Barry Coleman still remembers that day in 1983 when the publisher of the house of Weidenfeld & Nicolson urgently called him.
For the writer and ghostwriter, the call was not reassuring.
"Clearly, something had gone horribly wrong," he said in an interview with The
Guardian
.
And indeed, the problem was serious.
The publisher had paid Mick Jagger $ 1 million for an autobiography that did not advance an inch.
To make matters worse, Barry Coleman took over from a respected colleague who had thrown in the towel.
“They said to me, 'You're the only person we know who can do this.'
So, quite surrealistically, I became the ghostwriter of Mick Jagger's ghostwriter, ”he explained.
But very quickly, the writer realized that the leader of the Rolling Stones simply had no desire to bring the project to fruition.
Keep the legend intact
“We had a conversation and then he stopped answering my calls. Then the publishers told me that they now had a deal for the US market, but they needed the book finished within two weeks or the deal was canceled, ”continued Barry Coleman who at that time- there were just two presentable chapters and a messy “bunch of interview transcripts”. “We had talked a lot about whether he still wanted to move forward or if we could do it again, but differently. He just didn't want to do it. I think he respected his audience by refusing to give them anything ordinary about an extraordinary life… In a way, that tells you more about Mick than anything that could have come out in a book mediocre, ”the author concluded.
In the end Barry Coleman resigned and Mick Jagger cut the project short by repaying the million dollars in advance that the publisher had paid him.
Today more than ever, the prospect of an autobiography of Mick Jagger remains a fantasy for many editors, especially after the success of that of Keith Richards published in 2010. Unfortunately, the indefatigable rocker of 77 years seems determined to take his secrets to his grave.
Legends fuel fantasies when chronicles dust the shelves.
We have to believe that Mick Jagger's life will remain in the first category.
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