Jagger Talks Turkey, Disses Atlantic Founder's Family

LIP SERVICE Jagger's a no-show Friends of late Ahmet Ertegun are wishing Mick Jagger's heart were half as big as his ego or, say, his lips. They're aflutter about an act of shocking selfishness on the part of the Stones frontman with whom the Atlantic Records founder Ertegun shared a lot of history. Ertegun, who died Dec. 15, personally convinced Jagger to sign with Atlantic in the late '60s, and it was at a Stones concert in Manhattan that Ertegun fell down a set of stairs and sustained the head injury that put him in a terminal coma.

For Ertegun's burial, Warner Music Group loaned his widow, Mica, a corporate jet to fly the body, along with some family and friends, from New York to Turkey, Ertegun's birthplace. The plane made a stop in London to refuel and pick up additional mourners. According to an Ertegun family friend, Jagger was supposed to board there, but failed to turn up—without explanation. An Atlantic spokesman denies that Jagger was ever scheduled to board, but the friend insists he was, noting that Mica Ertegun was visibily distraught by Jagger's no-show. "That was the height of disrepect," he adds.

A high-level music executive who worked with Ertegun says he was not surprised by Jagger's actions: "That's talent for you. They only care about themselves."