Mick Jagger doesn’t appear to be keen on selling The Rolling Stones’ catalog.
In an interview with WSJ Magazine published Tuesday, the rock icon brushed off the idea of selling the band’s catalog ― a move that artists such as Bob Dylan and Justin Bieber have made in recent years.
He suggested that instead, it could eventually go to charity.
“The children don’t need $500 million to live well. Come on,” Jagger, a father of eight children, told the magazine.
“You maybe do some good in the world,” he added.
The band’s ownership of its catalog is limited to music it released after 1971, according to Consequence. ABKCO Music & Records, the company of The Rolling Stones’ former accountant Allen Klein, owns the rights to the band’s recordings before that year, including smash hits like “Paint It Black” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” American Songwriter noted.
Elsewhere in his interview with WSJ Magazine, Jagger drew ties between the issues the band had with ownership of its earlier records and Taylor Swift’s struggles with ownership of her earlier albums.
“The industry was so nascent, it didn’t have the support and the amount of people that are on tap to be able to advise you as they do now,” he said. “But you know, it still happens. I mean, look what happened to Taylor Swift! I don’t really know the ins and outs of it, but she obviously wasn’t happy.”
Jagger and the Stones are adding new music to the catalog in 2023.
The band released the second single off its upcoming album “Hackney Diamonds” on Thursday. The album, out on Oct. 20, is the band’s first of original material in 18 years and the first since the death of drummer Charlie Watts.
The single, “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” features Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder.
Read the full interview in WSJ Magazine.