Mick Jagger swaggered back to the stage on Friday in his first concert after undergoing heart surgery in April as the Rolling Stones kicked off a delayed North American tour.
The veteran British band opened its No Filter tour in Chicago at the city’s 61,500 seat Soldier Field stadium, after delaying the 17-date U.S. and Canada tour to allow for Jagger’s medical treatment.
Opening to a sold-out crowd, the band kicked off with its classic hit “Street Fighting Man” as the Stones frontman, dressed in skinny black jeans and a black and white jacket, strutted across the stage, singing and pumping his fist.
Mick Jagger recovers in hospital after undergoing successful he...
Jagger, 75, underwent heart valve replacement surgery in New York in early April, and in May reassured fans that he was back in shape by posting a video on Twitter of him dancing in a studio.
“He (Jagger) went through it very easily,” Stones guitarist Keith Richards told the Toronto Sun in an interview ahead of the Chicago concert. “He’s in great shape — rocking. As I say, it seemed to be no problem at all really.”
The 1960s band, whose current members Jagger, Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts are now all in their 70s, has played more than 40 tours, making the quartet some of the most enduring and successful rock musicians of all time.
The Rolling Stones kicked off the No Filter tour in Europe in September 2017, playing the last show there in July 2018.
The tour grossed $116 million in 2018, according to touring industry publication Pollstar, making it the 10th biggest worldwide last year.
The North American No Filter concerts will take the band across the United States, and to one date in Ontario, Canada, before ending in Miami on Aug. 31.
