They were born in the same hospital just 145 days apart – Mick on July 26, 1943, and Keith on December 18 – and they met at the age of seven. At that time, Mick was the model student, a teacher’s favorite, while Keith was the small boy constantly running from bullies who chased him on his way home from school.

This is how Christopher Andersen describes their beginnings in “The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Mick Jagger.”
This year, the phenomenal musicians of the Rolling Stones celebrate 60 years on stage, and my tour was the 36th in a row. It feels only natural to go back to the start of this unprecedented rock journey.

When Mick was born, nurses at Livingston Hospital discovered that Michael Philip Jagger not only had the most distinct cry – it was the only thing that could be heard over the blaring air-raid sirens of wartime.

One of the most defining moments in Mick’s early life happened on a basketball court. During a heated match, he collided with another player and bit off the tip of his tongue. Bleeding heavily, unaware of what had happened, he accidentally swallowed the severed piece. For almost a week he couldn’t speak. “We all wondered if this would put an end to his singing,” recalls Dick Taylor. But when Mick finally opened his mouth again, his voice had changed forever – rougher, grittier, more street. “It still sounds that way,” Taylor says. “Biting off the tip of his tongue was probably the best thing that ever happened to Mick Jagger.”

Despite this emerging rebellious edge, Mick remained an intellectual. He adored Blake, Baudelaire, and Rimbaud. But he was also a teenager full of hormones and confusion. “When I was thirteen I just wanted sex. I didn’t know much. My first sexual experiences were with boys at school – I think that’s true for many,” he later said. Keith, who didn’t attend boarding school, had a very different adolescence. These early experiences, however, shaped Mick’s life and artistic persona – one of the most complex and sexually ambiguous figures in pop culture.

Then came the moment that changed music history. On Dartford station in December 1961, Keith – with his guitar slung over his shoulder – noticed Mick carrying records: Chuck Berry, Little Walter, Muddy Waters. “We recognized each other immediately,” Keith remembers. “The guy had Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters under his arm! We were brothers born to different parents.” They began listening to records, playing music, and hanging out in clubs together.

In spring 1962, Mick decided to try singing at Alexis Korner’s new jazz club in Ealing – the heart of London’s budding blues scene. On stage were Charlie Watts, Brian Jones, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck. One night, half drunk, Mick went up to sing. They liked him. He stayed. And a chain reaction of musical encounters began.

Mick and Keith were especially struck by Brian Jones, then using the name Elom Lewis. Mick invited him for a drink, and soon they were rehearsing together. Brian took charge and proposed forming a band. He even chose the name – Rolling Stones – inspired by the Muddy Waters song “Rollin’ Stone.”

On July 12, 1962, the band got the chance to replace Alexis Korner’s group at the Marquee Club. Jazz News published an announcement the day before. The audience encountered Jagger, Richards, Jones, Taylor, and Stewart – a group of young men who were “more than people could handle.” Thursday nights were booked on the spot.

The poverty that followed became legendary. Mick moved in with Keith and Brian at 102 Edith Grove in Chelsea – later described as one of the filthiest flats in London. Jealousy and intrigue followed, and several witnesses described Mick as capable of being ruthless in rivalry.

Dick Taylor left to study and was replaced by Bill Wyman. In 1964, Charlie Watts finally joined. This was when the momentum exploded – first with the Beatles-written “I Wanna Be Your Man,” and later with their own songs penned by Jagger/Richards.

Nearly a decade later, in 1975, Ronnie Wood joined the band. He had played in Faces with Rod Stewart and lived a party-filled life at his home “The Wick.” In the basement studio he once jammed with Mick Jagger – the result was “It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll.” Wood later said he always knew he’d one day become a Rolling Stone.

“There is an internal chemistry that creates magic,” say the filmmakers behind HBO’s My Life as a Rolling Stone. “They set the standard for what a rock band should sound like.”

Keith describes Mick as honest and driven. Mick describes himself as “a pompous showman.” He explains the band’s early identity: “We were really a rock’n’roll band. But you had to call yourself a blues band to get bookings. Truth is, we were omnivores.”

Keith and Mick wrote the songs – not Brian Jones, as myth sometimes suggests. Brian was a brilliant multi-instrumentalist, innovative and gifted, but not the band’s composer.

Last year, the Rolling Stones lost their irreplaceable drummer Charlie Watts. Yet they continue – the world’s most beloved and longest-running rock band. A musical institution. A phenomenon. A brotherhood born by chance, when two boys met on a platform in Dartford – and became immortal together.