Just was wondering if anyone knows if any of the Stones or wives attend church. We know Mick has incorporated many Biblical references into songs over the years, so he must have attended church as he was growing up. As a boy I believe Keith sang in a boys choir in London (St Pauls??). Do you think they ever sniff church these days??

They worship both gods, rock and roll.

"And yah, it shall be written that as long as ye stay thin and keep thy hair, ye shall not languish in the temples of the money changers, aka the casino circuit, but rise up to play stadiums, and the riches of heaven shall fall upon thee."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-04-10 05:04 by ohnonotyouagain.

Speaking of church etc, Mick on stage at Altamont was predicted in the Old Testament, Daniel 12:1

"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book."

The book being the San Francisco phone book I guess. (Just shows how one can manipulate any old passage to suit)

My guess (seriously) is that Mick and Keith are Church of England; and Ronnie's Catholic, hence the difficulties.

(laugh out loud, perhaps?)

To borrow from the first Public Image album, their only god is "money, effective, ABSURD!"

Proverbs 28:27- Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein; and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.

Proverbs 28:28-A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin.

The appear to be sensible individuals, so with luck one might assume they're not religious in the slightest.

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paulywaul
The appear to be sensible individuals, so with luck one might assume they're not religious in the slightest.

Some smartas* always has to post some negative comment about religion on these boards. Why don't you learn to be "sensible" yourself and withhold your religious views like a good boy.

And your right, they are pretty sensible guys, which is why Mick would go to church in Los Angeles; and not just for the gospel singers he greatly admired.

Mick is on record as saying that he didn't believe in God, or any one spiritual being, very disappointing really . . . don't get me wrong, I love the Stones, but I would have thought a man with Mick's intelligence wouldn't dismiss God so flippantly.

What's wrong in believing in God, you will never see a sad Christian.

Cheers

Quote
skl127
Mick is on record as saying that he didn't believe in God, or any one spiritual being, very disappointing really . . . don't get me wrong, I love the Stones, but I would have thought a man with Mick's intelligence wouldn't dismiss God so flippantly.

What's wrong in believing in God, you will never see a sad Christian.

Cheers

Sorry, but it is not disappointing for me.

Me neither

very religious. just not in the churchgoing conventional way. you hear it in their music. One song is even called 'Heaven'
there's lots of biblical themes, references in Stones songs. I think Gimme Shelter is one, just not overtly so.
then there are the clear references, like Saint Of Me...Just Wanna See His Face...
Sympathy For The Devil...
Keith has described weather conditions at their outdoor stadium shows as 'God showing up'

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skl127
I would have thought a man with Mick's intelligence wouldn't dismiss God so flippantly.

It's precisely because he's intelligent that he doesn't believe in God.

LMAO at the "you'll never see a sad christian" comment. That was priceless!

Keith is very spiritual, IMHO.
f.i. his stay with the Nyabingi drummers, the pioneers of Rastafari in the Jamaïcan mountains, his participation on the (white) gospelalbum of his sister-in-law, ... He's fascinated by the human mind & soul.
And I'm sur Mick's the same- although I always considered him more of a 'conventional' white middle-class Anglosaxon "maybe-there-is-,-maybe-there-isn't" kind of Christian.

To believe or not to believe in god isn't something that's connected with intelligence in my book. It's how you believe that matters and I think it's actually far more humble and fair to say "I don't know" than "yes" or "no".

I don't think that that the Stones are that religious and I don't think that any of the members has been either. References to the bible in lyrics is actually pretty common in rock because it's something we all can understand and relate to wether we believe or not.

Songs such as these give me hope that I will still hear The Stones music when I cross the river into the promised land....(if I make it)


And could you stand the torture
And could you stand the pain
Could you put your faith in Jesus
When you're burning in the flames - I say Yes
And I do believe in miracles
And I want to save my soul
And I know that I'm a sinner
I'm gonna die here in the cold

I saw it in the midnight sun
And I feel it in the race I won
And I hear it in the windy storm
And I feel it in the icy dawn
And I smell it the wine I taste
And I see it in my father's face
And I hear it in a symphony
And I feel it in the love
You show for me


God gave me everything I want
Oh come on
I'll give it all to you
God gave me everything I want


Did you ever feel the pain
That he felt upon the cross
Did you ever feel the knife
Tearing flesh thats oh so soft

Do you see the light
Is the end in sight
See the face of christ
Enter paradise
I doubt it

May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Make every song [you sing] your favorite tune.
May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Warm like the evening sun.

Charlie is Jewish, so I don't see Easter being all that big for him.

Isn't Charlie Jewish?

"Your old time religion is just superstition"


A happy Easter weekend to one and all, whatever your beliefs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-04-10 17:00 by teleblaster.

