How Mick Jagger And Keith Richards Tried To Screw Over Bandmates On The Windows 95 Ads
Courtesy of Jay Yarow at Business Insider
When Microsoft rolled out Windows 95, the Rolling Stones song "Start Me Up" was a huge part of the company’s marketing effort.
But getting them on board was an arduous task, according to then Windows boss, Brad Silverberg.
We asked him about the Stones because we remembered hearing tales that another band had rejected Microsoft at first.
Silverberg, and Microsoft’s marketing boss at the time, Brad Chase, both say the Rolling Stones were the only choice.
Silverberg says, "The negotiations to get Start Me Up were very difficult but we were so committed to it, we made it happen."
Asked to elaborate, here’s what Silverberg says happened:
The Stones are a Corporation, with Mick as CEO, Keith as COO. Their business happens to be music. Those two make decisions. The other band members are essentially employees.
The stones had not licensed their music for tv commercials. Mick was reluctant to license the song to us because of "artistic purity." But Keith apparently has a higher burn rate than Mick, or not as good as an investor. He told Mick he could use the money and ultimately convinced Mick to do the deal. At the same time, the Stones were at a low point in their career and looking to become relevant again, and Win 95 looked like it could be a big hit and give them a helpful association and visibility.
The final version of the song was delivered for the commercial. We noticed though that it was not the studio version, but rather a more recently recorded live version. We pushed back and got the familiar studio version. The reason we got the other version was some of the band members in the newer version were more recent, and Mick/Keith got much higher royalties for themselves from that version than the studio one. Nice try. But it was tense till the very end.
See Also: 15 YEARS AGO TODAY…Windows 95 Launched. Let’s Take A Brief Trip Back
