It isn’t easy being a ghost writer especially if you are helping write an autobiography for an absolute legend in music. But that is exactly what happened to Barry Coleman and according to him it was the best experience. He finally opened up about the “awful experience” of working with Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger on his autobiography – that was never published. Coleman remembers how he was only given two weeks to complete the now-axed book. He was subbed in by publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 1983 to carry on the work of another writer who failed to finish the project. When the publishing company first called Coleman in to an “urgent and disorienting” meeting, he recalls how he thought something must had gone “horribly wrong”. In fact, it appeared that Mick Jagger had cashed in £1m for a proposed autobiography, but failed to produce the book. It was also explained that the financial risk presented an “existential threat” to the company. This prospect added to the severity of the situation, as well as the weight put on Coleman’s shoulders when he was brought in to take over.
Coleman quoted “They said: ‘you’re the only person we know who can do this.’ So rather surreally I became Mick Jagger’s ghostwriter’s ghostwriter. Two chapters were more or less presentable. The rest was a pile of interview transcripts, and nothing related to recent years. Stitching everything together was an awful experience.”
The transcripts are said to contain rare recollections of meeting Keith Richards for the first time, guitarist Brian Jones’ death in 1969 and the Stones’ devastating show at the Altamont festival where crowd member Meredith Hunter was killed by a member of the Hells Angels, making it one of the most sought-after projects in publishing. Colemen says that
“All the big stuff was in there, there just wasn’t anything interesting said about it, there was always this sense in the transcripts that Mick was holding back, or trying not to hurt anybody’s feelings.”
Eventually, Jagger decided to scrap the autobiography, telling BBC 6 Music’s Matt Everett that in the end, he “couldn’t be bothered with it”, and that it was a “dull and upsetting” process. Jagger explained: “When I actually started to get into it, I just didn’t enjoy reliving my life. So I just said: ‘I can’t be bothered with this,’ and gave the money back. If you wanna write an autobiography, you can’t do it in a week. It takes a lot out of you. It takes a lot of reliving emotions, reliving friendships, reliving ups and downs … I just didn’t enjoy the process.”
On hearing Jagger’s decision, Coleman explained how he reasoned with the Rolling Stone on ways he might consider carrying on, stating: “We’d talked a lot about whether he still wanted to go ahead, or whether we could do it again, but differently. Mick didn’t blame me. He just didn’t want to do it.
