Mick Jagger Turns Shopkeeper and Wields Mannequin Arms in Goofy Tonight Show Sketch

No one moves like Mick Jagger, and on Wednesday night he proved he can still goof like nobody else. Stopping by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on May 6, the 82-year-old Rolling Stones frontman stepped into a British soap parody called Jacob’s Patience as Tony, the hackneyed shopkeeper at Hackney Diamonds who conducts entire conversations in Stones lyrics while holding up mannequin arms.

There’s a pleasingly silly moment right at the top: “Pleased to meet you, I hope you guess my name,” he says, nodding to 1968’s “Sympathy For The Devil” while wearing a nametag that makes the joke unnecessary. It’s an oddly perfect pairing of Jagger’s theatrical instincts and Fallon’s late-night willingness to let a legend be ridiculous.

The appearance arrives as Jagger and the Stones prep their 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, due July 10. The record reunites the core trio—Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood—and reads like a who’s who of rock cameos: Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, Robert Smith of The Cure and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith are all listed among the supporting players.

It’s been a quick, collaborative sprint: the bulk of Foreign Tongues was reportedly cut in under a month at Metropolis Studios in West London, with producer Andrew Watt back in the tent after helping on Hackney Diamonds. Two tracks have already been shared—opener “Rough and Twisted” and lead single “In the Stars”—giving fans a taste of the run-in to July.

That 2023 album, Hackney Diamonds, was the Stones’ first in nearly two decades; it climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard 200, spent two weeks at No. 1 on the U.K. Albums Chart and went on to win the Grammy for best rock album. So the stakes for the follow-up are both commercial and ceremonial: the band is returning to the studio and the late-night circuit at the same time.

Jagger’s television bit also played as a reminder that he’s no stranger to acting. His film work ranges from the titular bushranger in 1970’s Ned Kelly to a cameo-heavy turn in 1992’s Freejack, and he was once attached to Werner Herzog’s 1982 project Fitzcarraldo before commitments to the band pulled him away.

The Tonight Show run of Rolling Stones sightings wasn’t over: Keith Richards was booked to stop by on Thursday night, May 7, giving late-night viewers another opportunity to see the band’s elder statesmen offstage and unguarded.

Watch Jagger and Fallon play out the soapie sketch below.

Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones perform onstage during the No Filter Tour at SoFi Stadium on October 14, 2021 in Inglewood, California. Christopher Polk/Variety