Mick Jagger is probably one of the most famous people in the world. He is also incredibly sane and well-adjusted to dealing with celebrity. He gets out and experiences life — not just exclusive, hip clubs. I’m talking about shopping malls and cineplexes.

In order to move about like that, he has learnt to contain and conceal his huge, charismatic persona. So when Mick the shopper arrives at the studio it takes a little while for him to turn into Mick Jagger, the character.

After a couple of takes he’ll take his white shirt off, strip down to his tanktop: his whole musculature changes and his lips get bigger: suddenly he looks 40 years younger.

It is so intense that I feel like I’m gawping at him the way a tourist would and I get so embarrassed that I can’t even look. He’ll record four or five passes where he is so deeply inside the character we have a wealth of material to choose from — Don Was, record producer

For some reason the DJ kept playing a lot of bad disco tracks. People kept coming up to him requesting some rock and R&B, which he would do for only several songs before going back to disco.

I was at a table with Keith and I could tell he was really starting to get pissed off. Finally Keith took his drink, walked slowly up to the DJ booth, smiled at the disc jockey, grabbed him by the neck, flashed his bowie knife, put it right to the DJ’s throat and gave him his final warning. Needless to say, nobody heard any disco for the rest of the night — Peter Wolf, singer, touring with the Stones in 1982, who saw Keith in action at a party

I miss Bill as a sparring partner because he was always on stage looking at girls’ tits, always on the look out for gazongas. He'd say, "Hey, Woody, see that huge pair?" — Ronnie Wood on Bill Wyman

I’ve seen murders. I’ve seen dogs come on stage trying to savage people. I've turned round and found a pool of blood where the piano player should be! I've been struck by sharpened pennies. But you can't really do anything about that. It's just a part of the gig — Keith Richards