Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is a lover, not a street fighter. But during his legendary band’s headlining set at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Thursday night (May 2) Jagger took time to voice his opinion on Louisiana’s newly elected Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, dinging the conservative politician for what the rock singer said were his regressive policies.
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“We’re an inclusive group. We like to include everyone,” Jagger said during a performance of the band’s 1969 classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” according to the Shreveport Times. He then noted that Landry was in the house, adding a special, pointed message for the first-term governor. “The governor is here and we’d like to include him, even though he’s trying to take us back to the Stone Age,” he said.
Though Jagger, 80, didn’t specify what he meant by the comment, Landy, 53, was quick to respond with a joke about the indefatigable Jagger’s age. “You can’t always get what you want,” Landry tweeted. “The only person who might remember the Stone Age is @MickJagger. Love you buddy, you’re always welcome in Louisiana! #LoveMyCountryMusic.”
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At press time it did not appear that Jagger had responded to Landry’s tweet, though he did post a pic of the band’s set and thanked the festival and special guest Irma Thomas for joining them on stage for the 1964 tune “Time Is on My Side” for their first performance of that track since 1998.
“In 1964, which is a very long time ago, we heard this great song on the radio by this amazing singer,” Jagger told the crowd in a fan video of the collaboration with the New Orleans native who first recorded the Jerry Ragovoy composition. “We recorded it and it became our first kind of hit in America. The lady that did the song first, she’s the Soul Queen of New Orleans! I’d like to bring out on stage now to sing the song with us, here she is, Miss Irma Thomas!”
Jagger’s comment came just days after Landry and the state’s attorney general sued the Biden administration over new federal rules barring discrimination against students based on their sexual and gender identity. According to NOLA.com, Landy, AG Liz Murrill and state education secretary Cade Brumley all decried the new policy at a press conference on Monday where they announced their legal action.
The conservative politicians said the new rules are an attack on Title IX, the landmark 1972 federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination at any school or program that receives federal funds. Landry and the other Louisiana Republicans claim in the suit that Title IX was only meant to protect “biological women” from discrimination, ordering schools in the state to ignore the Biden administration’s directive, which says that students have a right to be referred to by their preferred pronouns and use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
See Landry and Jagger’s tweets below.