Breaking news
NFL’s clip job on Stones makes grown men cry foul
February 7, 2006
Email this Print this By BRIAN McCOLLUM
FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER
Turns out the Rolling Stones weren’t too happy about their Super Bowl bleeping after all.
Two days after their halftime set at Ford Field, the Stones denounced the silencing of Mick Jagger’s microphone by NFL and ABC-TV producers during two risque lyrical bits.
“The Rolling Stones thought the censorship of their songs by the NFL-ABC was absolutely ridiculous and completely unnecessary,” said band spokewoman Fran Curtis, reading from a prepared statement Tuesday afternoon. Curtis declined further comment.
The statement does not refute the NFL’s contention that the group was aware beforehand that the vocals would be clipped. But it does conflict with the league’s stance that the Stones “were fine with it,” as an NFL publicist told the Free Press Sunday night.
The lyrics at issue include a notorious sexual reference during the closing bars of “Start Me Up” -- long bleeped out by many mainstream rock stations -- and a double entendre in the first verse of the band’s recent single “Rough Justice.”
The band left Detroit Monday morning, wrapping up five days in the city.
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