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The inspiration behind the Rolling Stones “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”
Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the song “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” became one of Rolling Stones signature songs and since it was released was constantly featured on their live shows. The track was originally released as a single in 1968, but what was the inspiration behind that title?
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In an interview with Guitar World back in 2020, the guitarist Keith Richards recalled that it was actually inspired by his gardener. Keith and Mick were together trying to write something when they heard Jack Dyer arriving and it was enough for the title to appear.
The inspiration behind the Rolling Stones “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”
“‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ comes from this guy, Jack Dyer, who was my gardener – an old English yokel. Mick (Jagger) and I were in my house down in the south of England. We’d been up all night; the sky was just beginning to go gray. It was pissing down raining – if I remember rightly.”
“Mick and I were sitting there, and suddenly Mick starts up. He hears these great footsteps, these great rubber boots – slosh, slosh, slosh – going by the window. He said, ‘What’s that?’ And I said, ‘Oh, that’s Jack. That’s jumpin’ Jack.’ We had my guitar in open tuning, and I started to fool around with that. [singing] ‘Jumpin’ Jack…’ and Mick says, ‘Flash.’
“He’d just woken up. Suddenly we had this wonderful alliterative phrase. So he woke up and we knocked it together,” Keith Richards said.
Besides Mick and Keith, the band was also formed at the time by Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. The additional musicians on that track were Ian Stewart (Piano), Jimmy Miller (Backing vocals) and Rocky Dijon (Maracas). It became a number one single in countries in the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Netherlands and New Zealand, for example. In the United States, the track peaked at number 3 on the United States Hot 100.
