I Think People Are Afraid To Express

When Gimme Shelter Was Recorded, Early '69 Or Something, It Was A Time Of War And Tension, So That's Reflected In This Tune. It's Still Wheeled Out When Big Storms Happen, As They Did The Other Week. It's Been Used A Lot To Evoke Natural Disaster.

People Have This Obsession. They Want You To Be Like You Were In 1969. They Want You To, Because Otherwise Their Youth Goes With You. It's Very Selfish, But It's Understandable.

I Wasn't Understanding Enough About Drug Addition. No One Seemed To Know Much About Drug Addiction. Things Like Lsd Were All New. No One Knew The Harm. People Thought Cocaine Was Good For You.

It's A Real Buzz, Even In Front Of 20 People, To Make A Complete Fool Of Yourself. But People Seemed To Like It. And The Thing Is, If People Started Throwing Tomatoes At Me, I Wouldn't Have Gone On With It.

I Used To Play Saturday Night Shows With Different Little Groups. If I Could Get A Show, I Would Do It. I Used To Do Mad Things - I Used To Go And Do These Shows And Go On My Knees And Roll On The Ground - When I Was 15,16 Years Old. And My Parents Were Extremely Disapproving Of It All. Because It Was Just Not Done. This Was For Very Low-class People, Remember. Rock & Roll Singers Weren't Educated People