Madonna Had an Incredible Clapback to Mick Jagger After the Rolling Stones Frontman Called Her Dumb in the Mid-1980s

Finding a pop star more powerful than Madonna was no easy task in the mid-1980s. But that didn’t stop The Rolling Stones’ frontman, Mick Jagger, from becoming tabloid fodder after calling Madonna “dumb.” This condescending generalization was (and, unfortunately, still is) par for the course for women in the music industry. It was so generic in nature that Madonna and Jane Pauley could only assume what Jagger had meant. Was the music dumb? Was Madonna dumb? Both?

Videos by American Songwriter

While there’s no doubt as to why interviewer Pauley lobbed a reference to Jagger’s criticisms toward Madonna. Televised interviews tend to be more watchable when the person being interviewed gets emotionally worked up. But the pop star didn’t get flustered. Nor did she seem not to know what to say about The Stones’ singer. Even if she didn’t feel as secure as she looked on the outside, she was certainly faking it till she was making it. And sometimes, that’s all it takes in the industry.

With a tight smile, Madonna said her first reaction to Jagger calling her dumb were thoughts she “wouldn’t say on television.” But she asserted she had already forgiven him and met him since those comments were made public. When Pauley asked Madonna if she believed she changed Jagger’s mind, the singer replied, “I don’t really feel he felt that way when he said it. I think he was feeling my threat. So he said it.”

Maybe Mick Jagger Was Still Feeling Madonna’s Threat Two Decades Later?

Madonna and The Rolling Stones might exist on two different sides of the mainstream musical spectrum. But it’s all the same as far as the Billboard Hot 100 is concerned. As two of the biggest musical acts of the 1980s, these two groups were inevitably vying for the same album sales, chart placement, and general attention. Given The Stones’ reputation for speaking their minds about other performers even when they could’ve just, you know, not done that, it’s unsurprising that someone as flamboyant and theatrical as Madonna would garner some negative attention from a competitive colleague like Jagger.

Even decades later, Jagger was choosing not to mince his words about Madonna. Footage from a 2001 documentary called Being Mick showed The Stones’ singer and Elton John speaking at a backyard party, discussing Madonna. Both John and Jagger were expressing their disappointment in Madonna’s recent performances. Jagger said, “I thought I was going to be so blown away. I was gonna have to go, ‘I don’t know what I’m gonna do.’ You know that’s what I thought. But it wasn’t that.”

Once again, we’re sure that Madonna would have some choice words in response that she wouldn’t share in front of a filming camera. But what are pop entertainers if not a little bit too gabby and eager to tell a good story?

Photo by Barry King/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images