As showbiz celebrities and hired models watched in awe, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger let it loose during a rare solo concert at a tiny Los Angeles club Thursday.
Jagger’s new album hits stores next week, and he chose the 770-capacity El Rey Theatre near Hollywood as the venue for his only concert performance to promote the release.
“This is the world tour for this album, ‘Goddess in the Doorway,”‘ Jagger, 58, told the invite-only crowd. “You can say you were at every gig, OK?”
Wearing a sleeveless red T-shirt emblazoned with the Statue of Liberty over the slogan “Liberte,” and black corduroy jeans, Jagger whipped through seven tunes, including Stones nuggets “Respectable” and “Miss You.”
He began and ended with his new single “God Gave Me Everything,” which ABC will screen during a Jagger documentary, “Being Mick,” next Thursday.
Organizers paid dozens of young models $100 each to surround the small stage and catwalk, and shooed away regular-looking people. The cute young faces earned their money by shrieking and clawing at Jagger’s skinny legs as he pranced past them.
Almost as excited was former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.
“It felt like it was 1978 and people were worshiping the idea that Mick looked exactly like he did 23 years ago,” Page told Reuters. “He looked great.”
Other rockers in attendance included Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes and his actress wife, Kate Hudson, former Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan, Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit and Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray. Actors included Meg Ryan, Billy Crudup, David Spade, and Heath Ledger, as well as supermodel Naomi Campbell. At least two of Jagger’s daughters, Karis and Elizabeth, were also there.
As he exited the stage along with his six-member band, Jagger told the crowd: “I loved every minute of it.”
He then retreated to a luxury trailer parked on a residential street behind the theater and received well-wishers.
“Goddess in the Doorway,” Jagger’s fourth solo album, will be released in North America Nov. 20. He has toured only once without the Stones, swinging through Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia in 1988. He promoted his last album, 1993’s “Wandering Spirit” with an MTV concert at Webster Hall in New York. Along with Stones guitarist Keith Richards, he performed two of the band’s songs at the “Concert for New York” fundraiser at Madison Square Garden last month.
The Rolling Stones are in talks to hit the road late next year, ending a three-year break from touring.
