancers and said in his unmistakable voice, 'I like how you girls dance,' " Tina, born Anna Mae Bullock and dubbed "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", whose death aged 83 was announced on May 24 by her team, said in her tell-all memoir "My Love Story" about her and her dancers teaching Mick.
"Well, we had seen him strutting on stage with his tambourine and thought he looked a little awkward. So we pulled him in and taught him how to do the Pony, our signature prancing footwork."
"Mick caught on fast but found it difficult to do certain steps. He obviously kept practising as when we watched him doing a little bit of the Pony during his next show, we thought, 'Well, that's good.' "
"Not that he ever gave us credit for his new fancy footwork. To this day, Mick likes to say, 'My mother taught me how to dance.' OK fine - but I know better."
Tina added about how Mick famously whipped off her skirt during their 1985 Live Aid performance, "Like me, he could never just stand there and sing. Take our 1985 performance together for Live Aid, for which I was wearing a tight-fitting black leather top and skirt."
"He looked me over and I could see a naughty idea forming. 'Does that skirt come off?' he asked slyly. 'What!' was my startled reply. I'm going to take your skirt off,' he said. I asked him why, but it was too late to talk it through."
"Mick had already made up his mind to do it. 'Just to create something,' he said. Understandably, I was a little nervous because I'd never had my skirt taken off on stage. Luckily, I was prepared… when he pulled off my skirt with a flourish, I saw with relief that it wasn't bad."
"Thanks to the dancer's briefs holding me in like a girdle, and the fishnet stockings hiding my underwear, everything was in shape and in place, like a dancer."
"I managed to appear startled - that's the actress in me - and I ducked behind Mick to make it really look like it was a surprise. The audience loved it. Mick is just naughty, you know? The first time I appeared on stage with him, he tried to press the microphone into my crotch."
