Mick Jagger- Wandering Spirit 30th anniversary

In early February 1993 I was truly honored to get the opportunity to produce and host the North American radio broadcast premiering Mick Jagger’s third solo album, Wandering Spirit.

Unlike his previous two solitary efforts in the Eighties, Wandering Spirit  clearly was not being perceived as a pale stand-in for a Rolling Stones album since, three years earlier, Keef and Co. had buried the hatchet and picked up their axes to restore their rightful claim to “World’s Greatest Rock’n’Roll Band”. This in turn had both freed Mick Jagger to explore less self-consciously as well as more confidently on his third effort as a Stone alone ( sorry, Bill Wyman) on Wandering Spirit, safe in the knowledge that, with his side project “…I knew that I didn’t want to have a band, as I already had one in the Rolling Stones“, something Mick  couldn’t have said with certainty when making either of his two preceding solo albums. Jagger is in fine voice throughout and surrounded by crack studio musicians who bring their “A” game because, well hey, it’s Mick bleedin’ Jagger, okay? All captured by producer/alchemist Rick Rubin on one of his most successful efforts, Wandering Spirit barely missed the coveted Billboard Top Ten album sales by only one, and easily went gold with a hit single, “Sweet Thing”.