Mick Jagger downplays the importance of drugs in the Rolling Stones' career

Mick Jagger is downplaying the importance of drugs in creating the Rolling Stones' music. The Stones' front man told London's The Independent that drugs are hardly the fuel behind the band's most important work, explaining, "I think they're overrated as a creative method."

Jagger went on to say that the victims of the drug rock culture eventually outgrew their addictions: "Most people did survive. It's how you came out the other side and what shape you're in, I suppose. Looking back it was very funny but it wasn't at the time very funny. It completely took over our lives creatively. We couldn't do this or that. You had to spend all your time dealing with the police. We definitely were being targeted. It was quite a common thing really."

He added that the press has always played a huge role in keeping the Stones saga alive: "I think journalism helped make the Stones dangerous and respectable all at the same time. After you've been around for 10 or 15 years, you can't be either a) new or b) subversive. People that try to be subversive for more than 10 years, you'll never get anywhere. So people get used to that whole idea. By the mid-1970s, it was very difficult. That's why punk tried to remake this subversive rock moment."

Out now on DVD is the Stones' Martin Scorsese-directed Rolling Stones concert film Shine A Light.
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