...any religious sentiment is purely subjective by the reader........Mick's been quoted the Stones would never be caught praying before a show..rather they might take a drink or two.....with a wink...."Just want To see His Face"....could just as well be about wanting/needing to see a drug dealer....and saint of Me...well isn't that all about Mick's promiscuity???...and hell yeah...no way he's "repenting".....mystical.... maybe....religious...I dunno....

Happy easter weekend.







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-04-10 18:59 by Rip This.

Mick and Keith have both been known to go to church with their families. I would imagine that like most people what they believe spiritually has changed over the years and above all is private and not something they care to discuss. Going to church doesn't make you a believer any more than alligning yourself with a particular faith or denomination for a period of time in your life means that is what you believe day in, day out and will continue to believe until you die.

Mick seems to have done the rounds as far as religion is concerned.
He converted to Catholicism to marry Bianca. His children by Jerry were all baptised in Anglican churches. His [illegal] marriage to Jerry was a Hindu ceremony. And he has been seen sporting the Kaballah wrist band. I think his lyrics show far more overtly religeous content than Keith's (largely of a Christian background).

Out of all the Stones I would say that Keith seems to be the most spiritual even though in a book I read it stated that his family were atheist. Keith's odd superstitions and such at least lead me to believe that he has some sort of belief of something out there. I don't think this was the case earlier in his career so maybe some of Patti has rubbed off on him.

Quote
StonesBlake
Charlie is Jewish, so I don't see Easter being all that big for him.

First time I hear that Charlie is jewish ;Is it written in a book or somewhere ?
So he can do Pessah .


.High Times: Are you Catholic?

Jagger: No. We’re very staunchly anti-Catholic. We’re very much so. But I couldn’t believe -- I used to go into people’s houses in South America and Brazil, they’d have these statues of this wooden saint. They collect them, you know. The women particularly. And a whole table. You go into a room dominated by this huge table with big -- they’re quite big, a foot tall -- and they name them and tell about them. It’s absolute bullshit, I mean, all these saints. It is. Everyone knows it

High Times: I think so too.

Jagger: Most of these saints -- that particular religion turns me right off.



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

Frop some article I read a while back, a book review of an unauthorized biography I believe:

Sympathy for the Vicar
Christopher Sandford says that Keith Richards – 60 next month – is a secret conservative: he eats shepherd’s pie, loves him mum and even goes to church.

He doesn’t exactly look like your average squire, Keith Richards, with his piratical swagger and a complexion that’s been compared to old cat litter. But Keith, who turns 60 next month, is emerging as one of the most shockingly normal, and English, of rock stars.

There may be more right-on or pristinely hip rock stars, but the ‘Human Riff’ represents something that we all revere: the good egg. He’s fanatically loyal not only to his mum but also to his various exes, none of whom has a bad word to say about him. He wrote the haunting ballad ‘Ruby Tuesday’ for one former girlfriend, and frequently protests his love for Anita Pallenberg (his partner from 1967 to 1980) in print. Tom Keylock remembers that he snapped at his own wife once while on the phone at Redlands. ‘Keith overheard me and I got a bollocking – it was all about "she’s your lady" and "show some respect". I admired him for that.’

In a similar vein, Richards will sniff at Mick Jagger’s gladiatorial sex life. ‘He doesn’t treat women right,’ Keith has announced. When Jerry Hall was being humiliated by Sir Mick’s serial infidelities, Richards told Vanity Fair, ‘I hope the man comes to his senses. He should stop that now, the old black-book bit. It’s a bit much, a bit manic.’

Richards married for the first and only time on his 40th birthday in 1983, and it probably saved his life. His bride was the 27-year-old Patti Hansen, a home-town girl from Staten Island, New York, and a devout Lutheran. His in-laws gave a startling interview in which they portrayed Keith as an ‘enthusiastic disciple of Christ’ and that he ‘embraced Christ as a way of life.’ Under Patti’s influence, Richards cut back on drugs, attended church from time to time and even started a gentle exercise regime... Keith may have written ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ back when, but these days much of his life is spent with a woman who attends a weekly Bible study group and who won’t stand for swearing around the house.

A review of Christopher Sandford’s

Keith Richards: Satisfaction, published by Headline.

The Spectator
November 15, 2003

Search the site online at: www.spectator.co.uk.

I don't know if they are, I don't care if they are and personally if they are then that's their life, not mine, thank ME.

There, I didn't slam religion in regards to the Stones. And I deleted what I had typed after this.

Church of England - I'd of thought.

I'm a Catholic, myself - non-practising, mind.

the Stones are musicians who have given their very best.
they have done a lot of good in this world.
they have also been very lucky. one might say blessed.

by Curt Schleier
Special To The Jewish Week


In 1972, Bill German was an innocent 9-year-old yeshiva bocher growing up in Brooklyn. His musical knowledge was pretty much limited to the Beatles, Michael Jackson and any group that had a Saturday morning television show.

