FILE PHOTO – Argentine President Carlos Menem poses with the British rock band Rolling Stones (from left to right) Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Ron Woods, at the Olivos presidential residence on February 10, 1995. Good Aires, Argentina. REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian
This week, it emerged that the president Javier Miley He plans to travel to London to meet Mick Jagger. During the visit of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the Casa Rosada, the economist raised this concern with him and asked him to help him manage his long-awaited meeting with the legendary 81-year-old singer.
As the President reiterated on numerous occasions, the frontman of the Rolling Stones is one of his references in his well-known love of music. In his youth, He knew how to command a band called Everest, where they recreated the British repertoire, and on July 26, as president, he greeted the singer with a message on his social networks for his birthday.
It would not be Jagger’s first encounter with the power in power in Argentina. In his four visits to the country, both the singer and his companions Keith Richards, Ron Wood and the unforgettable Charlie Watts They were face to face with presidents, mayors and different authorities of power. A practice that is repeated in every place they visit, but that in no other place generates as much impact as in this one. At the end of the day, we are the best audience in the world and nowhere is the Stones loved more than here.
Almost three decades later, the first visit remains the most remembered: the Rolling Stones set foot on Argentine soil to settle a historic debt with two generations of fans. It was February 1995, the president Carlos Menem was seeking re-election and someone thought it was a good idea to receive his satanic majestiessince in those days nothing else was talked about.
Ron Wood and Menem in the presidential office. In the middle Ana Braun.
The organizer of the meeting was John the Baptist Tata Yofreformer head of the State Intelligence Secretariat and recognized fan of the group. At that time, he worked as a presidential advisor and was part of the Riojan’s campaign team. As explained in detail in a note published in Infobae with your signatureit was he in person who almost imposed the meeting on the president.
“Carlos, the Rolling Stones are in Buenos Aires and they are going to give five concerts. Five concerts with 60 thousand kids, that’s 300 thousand kids. I need you to receive them,” Yofre evoked in the aforementioned note. The appointment took place on February 10, hours after his historic first show at the Monumental, but Yofre saw it from afar, busy at work for re-election. Before, he had moved influences so that the musicians’ rooms were safe from uncomfortable searches. The image is one of the most remembered of the ten years of Menemism. Suited in different colors, smiling in front of different cameras, each one gesticulating according to what he saw, Carlos had the pleasure of being the fifth stone for a while.
In 1996, Ron Wood He returned to Argentina. He did not do it in the role of guitarist of the biggest rock band in the world, but in his role as a visual artist and, among his requests, was a new meeting with the President. Yofre was in charge of organizing it and this time he was a witness, in one of the rooms of the Pink House. In his words, Wood’s main objective was to renew the stock of Cuban cigars that Menem had given them a year ago and that he received directly from the hands of the Cuban president. Fidel Castro.
In 1998, the Stones returned to the country to play five more shows at River between March and April. Even without the fever of the first time, the local fans once again filled the Monumental, with the addition that the last two shows featured Bob Dylan. The meeting of the legends, who together wrote the anthem “Like a Rolling Stone” signed by the Minnesotan, remained as a fixed memory of a visit less fluorescent than the previous one. The musicians were older, each one did their own thing and there was no reelection on the horizon.
The Rolling Stones with the gifts they received during their time at River in 2006: a plaque and personalized t-shirts
However, the political quota was given by the head of Government of Buenos Aires, Fernando de la Rúawho declared them illustrious visitors in an improvised event before the first concert. The musicians no longer shared a hotel and were not seen together much. For example, Jagger flew to Punta del Este to the house of Marcos Gastaldi, a product of his friendship with Federico, the businessman’s brother; while Richards and Wood went with their families to a field in the Lobos area.
Eight years passed and a new album made the band’s third landing in these lands possible.. A bigger bang It drove them to two summer days in River that were punctuated by two specific photos: the incidents that occurred in the vicinity of the Monumental and the torrential rain that blessed them the last night and gave them the epic that they didn’t know they needed.
There is no record of official meetings or with the president Nestor Kirchner nor the head of the Buenos Aires government, Jorge Telermanwho did see them live. Instead, the band received from the then president José María Aguilar, the Millionaire’s t-shirts with the mythical language printed on the chest and the number 10 with the respective name of the musicians on the back.
The then head of government Horacio Rodríguez Larreta shared his meeting with Mick Jagger on his networks
In February 2016, the Rollings returned to the country for what are presumed to be their last performances on Argentine soil, despite the fact that their fans dream of there being one more performance. On this occasion, they presented at the Unique Stadium of La Platawhere they gave three concerts. And as the date approached, the presidential team set out to obtain the long-awaited photo of Mauricio Macri with the four musicians.
In fact, the businessman declined the invitation to the shows, as a strategy to achieve his goal. Before the second recital in La Plata and after several comings and goings, the Rolling Stones received the key to the provincial capital from the mayor of La Plata, Julio Garro. Previously, the then Head of Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larretashared on his social networks his photo with Mick Jaggeroutside of any protocol agenda.
“I stopped by to say hello to Mick Jagger for a production they are doing in Buenos Aires as part of their tour of Argentina. He told me that he is fascinated by the warmth of our City and all the fans!“Larreta wrote next to the postcard in which the two are seen smiling, under the Buenos Aires summer sun, although the rocker is seen a little more cautious with dark glasses and a raffia Panama hat.
February 2016: Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Mauricio Macri, Juliana Awada, Ron Wood and Keith Richards pose with Antonia, the daughter of the then presidential couple
At the end of the round of recitals at the Único, Jagger, Richards, Watts and Wood visited Mauricio Macri at his villa Los Abrojoslocated in the town of Tortuguitas. The first lady participated in the formal photo Juliana Awada and Antoniathe daughter of the presidential couple who was four and a half years old at the time. The woman poses with an Argentine national team t-shirt with the stone logo in the center and the image of the girl, holding Keith’s hand, is the detail that remained for posterity. In his right hand, the guitarist carried a short glass, but that is another story.
Time will tell if the Rolling Stones play in Argentina again, but at this point it seems that Milei’s dream is closer to coming true. “I had a rock band and sang Stones music. Then you begin to understand what the way I look is about, so to speak,” the economist told Teleshow in 2018, when his name and figure burst into the media without anyone predicting what was going to happen.
Javier Milei at the time he led Everest, a group influenced by the Rolling Stones
Always active on the networks, in June of this year and already six months into his presidential administration, he interacted with the users of The Rolling Stones. Furthermore, he highlighted “Rip this joint”topic included in Exile on main st.as his favorite of the group.
Last July 26, he took another step on his path to meet the singer. He greeted him with a message on his X account on the occasion of his 81st birthday: “Happy birthday Mick Jagger!!! Long live freedom damn (sic),” he wrote alongside a photo of the Brit in action. And a little push to be closer to fulfilling that kid’s dream.
Javier Milei’s greeting to Mick Jagger for his birthday
