In 1989, Elder Gene R. Cook gave a speech at Ricks (Now BYU-Idaho) about a time he sat next to Mick Jagger on a plane. I’m guessing in first class, as I have a hard time seeing the lead singer of the rolling stones in coach. Most people don’t know it, but GA’s always fly first class on tithing dollars, coach is for missionaries.

In the talk, Elder Cook makes an astounding claim, that is pretty much all anyone remembers from the talk.

…What do you think is the impact of your music on the young people? He said, “Our music is calculated to drive the kids to sex.“

What we’re going to do is re-write the talk as though Mic Jagger was telling the story. And see why that exchange might have happened

“I was headed to Houston. Maybe Dallas. I don’t know I’d had a few quick drinks before I got on the plane, some place in Texas, I was blitzed I don’t know. This old guy in a white shirt sits down, like next to me. And he starts praying. And I was like, oh dude, he’s scared of planes. But no it was worse. He was some kind of religious big-wig.”

“And he didn’t even recognize me. Me. Like, the guy has no clue what rock music is even. So I showed him that I was in the plane’s own magazine, dude. ”

“The the guy totally checks out my legs for a n awkwardly long time. I have no clue why. And even though I was reading a magazine the dude would not, shut, up.”

“So then he says ‘Can I ask you a question’, and I’m like, ‘Whatever’ ” And then, get this, this is his question:

“I have opportunity to be with young people in many different places around the world, and some of them have told me that the kind of music you and others like you sing has no effect on them, that it’s okay, and that it doesn’t affect them adversely in any way. Then other young people have told me very honestly that your kind of music has a real effect on them for evil and that it affects them in a very bad way. You’ve been in this business a long time, Mick. I’d like to know your opinion. What do you think is the impact of your music on the young people?”

“So I think for a second, cause he really believes that music is like devil stuff. I mean he had no clue who Mic Jagger was, ya know? And so I *laughter* I totally told him it made kids have sex. Now he’ll probably go and tell all the kiddies in his church they can have sex if they listen to my music, and my sales will probably go up.”

Cook then says:

I’m sure I had a real look of shock on my face in receiving such a bold response. He quickly added, “Well, it’s not my fault what they do. That’s up to them. I’m just making a lot of money.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is not the record of an honest response, a confession of the devil that rock and roll is bad. This is a troll. Before the internet, this is a rock star punking a religious old guy on a plane.

After that, Mick Jagger ups the ante by explaining that music videos contained sex acts and he was on his way back from filming one in Mexico.

Let’s see, which Rolling Stones Music Video was filmed in Mexico

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M10GQyTHkbU

Ah yes, about a teenager and a femme fatal. Clearly the ultimate in scandal. Lyrics like “Strapped in a bed on life support tubes in my nose” so sexy.

Whatever I told him in our discussion was white he said was black. And whatever he said was white I told him was black.

The thing is, acting as a missionary, one meets people who have no interest in your particular brand of religion your selling, and they’ll try to turn things on their head because really, they want to enjoy their public transportation without a sales pitch. And this sounds like a classic case of trying to spook the old guy to get him to go away, or at least provide 2 hours of amusement.

Mr. Cook also informs us of Mick’s scandalous out-of-wedlock children. I don’t know if Mick was pranking him there or not, or if Mr. Cook just decided to make that up to support his case. We can read about his children in wikipedia with sources cited:

Jagger has seven children with four women (wikipedia sources even for them):

And there you have it. Yes he has children by 3 different women by the time he was on that plane in 1989, but he had most of them with women he was married to. Guess that bit needed to be left out, eh Mr. Cook?

He said, “As I listen to you Mormons, your problem is that you think you have things all figured out. Life isn’t that simple.” Then he would go on and explain some complex things, some theory of man. I would answer him in a very simple way from the scriptures, and he would say, “See what I mean?” He was always trying to make things much more complicated than they really were.

And I think this gives it away. He was familiar with the sales pitch. He knew what the church was selling, and even says he had taken three discussions. When he would bring up a deep thought, the leader of a church answering him would give a rehearsed, scripted answer like “Pray”. Mick new the result to whatever he was going to say before the conversation really got going.

So why should we expect Mick’s answers about the music to be sincere?

A little more about Mick, other than he is a scary musician that wants kids to have sex:

“one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll” (wikipedia)

In 1989 Jagger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Rolling Stones.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame In 2003 he was knighted for his services to music.

Now I’m not saying that Mick is a good guy. I’m not particularly a fan of his music. I’m not saying his lifestyle wasn’t crazy. All I’m saying is, that a general authority was probably being played, and instead of realizing it, he wrote a shocking talk to explain the wickedness of Rock and Roll to college students.

After all, Mick was known for songs such as “You’ll never make a saint out of me” (perhaps a response to Mr. Cook after hearing their conversation was published?) and putting imagery on albums that made southern baptists STILL make websites about it.

Basically, Mick drove his rock groups success on shock and counter culture; and Elder Cook played right into it.