Once upon a time Steve Jobs and Mike Jagger were in the same room. Although what came out of it wasn’t exactly fruitful. Rather, it ended in an awkward silence and an impromptu computer session for the singer’s own daughter. I’ve worked with the Apple teams for nineteen years and I’ve followed the Cupertino guys for nineteen years and I’ve never heard such an incredible story.
For context, it all goes back to January 1984. The introduction of the first Macintosh could change everything within the company, so in Apple organizes a small presentation tour with illustrious personalities pose in front of the national press. And of course, one of them was Mike Jagger, genius and figure.
A Macintosh for Mike Jagger?
Let’s travel to this first week of January. While Steve Jobs, Mike Murray and Bob Belleville run their own event from New York, engineer Andy Hertzfeld is hard at work preparing for the launch from his offices in Cupertino. That morning, he had arrived at the office much later than usual: the night before he fought, until 3 a.m., examination of applications and the operating system in general.
But when he goes to sit down at his desk, he comes across a note. A handwritten note by software librarian, Patti King:. And he says this:Andy, Steve J. called, we can deliver a Mac to Mick Jagger tomorrow.. You can fly out to meet them tomorrow noon and bring a bunch of software. If you can come, arrange your trip through Lynn. Steve will call back in a few hours. He will be at the Carlyle Hotel tomorrow.”
According to Andy himself, It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.. This message, written by Steve Jobs’ secretary, Lynn Takahashi, was part of a larger campaign. Two days before, they presented a Macintosh to Andy Warhol himself and he loved it. It was his idea, in fact: “you should show it to Mick”. And he did. He got up and began to organize the preparations.
If in 1984 the Rolling Stones experienced their own creative crisis, evolving towards a lighter version of their usual style, less rock and more folk, then they no longer had anything to prove. AND Mike Jagger was one of the most notorious personalities on the planet. The clock was ticking and the deadline to get everything ready for launch was Monday, January 16 at 6am. And flying away for a few days just to show Jagger a Mac meant losing two days of work.
The plane actually landed, Andy handed over the tools, and Steve Jobs, Mike Murray, and Bill Atkinson loaded up their Macs to take to Mick Jagger’s. And keep an eye out for the original story: “They knocked on the door in the direction they were given, but there was no response for several minutes. Eventually the door was opened by two huge guys who were obviously bodyguards and They didn’t seem at all impressed to talk to the co-founder of Apple Computer and its sequel.”
After the wait, they were finally able to get in, they climbed several flights of stairs to an elegant room and they waited in silence while good old Bill Atkinson launched MacPaint and tinkered with different programs.
“I think he was drugged. Either that or he has brain damage”
And then the debacle began: Mick Jagger burst in wearing his usual blue jeans and gave a polite wave, but didn’t seem to articulate a sentence deftly. And it doesn’t seem to be a matter of technology apathy, but rather addiction:
“His speech was scrambled and very slow.” “Actually, I think he was on drugs. Either that or he has brain damage.”. —Steve Jobs
A small lack, it must be said. And more so knowing that Steve was never exactly a person outside of drugs. After a few minutes, Apple officials realized how little Mick cared about anything to do with Apple and this powerful computer that would change the tables of user-level technology. There was an awkward silence that lasted forever and was only broken by Jade., Jagger’s daughter, who had followed her father into the room. Curiosity saved the scene, actually.
Jagger’s daughter was dazzled
If the attitude of the father was of an absolute disinterestedness, the young girl was captivated: “her eyes lit up when she saw the MacPaint”. Bill took advantage of the situation to explain how to use the application and, after a few minutes, the young woman understood perfectly how this versatile graphic editor works. Jagger went to another room and eventually the whole Apple team stayed with Jade. for another half hour, answering various questions.
Born in October 71, Jade was 12 at the time. Fascinated by the possibilities of MacPaint, the Apple team limited itself to “selling” this equipment to what was to become a prestigious model and fashion designer. Shortly after, they left and nothing more was heard. there was not feedbackneither positive nor negative. A somewhat strange meeting where there was no shortage of puyas.
In fact, that wasn’t the only time the two personalities coincided. In 2008, Steve Jobs met Mick Jagger again at a roundtable on e-commerce in Brussels, as reported by the European Commission. But We’re surprised Jobs reminded him of Jagger that afternoon. let alone know how the encounter ended.
Home | Steve Jobs (Reddit) / Image by Mike Jagger: original by Jerzy Bednarski (Wikipedia)
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