But one morning, he heard the strains of “Get Your Ya-Yas Out” wafting from his sister’s room next door. It was a live Rolling Stones album and it provided young German with a great deal of — you should excuse the pun — satisfaction. It ultimately led him to produce a monthly Stones fanzine called Beggars Banquet and a place in the Stones’ entourage.

German writes about his adventures in his new memoir, “Under Their Thumb: How a Nice Boy From Brooklyn Got Mixed Up With The
Rolling Stones and Lived to Tell About It” (Villard). It’s all there: how drummer Charlie Watts once punched Mick Jagger in the face; how German accidentally spilled orange juice on Jagger’s 16th-century Persian rug; how German got his dad’s permission to skip Rosh HaShanah services in order to attend a special Keith Richards event.

It’s an adventure that began with the music. “It all seemed so wild,” German told The Jewish Week in a telephone interview. “It was wilder than anything I’d heard before. The music was something I couldn’t ignore.”

The fanzine allowed German to combine his fascination with the Stones and his desire to become a reporter. “I wanted to be a journalist at an early age. A lot of it started with my mom. She ran the newsletter for her local chapter of Hadassah. I would watch her do it and I wanted to be just like my mommy and start my own newsletter.”

His desire was further fueled by his admiration for Tom Snyder. “As a teenager, I’d stay up late and watch [his ‘Tomorrow Show’]. He had great newsmakers on, from Charles Manson to Jimmy Carter.”
But the turning point was the inaccurate coverage of the Stones written by so-called journalists. “That’s what motivated me,” he says. So the week of his 16th birthday, he pecked away at a borrowed typewriter, snuck into his high school mimeographing room and produced the first of 102 issues of his fanzine.
He admits that he didn’t think things through. “I didn’t know who my audience would be. In some ways, it was just a way to clear all the facts that were swimming in my head.” But he kept at it and a year or so later quit college so he could devote himself full time to his publication.

“My parents were not pleased. They were almost ready to sit shiva for me. They were so happy I got into NYU. But of course the reason I picked NYU is because it was in New York City where the Stones were. My parents questioned me about sticking with the Stones. What if they break up?”

Through various intermediaries and just by standing on streets where he knew they’d pass, he got copies of the publication to members of the group. Eventually, he became close to Keith Richards and Ron Wood. Drummer Charlie Watts was always aloof, Bill Wyman is hardly mentioned and Mick Jagger blew hot and mostly cold. Clearly, German had no sympathy for this devil.
Once German called the lead singer to see if he could attend a party he was throwing. Jagger said of course and yelled to someone for the guest list. “I want to put a friend on.” But a few weeks later, Jagger passed German in the hall and acted as though he didn’t know him.

Observing this, Wood noted: “That’s Mick. A nice bunch of guys.”

Wood and Richards come off the best. They appreciated and complimented what German did and regularly invited him to their homes and exclusive parties. In fact, German was the ghostwriter of Wood’s first memoir, “The Works.”

German threw a party to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his fanzine. Not only did Richards leave an important rehearsal to attend, but German saw “the Prince of Darkness” kibbitzing with Bernie and Sylvia, his parents, two kosher deli workers from Brooklyn.

German’s mother, originally upset that her son quit college to follow the Stones, became a news source (well-meaning albeit slightly unreliable) by keeping up with the Stones in the papers. She called to tell him Jagger was going to be in a new movie, “Freeze Jack”; she meant “Freejack.” Also, she left a message that Richards was going to “be doing a jig soon”; he actually had a gig.

In the United States, the Stones had a lot of Jews around them. Jane Rose, a member of their management team, was a doctor’s daughter from Long Island; Richards at one point had a personal assistant, Svi, who was a Talmudic scholar. Richards, too, befriended Freddy Sessler, a Holocaust survivor. And of course there was German himself.

Hanging out with the group exposed him to a lifestyle completely alien to the way he was raised. “It didn’t turn me off to them [the Stones], because I knew who they were, but it turned me off to the lifestyle. I saw them making mistakes with the drugs; I knew that was not something I wanted to do."
German credits his Jewish upbringing with helping him resist temptation. “That was just not part of my upbringing. I had a stereotypical Jewish childhood. I do not have any alcoholism or drug addiction in my family, and that was not something that appealed to me. It was easy for me to say no and just be an observer in the room.”

According to at least one web site that claims to be authoritative re celebrities' religions (I forget the URL), Charlie is Jewish.

Granted, it doesn't matter of course - but perhaps the fact that me own grandpa is Jewish made me a little curious when I read this about Charlie.

The fact that we virtually never hear anything about this topic suggests that Charlie may feel it's his own business and no one else's, which I definitely respect.