Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger hasn’t forgotten where he got his start, donating £100,000 ($150,000) to help youngsters at his old school. Dartford Grammar School in Kent county, southern England, said yesterday (Oct. 7) the 59-year-old singer wants the money to be used for programs that will encourage children to study music.
“I believe we should encourage children to sing and play instruments from an early age,” Jagger said from the U.S., where the Rolling Stones are on tour. “It is so important that they have somewhere like this where they can share their musical ideas and vision and be able to practice for as long as they like.”
The school’s music center, which opened two years ago, is named Red Rooster after the Rolling Stones’ No. 1 British hit “Little Red Rooster.” The money will help provide free string and wind instrument training, run in conjunction with Kent Music School and Trinity College of Music.
The Stones are in the midst of a North American tour celebrating their 40th anniversary. The Licks trek next visits Detroit on Friday (Oct. 12), and will keep the band in the States through early February, save for a month off in December.
The band’s career-spanning compilation, “Forty Licks” (Virgin/ABKCO/Decca) No. 1 on The Billboard 200.
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