Try to picture a world without Mick Jagger. Imagine if the Rolling Stones stopped recording songs after 1969. Imagine a world without “Tumbling Dice,” “Beast of Burden,” or “Start Me Up”. If not for a fortunate break in the weather, that would have almost come to pass.
There were many dangerous encounters for The Rolling Stones. A full 18-person police squad showed up at one of Keith Richards’ parties at his Redland home in 1967, targeting the band in a major police raid. Nearly every member of the band were arrested for drug possession or disruptive behaviour at some point. However, 1969 was a turning point for everything.
One of the most terrifying tragedies in music history is the Rolling Stones performance at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival. Historians also connect the Altamont show to the end of the 1960s optimism. It coincided with the Charles Manson murders and the hippie movement’s decline.
In an attempt to introduce the same free spirit to the other side of the country, the Altamont Festival in California was dubbed the “Woodstock of the West”. However, it turned violent instead. The notorious Hells Angels gang was hired by the event organisers to provide security and attempt to maintain order. The festival chose to keep the police and government out of it during a period of extreme polarisation and mistrust.
When the Rolling Stones came onstage, Mick Jagger felt uneasy about the increasing level of violence in the audience. He had to stop three songs in while the Hells Angels broke up a fight. “Just be cool down in the front there, don’t push around,” he said.
A group of fans attempted to scramble onto the stage with the band at one point, one of them being Meredith Hunter. Angels grabbed the hunter and a brawl ensued between them. Hunter ultimately produced a gun, and the Angels stabbed him to death in retaliation. When the Stones realised what was going on, they were unsure of how to respond. Jagger exclaimed, “We really have someone hurt here,” from the stage. Before deciding to finish their set, the band asked, “Is there a doctor”? They reasoned that there would have been a full-scale riot if they had stopped.
Following the incident, the Hells Angels appeared to be targeting Jagger as the reason behind the gang’s penalty. The FBI has since disclosed that the Hells Angels had a plot to kill the frontman of the Stones because they were so intent on getting their retribution.
The gang planned to attack Mick Jagger at his vacation house in the Hamptons, which is close to New York City, according to an FBI agent who appeared on the TV show The FBI at 100.
According to Tom Mangold, who hosts the show, “the Hells Angels were so angry over Jagger’s treatment of them that they decided to kill him.” “They planned the attack from the ocean to gain access to his land through the garden and bypass the security measures up front.”
Fortunately for Jagger, though, the weather allowed him to survive. Bad weather stopped the attack. As “a storm hit the boat and all of the men ended up falling overboard.”
Although it’s unclear if the group made another attempt on Jagger’s life or not, he was fortunate enough to live to continue releasing hits long after the incident.
