Mick Jagger, the frontman of The Rolling Stones, expressed regret over never meeting Elvis Presley, a decision he attributes to advice from John Lennon. Jagger shared on Conan O'Brien's podcast that he would have "love[d] to have met the King of Rock 'n' Roll."
Lennon, who had met Presley with his Beatles bandmates, reportedly advised Jagger against such an encounter. "Yeah you know, you should never meet your heroes, I would never meet Elvis, Mick, if I were you," Jagger recalled Lennon saying. The 82-year-old musician admitted, "I took John’s advice, which was really stupid of me, really."
O'Brien recounted a story suggesting Lennon's own meeting with Presley in 1965 was disappointing. According to O'Brien, the Beatles were high when they visited Presley at his Bel Air mansion. Lennon, who had been eager to meet Presley upon arriving in America, reportedly walked away from the meeting remarking, "Where's Elvis?" implying the person he met was not the idol he expected.
George Harrison, another Beatles member, had previously described the visit, stating they "fell out the car in hysterics." The band's then-publicist, Tony Barrow, reportedly recalled Lennon asking Presley awkward questions, such as why he was doing "soft-centered ballads for the cinema" instead of rock 'n' roll.
Despite Presley eventually bringing out guitars for a jam session, Lennon's reported disappointment influenced Jagger. "And so it sort of put me off," Jagger told O'Brien. "So I wanted to keep my Elvis to myself, my version of Elvis. And so I didn’t want my version of Elvis shattered like John’s was, but maybe my Elvis version would have been different."