Rolling Stones rocker Sir Mick Jagger has hit out at anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists, lamenting ‘you can’t argue with them’.
The music legend has teamed up with fellow icon Dave Grohl for a one-off track, Easy Sleazy, which covers the past year’s tragedy as well as the conspiracy theories and ‘absurdities’ of the pandemic.
Not beating around the bush when it comes to his thoughts on the coronavirus jab, Sir Mick sings about ‘shooting the vaccine, Bill Gates is in my bloodstream, it’s mind control’, taking the mick out of the absurd theories that claimed the vaccine contained microchips.
Speaking about the conspiracies that float about, Sir Mick revealed he’d even tried to speak to those who were against the vaccine, but insisted ‘you just can’t’.
He told Rolling Stone this week: ‘It’s just saying to people, “When are you getting your vaccine?” Just passing the time of day. “Oh, I’m not getting it.” “OK. Why not? Are you in the queue?” “Oh no, because I don’t agree with it.”
‘I started to realise that there really were quite a few people like that. I have a few of those. I think in this case though — a lot of people at the beginning of this kind of thing — maybe even I wouldn’t want to be the first to take it.
‘After a while, some people maybe change their minds on this. But all these other ones like, “Trump won the election” and all these things, I didn’t bother putting them in [the song].’
Sir Mick mused that even people who are ‘relatively sensible about a lot of thigs’ perhaps still have ‘one thing that they just don’t get’, which feeds the conspiracies.
‘I have several friends and relations and they go off on these things that just doesn’t… They’re just irrational,’ he explained. ‘Of course, there’s no point in speaking to people about it. They don’t get it. They got what they believe in and they believe in that. And it doesn’t matter what you say, they’re gonna believe in it. And rational thought doesn’t work.
‘Even a country like France that prided themselves in the 18th Century on rationality is the most anti-vaccine country in Western democracy.
‘It’s not as if [vaccines] are a new thing. When I was a child, which was a really long time ago, people would die from polio. They would just not be there the next day. And that’s been eradicated through vaccines. These poor children were either dead or crippled, and I had lots of friends like that.
‘Would you rather have a vaccine if you had a child or would you rather their legs not work? You can’t argue with these people. So that’s how I got to the conspiracy theories; through the anti-vaxxers. Even I didn’t mention it in that verse; I probably should’ve though [since] I just went off on it.’
A performance clip for the pair’s song was unveiled on Tuesday April 13 featuring both Sir Mick from his home with Dave performing inside the Foo Fighters Studio.
Sir Mick said of their number: ‘It’s a song that I wrote about coming out of lockdown, with some much needed optimism.
‘Thanks to Dave Grohl for jumping on drums, bass and guitar, it was a lot of fun working with him.’
Rocker Dave was honoured to have jammed with Sir Mick, adding: ‘It’s hard to put into words what recording this song with Sir Mick means to me. It’s beyond a dream come true. Just when I thought life couldn’t get any crazier……and it’s the song of the summer, without a doubt!’
Easy Sleazy is out now.