On stage at RFK Stadium for the opening of the current Rolling Stones world tour, Mick Jagger had this to say:
“I’ve been in Washington a week, and I haven’t heard so much talk about health care for the elderly since (bassist) Bill (Wyman) left the band.”
So at least they know they’re old.
As the Stones head for Chicago for two shows Sunday and Monday nights at Soldier Field, it’s forcing yet another look in the mirror, another search for crow’s-feet and laugh lines and creases in the brow, yet another accounting of the aging of Baby Boomers.
When Mick Jagger turned 50-and that was over a year ago-he helped drag a generation across that threshold with him. To many, a question remains: He’s aging, but is he aging gracefully?
And if we go to a rock concert when we’re 50, are we aging gracefully?
Soon, perhaps, we can expect the Stones to buy a theater in Branson, Mo., where tour buses packed with retirees humming “19th Nervous Breakdown” will roll in and out for two shows a day.
In the meantime, though, it’s a megatour, although one scheduled at a more leisurely pace than past Stones’ tour to accommodate the age of the participants.
Although the Sunday show has sold out and the Monday show might come close, there is a malaise among some onetime rockers about the arrival of the pentagenarian Rolling Stones.
“For some people in my office, it isn’t that big of a deal,” said one insider in the local music industry. “The older people, especially, are saying, `I’d rather be at home with my family,’ especially for a dinosaur, . . . I don’t want to say `dinosaur act.’ “
But he did say it, didn’t he.
Nevertheless, selling out Soldier Field once, and maybe twice, is no small feat.
In Washington, the tour reportedly drew some congressmen, Vice President Al Gore’s daughters, and White House aide George Stephanopoulus.
The VIP list here is crowded with jocks. Comp tickets have been requested by, ex-Bear Neal Anderson, current-Bears Shaun Gayle and Erik Kramer, recently retired Bull John Paxson, and Blackhawks Ed Belfour and Chris Chelios.
It is no surprise that Mayor Richard Daley-who, at 52, is a year older than Mick Jagger-does not have it on his schedule, but some City Hall officials will be there.
“The last rock concert I went to was Bob Dylan and the Band, and that must have been in the mid-’70s,” said Dr. Charles Williams, director of energy management in the city’s Department of Environment.
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But like some Generation X-er hoping to see Pearl Jam, he found himself punching the Ticketmaster phone number for 45 minutes trying to get tickets on the first day they went on sale.
Williams, like many, will be toting along the family-in his case, his wife and their 13-year-old daughter.
“She doesn’t know a lot about the Stones,” he said. “I thought it would be nice to take her.”
To Case Ellis, an insurance defense attorney in Crystal Lake, a Stones concert has also become something to share with his family. He has two tickets to Monday night’s show, and he will take one of his two sons, depending on conflicts with band or football practice.
“It’s tradition,” said Ellis, 44. “Hey, they’re the Stones.”