How COVID-19 lockdowns affected Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' health and morale

When the pandemic shut down touring in March 2020, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were both 76 — squarely in the high-risk category. Neither publicly reported catching the virus, but the sudden halt forced a lifestyle change after decades of near-constant movement. Jagger leaned into home workouts, posting videos of himself doing lunges and cardio, while Richards holed up in his Connecticut home, gardening and playing acoustic guitar in his studio. Both kept up their routines, tapping into the same discipline that’s kept them performing into their late 70s.

Morale seems to have held. Jagger spent lockdown writing and recording new material, and Richards later said he used the time to “reset.” The band released “Living in a Ghost Town” in April 2020 — recorded remotely before the lockdown — and did a rare live stream (“Extra Licks”) in 2020 that raised over $1 million for charities. No major health scares surfaced. Their biggest frustration wasn’t age but uncertainty: rehearsals kept getting pushed, and Jagger admitted in interviews that “not knowing when we could play again” was the hardest part.